TPM aims at zero breakdowns, but it also aims at zero defects. TPM evolved out of Preventive Maintenance (PM), and has much in common with Total Quality. PM was an activity centred in the specialist maintenance function (concerned with maintenance records and information, the prediction of the failure or "bathtub" curve, condition monitoring, and with optimal maintenance timing decisions). TPM includes these but goes far wider by recognising that everyone has a role to play. As with John Oakland's TQM model, TPM requires underlying Culture, Commitment, and Communication, working in Systems, with Tools, and by Teams. In TQM we talk about the "chain of quality"; the TPM equivalent is the equipment life cycle. In TPM, we extend the boundary of consideration from the machine itself to include the operator, the product, the process, and the environment. And, centrally, both TQM and TPM aim at prevention. (In TQM prevention not detection of defects, in TPM prevention of breakdowns, not reacting to problems.) Finally, another similarity is that both TPM and TQM aim to "spread the load": there are just not sufficient qualified maintenance / quality specialists around, so they are best used in training, in facilitating, and in tackling the most difficult maintenance / quality problems, and not in routine work especially routine work in areas where others have greater familiarity.

In common with JIT, TPM attempts to make maintenance and problems visible, not buried away in a computer system. It also uses the JIT credo of "management by fact".

Why "productive"? Because one wishes to gain productivity, not merely maintain. TPM like TQM has been one of the great ventures during the last decade, but has been of lower prominence than TQM. There is also much in common between JIT and TPM: both rely on the thinking worker, both aim at waste reduction, and both emphasise simplicity and visibility.

Today, TPM encompasses energy management, safety, education and training, and should include a form of Hoshin Management (see separate section) whereby objectives are communicated and discussed throughout the organisation.

There are some central concepts of TPM, some of which we met elsewhere in this publication: In brief they are:

5S. The 5 S concept is the place to start with TPM. In this book, we have preferred to use the acronym CANDO rather than the Japanese S's. 5 S is a complete section in this publication. Let us just emphasise here that 5 S has a hidden agenda no less important than the 5 S's themselves: it aims at pride in the workplace. It aims to shift traditional thinking away from "maintenance is someone else's responsibility" towards "it's everyone's business, every day".