You could have seen companies having a maintenance department or team. The main responsibility of this group in an organization is to keep every machine available at any point of time. There should be a minimal time when the machine is under repair.

There are a number of ways in which this is ensured. Companies normally organize a Preventive Maintenance program on a weekly basis. This is mostly done on a Saturday or a Sunday when there will be a minimal requirement to these machines.

This is done by the maintenance team and the other employees will not be involved much in this process. But it is actually the employees who use these machines than the maintenance team.

Total Productive Maintenance [TPM] aims in achieving a very minimal breakdown time for machines by involving all in the organization, including the employees. The employees will be educated to take care of the preliminary maintenance works on the machine. The major works will be handled by the maintenance team.

This maintenace done by the employees is called Autonomous Maintenance. The employees will be responsible for the preliminary maintenance on the machines they use. So every employee is responsible for the preliminary maintenance of the machine he or she uses like cleaning the surface of the machine,lubrication if necessary. This adds more responsibility on the part of the employee. This ultimately leads to a reduced breakdown and lesser maintenance cost. The machine performing well maintained will also produce a good quality product.