ABSTRACT
Total productive maintenance (TPM) activities in administrative and support departments do not involve production equipment. Rather, these departments increase their productivity by documenting administrative systems and reducing waste and loss. The function of administrative and support departments can be improved in two ways: improving efficiency so each department can perform its particular function satisfactorily, and developing people able to sustain and continuously improve the new, more efficient system. A department's work can be divided and subdivided down to the level of discrete actions. The subdivisions at each stage are called work units (WU). The first step in breaking down a department's work into WU is clarifying the basic function of the department and its members within the overall organization. One can develop TPM in administrative and support departments through five activities: focused improvement, autonomous maintenance, education and training, flexible staffing, and performance measurement.
