The Japanese, based on the planned approach to preventive maintenance (PM),
evolved the concept of total productive maintenance (TPM). Nakajima (1986)
outlines how, in 1953, 20 Japanese companies formed a PM research group and,
after a mission to the USA in 1962 to study equipment maintenance, the Japan
Institute of Plant Engineers (JIPE) was formed in 1969, which was the
predecessor to the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM). In 1969, JIPE
started working closely with the automotive component manufacturer ±
Nippondenso ± on the issue of PM, and when the company decided to change
roles of operators to allow them to carry out routine maintenance this was the
beginning of TPM. Tajiri and Gotah (1992) point out that whilst TPM was
communicated throughout Japan only a small number of factories took up the
challenge. It was the severe economic situation in the early 1970s that
accelerated the adaptation of TPM, propagated by the seven-step programme
developed by the Tokai Rubber Industries (see Nakajima, 1989).