Total productive maintenance in support processes: an enabler for operation excellence

In order to stay competitive in today's marketplace, it is vital to reduce activities that do not create value. Lean production has in the last decade been seen as a philosophy to reduce non-value time. The office environment often presents a major improvement opportunity to reduce non-value time. Lean contributes positively to business performance applied in a manufacturing context and is also suggested to do the same in a service context. The purpose of the paper is to analyse and determine how total productive maintenance (TPM) can be applied within the support process and to identify effects from an employee and business perspective. A case study has been performed and a qualitative research approach was selected. Empirical data were gathered by using semi-structured interviews at one case company, but from several teams that had applied TPM. The result was then used as an inductive approach to explore how TPM can be applied in a support process. To implement and apply TPM within an office context, it should be structured in three steps (i) define, (ii) implement and (iii) sustain. TPM should be conducted as a part of the ordinary day-to-day work. The planning and discussions connected to TPM can be included in regular daily departmental stand-up meetings' involving everybody. The work with 5S and maintenance should also be a part of the TPM structure, connecting it as a system and not as an isolated activity. TPM can create value from both a business and an employee perspective. In the employee perspective, TPM reduces the risk of missing/forgetting areas of responsibility and creates more involvement. In the business perspective, objectives such as cost and quality are improved, but TPM also enables the reduction of waste.