Efficiency and effectiveness of equipment plays a dominant role in modern manufacturing
industry to determine the performance of the organizational production function as well as
the level of success achieved in the organization. For more then two decades, the
development of the Malaysian manufacturing sector had registered an excellent performance
and attracted a large number of foreign capital investments to this country. These excellent
performances have enabled the Malaysian manufacturers to enjoy an important competitive
advantage in the global market, especially in terms of cost and quality. However, as time
passed, the impact of equipment efficiency has become more and more critical as the
widespread utilization and application of highly sophisticated and automated machines in the
industry increases. The maintenance of these complicated equipment and machines thus
became very crucial and costly to manufacturers. Many organizations began to realize that
the continuity of this excellent performance must be supported by a strong backbone of
efficient and effective equipment. Traditional maintenance technicians are regarded as
passive and non-productive to the current production function. Hence, implementing Total
Productive Maintenance (TPM) in the manufacturing industry has emerged as an important
operational strategy to overcome the production losses due to equipment inefficiency. TPM is
an innovative approach, which holds the potential for enhancing the efficiency and
effectiveness of production equipment by taking advantages of abilities and skills of all
individuals in the organization. TPM focuses on maximizing the Overall Equipment
Efficiency (OEE) with involvement of each and everyone in the organization.