Lesson 2 of 20 · Chapter 2
Understanding the Six Big Losses
In Lesson 1 you saw that a breakdown log hides most of what a plant loses. This lesson opens up all six losses one by one: what each looks like on the floor, why plants learn to live with it, and what actually makes it go away. By the end you will be able to look at any shift and say where its time really went.
Choose how you want to learn
You can change this any time. Every level does the same hands-on steps. Press Listen on any part to hear it read aloud.
- 1 · Breakdowns
- 2 · Normal and triggers
- 3 · Changeovers
- 4 · Small stops and speed
- 5 · Defects and startup
- 6 · Try it at work
- 7 · Your card
- 8 · Check yourself
Part 1
A breakdown is the outcome, not the problem
Breakdowns are the loss everyone notices. The machine stops, alarms sound, people run. So it is easy to think the answer is to fix machines faster.
TPM says no. The breakdown is the end of a story that started weeks earlier: a bit of dirt, a loose bolt, a part that was fitted in a hurry. The goal is to remove the conditions that make breakdowns likely, so they stop happening.
A breakdown also costs more than the minutes on the clock. Other parts get damaged, the restart makes bad parts, and the whole schedule has to be rebuilt.
The chapter groups causes into three layers. First, basic conditions: cleanliness, lubrication, tightening, the right operating environment. Second, the precision and quality of the maintenance work itself. Third, design and the wider system: how the machine was specified and how it is run.
Asking “which layer failed first?” after every breakdown is how a plant turns repair into prevention. The old “wall” model rewards the opposite: production runs hard and delays reporting to avoid losing time, and maintenance gets very good at rapid recovery.
“The strategic goal is not heroic recovery, but the steady removal of the conditions that make breakdowns likely in the first place.”
“A useful simplification is to group causes into three layers.”
“The first layer is basic conditions: cleanliness, lubrication, tightening, and correct operating environment.”
Read the whole chapter free in the book reader.
Three real-looking breakdowns. For each, decide which layer failed first.
Part 2
Define normal, then set triggers
You cannot spot what is wrong until everyone agrees what right looks like. So TPM writes down normal for each check: the right oil level, the right sound, the right temperature.
Then it sets triggers: what to do when something is not normal. Some things just need cleaning. Some need a work request for maintenance. Some mean stop now and call for help.
And every loss is written down honestly, in the right category, even the small and embarrassing ones.
Without a shared picture of normal, each person uses their own judgement, and the same leak is ignored by one shift and reported by the next. Triggers take the guesswork out: the deviation decides the response, not the mood of the day.
Honest capture matters because the six-loss framework only works if losses are recorded consistently. A plant that files minor stops as “running” or blames defects on material has chosen, without meaning to, not to see them.
“When operators and technicians share a clear picture of normal, they can see abnormal early.”
“Once normal is defined, the plant can establish triggers: what deviation requires cleaning, what deviation requires a work request, and what deviation requires immediate stop and escalation.”
“TPM’s six big losses framework prevents this selective blindness by insisting that loss be captured consistently and categorized honestly.”
Five things an operator finds. Choose the right trigger for each.
Part 3
Setup and changeovers: the accepted loss
A changeover is switching the machine from one product to another. While it happens, nothing good is made. Plants often accept long changeovers as just “how it is.”
The trick is to sort every step into three kinds. Internal: can only be done with the machine stopped. External: could be done while it is still running, like fetching the next roll of film. Adjustment: trial and error after restart until parts come out right.
Move the external steps to before the stop, and the machine is down for less time, without anyone working faster.
Many changeovers are long because of process, not physics: the missing wrench, the unclear sequence, the part still in the storeroom. If an external step is being done during the stop, time is lost simply because preparation was late.
Adjustment deserves special attention because it spills straight into startup scrap and slow running. Large adjustment means the equipment and method are not built for repeatability, so the fix is often technical: marks on scales and guides, quick-release clamps, stable sensors. The best changeover operator becomes the teacher, and their method becomes the standard.
