Analysis of total productive maintenance practices in textile and apparel export manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka

Increase in global competition led Sri Lankan textile and apparel export manufacturing firms to rethink their manufacturing management strategies for survival and growth. One of the strategies adopted to achieve operational competitiveness is the introduction of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) management concept Most of the Sri Lankan textile and apparel firms claim that they apply TPM practice; however, there is no empirical evidence to understand the level of implantation of these practices. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of implementation of TPM in textile and apparel export manufacturing firms in Sri Lanka, and export manufacturing firms. For the study, survey research methodology was used and 236 managers involved in TPM implementation from 13 textile firms and 17 apparel export manufacturing firms responded. The self administrated survey questionnaire was used for data collection. Factor analysis and independent sample t-test were conducted using SPSS. It was found . that seven components of .TPM have been implemented above 3 level out ofl to 5 Likert scale by textile and apparel export manufacturing firms. Further, there were no significant differences in the level of implementation of the eight TPM components between textile firms and apparel export Manufacturing firms. Average TPM level of both textile firms and apparel firms varies between 3 to except the firm number 3 (TPM level 4.3). Average TPM level of the textile firms is 3.41 and the r :apparel firms is 3.45