Total productive maintenance (TPM) is Japan's answer to the US style productive maintenance. Based on small group activities TPM takes productive maintenance organisation-wide, gaining the support and co-operation of everyone from top management down (Shirose, 1992). TPM is a programme for the fundamental improvement of the maintenance functions in an organisation, which involves its entire human resources. When implemented fully TPM could dramatically improve productivity, quality and reduce costs.
According to Nakajium (1988, p. 1): Total productive maintenance (TPM) is productive maintenance carried out by all employees through small group activities.
TPM in this definition covers three areas: equipment, people, and the workplace. One of the main aims of TPM is to increase productivity of plant and equipment in such a way as to achieve maximum productivity with only a modest investment in maintenance. This can be done by: improving and maintaining equipment and facilities at an optimal performance level in order to reduce their life-cycle costs. Cost-effectiveness can be a direct result of an organisation's ability to eliminate the causes of the reduction in equipment effectiveness (AI-Hassan et al., 2000, p. 597).