“If breakdowns are the loud loss that forces attention, setup, adjustments, and changeovers are often the accepted loss that quietly taxes every shift.”
“If a step is external but is being done internally, time is being lost simply because preparation is late.”
“Modern TPM treats a good changeover as a repeatable process, not a personal talent.”
A packaging-line changeover, step by step. Label each step, then stage the external ones. The minutes are an illustration.
Part 4
Small stops and slow running
Small stops are the tiny jams and trips an operator clears in seconds. Nobody calls maintenance, and nobody writes them down. But they add up: a three-second stop that happens two hundred times is ten minutes lost.
Slow running is when the machine runs, but below its ideal speed, often because at full speed it jams or makes defects. It feels fine because “we are running.” It is still a loss.
Both are warnings. The machine is saying it is no longer in good basic condition, even though it has not broken down.
The chapter calls minor stops early breakdowns that have not matured yet. They share the same roots: contamination, looseness, wear, misalignment, uneven basic conditions. If a plant does not define a minor stop and capture it, it vanishes into the noise of the day.
Speed loss is both a symptom and a cause: a line running at 85 percent all shift loses scheduling credibility, which drives rushed changeovers, skipped checks and accepted marginal quality. Speed is not improved by urging people to push harder; it is improved by restoring the conditions that make the ideal rate safe and repeatable.
“A three-second stop that happens two hundred times is ten minutes of lost time, and that ten minutes is usually concentrated on the same asset, the same station, and often the same shift pattern.”
“Modern TPM treats minor stops as early breakdowns that have not yet matured.”
“In modern TPM, speed is not improved by urging people to push harder.”
Move the sliders. The minutes are worked out exactly, so you can check the chapter’s example.
Part 5
Defects, rework and startup: the whole ledger
Defects and rework are time spent making parts that are thrown away or fixed. Many defects are not random: they come from the machine’s condition, such as drift, vibration or a dirty sensor.
Startup losses are the scrap and wobble after any restart, while the line “settles in.” A restart checklist (clean the sensors, check the lubrication, check the marks) makes the first parts good.
Put all six losses together and you get the real picture of a shift. That is what the Loss Ledger below shows.
When people do not trust a machine to hold its settings, they build informal routines to keep it in spec: repeated tweaks, extra manual checks, unrecorded adjustments. Quality maintenance starts by naming the equipment conditions that must be controlled to prevent defects at the source, and linking each to a routine check and a clear trigger.
A bad restart can make a plant pay four times at once: startup scrap, reduced speed, extra minor stops, and the risk of a bigger breakdown if the underlying issue was never fixed. The unifying lesson across all four is to stop treating “running” as the goal.
“The practical reality on the floor is that many defects are not random; they cluster around equipment states.”
“Across idling, speed loss, defects, and startup losses, the unifying theme is that the plant must stop treating “running” as the goal.”
The Loss Ledger. Every slider changes one loss; the six losses and good output always add back to the planned time.
Part 6
Try it where you work
Do these on a real machine: at work if you work with equipment, or at home on a car, washing machine, furnace or lawn mower if you do not. Tick each one when it is done. Safety first: look and clean only what you are allowed to touch, never reach into moving equipment, and follow your site’s lockout rules.
Part 7
Your “My Loss Log” card
Fill this in for one machine after one shift (or one week at home). Nothing you type here leaves this device.
My Loss Log
Global Sovereign University · Modern TPM, lesson 2
The six losses
- Breakdowns
- Setup and adjustment
- Small stops
- Slow running
- Defects and rework
- Startup losses
A breakdown is the outcome, not the problem. Stage the external steps. Count the small stops. Stop treating “running” as the goal.
Part 8
Check yourself
Six real situations. Pick what you would do. You will see why after each one.
Lesson 2 complete.
You can now name all six losses, sort a changeover, work out what small stops really cost, and read a whole shift in one ledger. Next: Lesson 3, the eight pillars.
Modern Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) by Dr. Gene A Constant. This lesson comes from chapter two. Read the whole book free in the reader, or keep a copy.
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