TPM (Total Productive Maintenance)
Total Productive Maintenance is a methodology that involves operators in caring for their own equipment — cleaning, inspection and minor maintenance — to maximise uptime and quality. It aims for zero breakdowns, defects and accidents through shared ownership.
TPM shifts maintenance from a purely specialist activity to a shared responsibility, with operators performing autonomous maintenance and teams pursuing continuous improvement. It is closely tied to OEE as the headline metric, and is a foundation of lean manufacturing in process and discrete plants alike.
Related terms
OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) · Preventive Maintenance · RCM (Reliability-Centred Maintenance)
Related guides
Software
Fiix (Rockwell Automation)
Cloud CMMS with an AI assistant, now part of Rockwell.
IBM Maximo Application Suite
Enterprise asset management with built-in monitoring and AI.
Where this applies
Rolling out total productive maintenance (TPM) · Implementing operator-driven reliability · Rolling out autonomous maintenance