Total Productive Maintenance is a company-wide cultural change programme which involves all levels of the workforce from the lowest level to the upper management level to work toward a collaborative relationship in focused activities that lead to change in condition in process management as well as in all functional areas of the organization. In other words, TPM strives towards developing the organization through improving the productive capacity as we developing the capability of the workforce.

TPM achieves transformation through focused activities that are to be practiced on a daily basis and as a way of life . TPM forms a significant part of the organizational development program in that it addresses the issue of change conditions and employees skills development in a systematic step-by-step manner.

While many of the theories and practices are not new, TPM provides a structured approach with specific named activities for step-by-step guided implementation according to defined criteria.

Today, each focused activity has evolved into a body of knowledge (BOK) with sophistication in its implementation in practices, criteria assessment and judgement. By BOK, we mean extensive and intensive knowhow that must be learnt to assure success in each type of TPM activity.

The TPM activities are popularly called Pillars in Japanese. This is because strong pillars provide the basic foundation for strengthening the nurturing the enterprise in all weather conditions.

There are many pillars in TPM that you must pile. Piling means you have to do some ground work and the foundation work must be designed, learned, and worked upon on a daily basis. Some of the pillars are more important than others and their implementation will draw upon resources to assure both time and energy from current production-focused activities. Of course, this implies that your resources must be "Doing the Right Thing Right the First Time". Otherwise, time, money and effort will not lead to the desired results that you want to see.

The key is to be able to read deep into the inter-relational role of each of the pillars and how to tie them up with existing organization development activities which are already in place. You cannot afford to dismantle the castle you have already built ... they are the pillars of your effort and your success.

Some of our Organization Development training programmes (which are also available for in-house trainng) are given in the Training Programmes Menu.