International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 2013
Total Productive Maintenance and Manufacturing
Performance: Does Technical Complexity in the Production
Process Matter?
Halim Mad Lazim, Mohamed Najib Salleh, Chandrakantan Subramaniam, and Siti Norezam Othman
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Abstract—This paper intends to discuss some findings from a
study of TPM practices in manufacturing organizations in
Malaysia.
Total productive maintenance (TPM), a
resource-emphasized approach moves the paradigm of
maintenance by putting emphasis on total employee
involvement in the maintenance activities. We studied the
relationship between TPM practices and manufacturing
performance. We investigated the moderating effect of the level
of technical complexity in the production process in the TPM
practices and manufacturing performance relationships as well.
Significant relationships were found between TPM practices
and cost. We also found the moderating effect of technical
complexity in the production process on the relationship
between TPM practices and manufacturing performance.
Index Terms—Cost,
maintenance.
manufacturing,
total
A. Total Productive Maintenance
Undeniably, new technologies and advanced equipment
need more attention from manufacturing companies
especially when there are strong demands and pressure from
customers. Therefore, manufacturing companies need to
respond quickly to ensure smooth daily operations and
manage adjustments to uncertainties in the market place. The
ability to produce products through lean production, for
instance, requires an extraordinary workforce who is capable
of dealing with various challenges. Through proper and
suitable maintenance programmes, major losses due to
breakdowns and defects can be avoided. Even though these
maintenance program will cost money, but the lack of
maintenance will cost even more [1]. The goal of the any
TPM program is to improve productivity and quality along
with increased employee moraleand job satisfaction. [2].
TPM has become more popular not only due to its ability to
improve performance but also due to the emphasis it places
on human capital resources. There are many recent
worldwide studies (in the form of case studies and surveys)
related to TPM, for example, [3]-[11].
productive
I. INTRODUCTION
Total
productive
maintenance
(TPM),
a
resource-emphasized approach moves the paradigm of
maintenance by putting emphasis on total employee
involvement in the maintenance activities. Operators and all
employees should be actively involved in a maintenance
programme that enable to avoid any disruptions, breakdowns,
stoppages, failures, and so forth in order to improve
manufacturing performance. Therefore, in the highly
competitive manufacturing industries, the ability and
reliability of equipment that well-maintained is very
important in order to achieve desired manufacturing
performance namely cost reduction, high quality products,
on-time delivery, and flexibility. Furthermore, several studies
in the literature argue that further research is required in the
area of maintenance and operations management. In order to
address this need, the study investigates the extent of TPM
practices in the Malaysian manufacturing companies, to
investigate the relationship between TPM practices and
manufacturing performance and to investigate the
moderating effect of the level of technical complexity in the
production process in the TPM practices and manufacturing
performance relationships. The study uses data collected
from 106 manufacturing companies from various types of
industries.
B. Technical Complexity in Production Process
There are few researches being conducted to investigate
the relationship between maintenance and technical
complexity. Technical complexity has many definitions. In
production process, it can be defined as the extent to which
human effort is replaced by machines [12]. [13]claimed that
increased technical complexity lead to greater control over
the flow of processes and more predictable results for
production. However, increased automation also means that
equipment is more intricate making the diagnosis of
equipment problems more difficult. . In a highly automated
plant, the limitations of computer controls, the integrated
nature of the equipment, and the increased knowledge
requirements all make it more difficult to diagnose and solve
equipment problems [14]. Type of production process in
manufacturing can be divided into five categories; project,
job shop, batch, assembly line and continuous flow [15].
However, in real manufacturing process, the effects of the
different levels of technical complexity can be made plain by
describing the characteristics of the end points of the scale,
job-shop technology and continuous flow technology [16].
Manuscript received May 20, 2013; revised July 19, 2013. This work was
supported in part by the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia under
Fundamental Research Grant Scheme#11878.
The authors are with the Universiti Utara Malaysia, School of
Technology Management & Logistics (e-mail: mlhalim@uum.edu.my,
najib@uum.edu.my, chandra@uum.edu.my, norezam@uum.edu.my).
DOI: 10.7763/IJTEF.2013.V4.321
III. METHODOLOGY
We have surveyed Malaysian manufacturing companies
380
International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 4, No. 6, December 2013
using scientific approach. The sampling frame was taken
from Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) 2010
directory. The measures of this study were from various
sources after thorough reviewed of articles. The sample
selection was chosen systematically. The main objective of
the study was to analyze the moderating effect of the level of
technical complexity in the production process in the
relationship between TPM practices and manufacturing
performance. Then, the research hypothesis was tested using
hierarchical regression analysis accordingly.
regressed with the dependent variable. However, before
further analysis could proceed, multiple regression
assumptions were tested accordingly. Multiple regressions
rely on four main assumptions to be fulfilled. Normality,
linearity, independence of residuals and homoscedasticity
[23] and these were tested consequently.
The hierarchical regression showed TPM strategy (β=
0.272, p
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