Pulp fact: South African paper mill’s TPM journey: Total productive maintenance can reduce production costs

The reduction and, hopefully, eventual elimination of waste and its associated cost should be a major goal of any manufacturing organization. Total productive maintenance (TPM) has the potential to maximize manufacturing productivity with just a modest investment in machine and equipment maintenance. The concept of autonomous maintenance sounds simple and is relatively easy to implement in an organization with an existing ethic of learning – provided people at all levels support the concept. This has certainly been achieved at South African paper mill Enstra. A case study reviews the company’s TPM journey and its effect on employees throughout the organization.