Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) at Casa Sauza

For more than a decade managing the operations at Casa Sauza as its President and Director, people constantly ask me how do we assure the quality of our tequilas, processes, and techniques, wondering as well why do we consider ourselves as the best tequila producers in Mexico.

In this article, I will talk about one of the systems we have implemented as a pillar base to achieve excellence and improve our practices and techniques. I will also explain why did we choose this system in our industry.

Tequila Sauza is a company with more than 140 years experience in the worldwide market producing and distributing Tequila. Since the beginning, we have been distinguished thanks to our global and innovative vision when creating the Denomination of Origin (DOT) and the processes which nurture it. To sustain our global leadership in the commercialization of tequila, we have faced several challenges, to which we have responded in a thorough manner, creating a work culture based in the Total Productive Management (TOP).

What is the TPM (“Total Productive Management”) to Sauza?

It is a manging system based in the competitivity transformation and teamwork autonomy to overcome business goals through personal development starting from the "Genba" (the floor) all the way up to the administration and management, applying a continuous improvement in all our practices and processes"Kaizen".

Why TPM?

Is an initiative that aroused internally with the main purpose of optimizing operation's space through a change in the way of working, moving from a "make to stock" scheme, to a "make to order" one. Facing this situation, it is imperative to assure the equipment reliability to guarantee the delivery of our products on time. By exploring different managing strategies we realized that TPM was a valuable tool to achieve our goals.

How does the TPM Culture have been developed in Sauza?

We started by recognizing the losses we had in the whole operational process going from the raw material to the sales process with the customer. TPM is developed through 3 stages:

• (I) starts in the manufacturing process and
• (II) it extends to reach providers and clients to create an impact
• (III) in the final customer in the supply chain. Each stage takes up from 3 to 5 years.

In Sauza, the implementation of TPM was gradual, the start-up began in the year 2009 with a pilot team and after a year it extended to involve every critical team. It was all based in the Security and 5s pillars as a supporter for Autonomous Maintenance.

Many people think that the TPM it's limited to the maintenance activities performed in the adequate area, which is a very reduced approach because the main goal of TPM is to eliminate all the losses in the whole organization.

The Autonomous Maintenance is the development axis coming with the pillars of Planned Maintenance, Training and Education, Continuous Improvement, Development Management, Quality Maintenance and the efficiency in the administrative areas.

Which are the benefits of TPM?

Through the promotion of an autonomous culture, the individual development has been increased optimizating the use of resources and improving the business competivity in the commercial, social and financial aspect. Sauza is a safe and nice place to work; losses have been reduced in a 45% and the productivity has doubled.

To achieve the creation of a good product, it must be sustained by high-quality systems and a continuous improvement. We invite you to keep learning about this subject and discover how we have become one of the best tequila producers with high-quality standars and a final product that is appreciated worldwide.

Read our next blog posts and contact us to program your guided tour in our facilities so you can know more about the tequila making process:

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