We value your privacy

We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience, serve personalised ads or content, and analyse our traffic. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to our use of cookies.

Powered by
    TeamAssurance

    What is total productive maintenance (TPM)?

    Short answer

    Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a lean approach to equipment care in which operators, maintenance technicians and managers share responsibility for keeping machines in top condition. It aims for zero breakdowns, zero defects and zero accidents by eliminating equipment losses, and is usually measured with overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).

    Last updated · TeamAssurance

    Where TPM comes from

    TPM was developed in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s, building on American preventive maintenance, and was formalised by Seiichi Nakajima and the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM). Its core idea is simple: equipment reliability is not just the maintenance department's job. The people who run the machine every shift are best placed to notice early signs of deterioration.

    The eight pillars

    Most TPM programmes are organised around eight pillars, built on a foundation of 5S:

    • Autonomous maintenance – operators clean, inspect, lubricate and tighten their own equipment.
    • Planned maintenance – scheduled work based on failure history and condition.
    • Focused improvement – small cross-functional teams attack specific losses.
    • Quality maintenance – setting equipment conditions that prevent defects.
    • Early equipment management – designing in maintainability from lessons learned.
    • Training and education – building operator and technician skills.
    • Safety, health and environment – removing hazards from equipment and the workplace.
    • TPM in administration – applying the same thinking to office and support processes.

    The six big losses and OEE

    TPM targets six big losses: breakdowns, set-up and adjustment, small stops, reduced speed, start-up rejects and production rejects. OEE combines availability, performance and quality into one figure so teams can see which losses matter most on each asset.

    How to start

    1. Pick a model machine or line that matters to the business.
    2. Measure its losses honestly, including small stops that are rarely recorded.
    3. Run initial cleaning with operators and maintenance together, tagging every abnormality found.
    4. Set cleaning, inspection and lubrication standards and schedule the planned work.
    5. Review losses daily in tier meetings and escalate what the team cannot fix.
    6. Spread the approach only once the model area is stable.

    Common mistakes

    • Treating TPM as a maintenance-department initiative rather than a shared operating discipline.
    • Chasing an OEE number without understanding the losses behind it.
    • Running cleaning blitzes without standards, so equipment drifts back.
    • Tagging abnormalities faster than anyone closes them, which quickly kills operator engagement.

    How TeamAssurance helps

    TeamAssurance gives a single view of everything related to an asset, including breakdowns, preventive maintenance and autonomous maintenance, and lets that information flow to the teams who need it rather than staying inside maintenance. Recurring maintenance and inspection tasks are scheduled automatically, completed on mobile devices with evidence capture, and tracked on dashboards showing on-time completion and overdue items. Equipment issues can be raised and escalated through tiered daily management, and existing CMMS data can be connected into the same daily rhythm.

    Explore Asset Management Request a demo

    Frequently asked questions

    What is the difference between TPM and preventive maintenance?

    Preventive maintenance is scheduled maintenance work, usually carried out by technicians. TPM is a wider operating system that includes planned maintenance but also involves operators, focused improvement, quality and safety, with the goal of eliminating all equipment-related losses.

    What is a good OEE score?

    There is no universal target, because OEE depends heavily on the process and how losses are defined. It is more useful to compare a line against its own history and to understand which of the six big losses is driving the gap.

    How long does it take to implement TPM?

    Results on a model line can appear within months, but embedding TPM across a site typically takes several years because it depends on changing habits, skills and management routines, not just maintenance schedules.

    ← Back to the glossary