With ever-increasing importance, plant maintenance is no more regarded as second line or nonproductive activity, and now it is widely accepted that plant maintenance has a great impact on the overall profitability of an organization. However, traditional approach to maintenance cannot provide any dramatic improvement; Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), as an upcoming industrial maintenance program, seems to be providing the answer. Since TPM is a new and fast growing concept among industries, assessing its usefulness is another facet. Further equipment effectiveness calculation has been the most interesting topic for plant managers, as it helps in identifying the inefficiencies and determining where to focus improvement actions. Traditionally, equipment performance has been measured using various matrices, but the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is being used as an evaluation metric to judge the effectiveness of TPM implementation since its inception. This paper builds on previous works that examined the role of OEE measurement systems in TPM, with particular reference to developing a new framework for assessing the implementation effectiveness of TPM. In the paper, it has been argued that the nature of the trade-offs among manufacturing capabilities is more complex than has been assumed. Hence, the research work aims to develop a new model and proposes its analysis for measuring the TPM implementation effectiveness as per the original definition of TPM. While the model is yet to be proved, nevertheless, it is believed that there is enough evidence for a critical reexamination of traditional evaluation approach. The work suggests a more effective model from the manufacturing point of view.

Equipment maintenance has traditionally been viewed as a separate entity outside of the manufacturing process. When organizations began to identify the role of maintenance in the manufacturing process, a gradual shift in thinking occurred. The culmination of change from a reactive/corrective maintenance to one that is based on preventive maintenance through predictive maintenance is the process of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) (Pophaley and Tiwari, 2007).

TPM brings maintenance into focus as a necessary and vitally important part of the business. It is no longer regarded as a non-profit activity. Down time for maintenance is scheduled as a part of the manufacturing day and, in some cases, as an integral part of the manufacturing process. TPM combines the American practice of preventive maintenance with the Japanese concept of total quality control and total employee involvement. The result is an innovative system for equipment maintenance that optimizes effectiveness, eliminates breakdowns and promotes autonomous maintenance by operators and small cross functional teams through day to day activities. In TPM, the machine operator has also been responsible for the maintenance of the machine to some extent, as well as its operation. The implementation of TPM can generate considerable cost savings through increased productivity of the machinery. The greater the degree of factory automation, the greater the cost reduction generated by TPM. In the present study, it has been tried to find out the appropriateness of using Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) as the only and sufficient resultant methodology of evaluating the implementation effectiveness of TPM, and then, offsetting the shortcomings of the present method by presenting a new model.

It is the basic measure associated with TPM. In the existing system, OEE has been used for measuring implementation effectiveness of TPM. OEE has been used as one of the most important `maintenance matrices' since TPM came to the US in the late 1980s. OEE grew out of the `Japanese Quality Revolution' in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond (Williamson, 2004). OEE is used as a yardstick to measure how well the plant and its equipments are used and is determined relative to a variety of losses that limit the effective use of equipment. The use of OEE allows combining the operation, maintenance, and management of manufacturing equipment and resources.

Operations Management Journal, Assessment Methodology, Industrial Maintenance Program, Total Productive Maintenance, Overall Equipment Effectiveness, TPM Implementation Effectiveness, Continuous Improvement Process, Life Cycle Costing, Performance Improvement, Manufacturing Equipments.