Integrating TPM and QFD for improving quality in maintenance engineering

To provide maintenance engineering community with a model named “Maintenance quality function deployment” (MQFD) for nourishing the synergy of quality function deployment (QFD) and total productive maintenance (TPM) and enhancing maintenance quality of products and equipment.

The principles of QFD and TPM were studied. MQFD model was designed by coupling these two principles. The practical implementation feasibility of MQFD model was checked in an automobile service station.

Both QFD and TPM are popular approaches and several benefits of implementing them have been reported worldwide. Yet the world has not nourished the synergic power of integrating them. The MQFD implementation study reported in this paper has revealed its practical validity.

Since MQFD requires strategic decision making, the management commitment and support are required to test implement it. Since the case study was conducted in a public sector service station, this could not be achieved due to the requirement of following complex administrative procedures. However, the feasibility of obtaining customer voices from the practising community and translating them into technical languages has revealed the possibility of implementing MQFD in real time situations.

Both literature and manufacturing arenas were surveyed and found out that no model linking QFD and TPM has so far been brought out by theorists and practitioners. Hence the contribution of MQFD model is original. Since there are researches establishing the power of QFD and TPM, the essence of integrating them for attaining world class maintenance quality is of high value.