This paper focuses on a study of total productive maintenance (TPM) in three
companies. The companies implemented TPM because of the business difficulties they faced. In all
three companies senior management had supported TPM and set up suitable organisational
structures to facilitate its implementation. The companies had followed Nakajima's seven steps of
autonomous maintenance, although different TPM pillars had been adopted, with the common
ones being improvements, education and training, safety, and quality maintenance. The main
differences in TPM implementation related to the use of ABC machine classification system and
the role of facilitators.