An introduction to TPM explained with a simple example by Carlo Scodanibbio http://www.scodanibbio.com Just consider this little story. Coming back home from honeymoon, life suddenly lands into reality, for husband and wife. And reality consists of a number of small and big things to do, like connecting and putting into operation the new washing machine and dishwasher, and the stove, and the microwave oven, and the fridge, and the vacuum-cleaner, and the food processor..... and this requires reading the instruction manual, checking water and electricity connections, understanding the operation procedures, and, eventually putting each appliance into operation. And whose task is it? Obviously husband's task, because "he is technically minded", as wife states very clearly. And so husband becomes all of a sudden a technician, an electrician, a plumber, and a domestic appliance technologist: he reads trough 4 pounds of instruction manuals, gets organised with tools, does the job, and finally, once he has become a specialist in the field, he does a simple training course to wife on how to operate each machine and each appliance, on safety and other precautions to be observed, on little tricks and hints she must remember to make things work properly, and on basic maintenance rules. On this very last point he finds a lot of resistance - wife is prepared to adhere to basic operating and safety procedures, but not very keen on carrying out certain maintenance tasks...... Husband, very patient, and still in glorious love with wife, decides to compromise on this specific point, assigning to wife only some basic cleaning tasks, while he will take care of checking and cleaning regularly the washing machine filter, of replacing vacuum cleaner's bag when needed, of regular checking of fridge's evaporator, etc. But this is not all: there are dozens of wall pictures to be hung - light fittings and bedside lamps to be connected - curtains to be fitted - shower to be adjusted - bathroom mirror to be fitted with bulbs - TV set and Video Recorder to be connected and programmed - honeymoon slides to be projected with the new slides projector (also to be put into operation) - and grandmother "holy" armchair to be moved to its final position in the lounge, just to mention a few other tasks for poor husband, who must literally split himself in two in order to cope with this considerable workload, which adds to his professional work and keeps him busy evening after evening.... To continue reading and/or free-download this article and all "Lean" articles written by Carlo Scodanibbio go to http://www.scodanibbio.com/site/articles.html#tpm