Learn how the TDPC method works toward continuous improvement!

Companies struggle to achieve industrial efficiency and become more profitable, after all, it is the way to stay active in a demanding and competitive market.

The maintenance of all the company's assets becomes more than necessary, as this is what guarantees an efficient production flow. With that in mind, the Time Domain Passivity Control (TDPC) emerged to assist in the management and conservation of assets.

This technique is used in the implementation of World Class Manufacturing, considered an evolution of Lean Manufacturing, and has been gaining ground in large companies as an efficient way to improve business revenue.

Are you curious to learn more about the methods that drive corporate earnings? In this article you will see how the TDPC method works to control systems and have access to tips that can boost your career!

• What is the TDPC method?
• Benefits of the TDPC method for companies
• Application of the TDPC method
• Learn more about continuous improvement

Let’s go?

What is the TDPC method?

The TDPC method is considered a WCM tool used to classify equipment and machines according to some criteria, for its acronym:

T: Time to repair

D: Degree of influence

P: Probability of failure

C: Criticality of equipment

The TDPC is built from a large collection of data on the operation of each equipment. Ten indicators receive an attribution of points, and the sum of them is used to classify each of the assets.

Such indicators work as a stratification of the acronyms presented above and do not necessarily need to be seen as a rule that the company must adopt, but can guide the metrication, according to what the company considers relevant to it.

Anyway, what are these indicators?

• Average downtime (MTTR)
• Loading of machine
• Effect on product quality
• Cost of quality failure
• Energy losses
• Machine use
• Impact on yield
• Failure affects people safety
• Failure affects environment
• Frequency of stoppage (MTBF)
• Criticality of equipment with respect to line(s) stoppage

When assigning points to each of these indicators, you only need to prioritize those whose sum is greater and adopt focused management for each of these devices. One suggestion is to generate a graph according to Pareto logic, classifying them into A, B, and C.

Let's understand what are the benefits a company can achieve by applying this tool.

5 Benefits of the TDPC method for companies

The WCM methodology uses several tools that allow the company to develop effective processes and propose controllers that eliminate the sources of problems. In this context, the TDPC method gets highlighted for taking into account more factors than just the costs of each equipment.

Many people see the maintenance landscape as an expense for companies, while in fact, it plays a very strategic role. Experimental results have already shown how using the TDPC approach in teleoperation systems is effective, for instance.

As all operations can have breakdowns and failures, it is important to identify those that make the best use of their assets seeking to add value to their products and services.

Therefore, knowing how to prioritize the maintenance of each of the equipment provides management that enhances productivity and reduces the chances of defects, breaks, failures, and incidents.

Let's understand what are the top 5 positive impacts this can bring to organizations!

1. Security

Equipment that receives basic care and has regular maintenance according to their criticality, presents a lower chance of irregularity, ensuring safety for employees and also for the company.

2. Quality

The quality of the product and service is a consequence of all the processes that precede it, so if maintenance is always optimized, you will hardly find anything out of the expected standard and there will be no defective products.

3. Costs

Contrary to what many people think, the maintenance of machines is an investment. The costs to repair would be much greater than the prevention costs, so it is an efficient way to decrease the number of breaks and failures.

4. Life Expectancy

With intense and daily use of each equipment, they are losing their useful life and wearing out, inevitably. However, by ensuring regular maintenance, you increase the machine life expectancy, using the same resource to produce and generate much more profit for the company.

5. Management

Each company's equipment or asset has particular characteristics that can be very different from each other. When it comes to different parameters, we have to deal with different guidelines, because if the maintenance plans are the same for everyone, you can be sure something is going wrong.

Therefore, the application of the TDPC method helps the manager to perceive which assets deserve greater attention and which do not, in order to guarantee stability and take more assertive decisions.

Application of the TDPC method

An improvement method can never be seen in a very rigid way because it can be used for different business models. Each company knows the criteria that are most relevant to conduct practices that enhance its operational and management cycle.

Therefore, the first step in applying TDPC is to define these criteria according to your maintenance flows.

At this point, it is important to take into account the data that the company already has about the machines, such as the downtime of each one of them, the capacities, energy consumption, and other indicators that the company considers relevant.

Making decisions based on data is the smartest and most assertive way to ensure positive results.

After assigning this data, you can use the worksheets to assign grades to each of these criteria that you have defined, and from these grades plot charts that help visualize priorities.

Having this information compiled, you draw up an autonomous and professional maintenance plan, periodically and responsibly.

Learn more about continuous improvement

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