Int. J.
Production Economics 240 (2021) 108224
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
International Journal of Production Economics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe
Integration of Industry 4.0 technologies into Total Productive
Maintenance practices
Guilherme Luz Tortorella a, b, c, *, Flavio S. Fogliatto d, Paulo A. Cauchick-Miguel c,
Sherah Kurnia a, Daniel Jurburg e
a
The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
b
IAE Business School, Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina
c
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil
d
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
e
Universidad de Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Keywords: Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), an important maintenance management approach grounded on lean
Maintenance 4.0 principles, has found widespread applicability in the manufacturing sector since the 1950’s. More recently, In
Industry 4.0 dustry 4.0 (I4.0) has promoted the digitalization of several functional areas bringing disruptive innovation to
Total productive maintenance
manufacturing environments. This paper aims at examining the integration of I4.0 technologies into Total
Diffusion of innovation theory
Multiple case study
Productive Maintenance (TPM) practices in multiple large-sized manufacturing companies. Case-based research
is adopted to investigate four manufacturers located in Southern Brazil. Guided by the Diffusion of Innovation
Theory (DIT) as a theoretical lens, within-case and cross-case analyses are performed. Findings indicate that the
integration of I4.0 into TPM results in benefits and barriers associated with DIT’s attributes (real advantage,
compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability), although their degree and orientation vary according to
the attribute. Identifying aspects that could constrain a successful digitalization of TPM may help companies
develop countermeasures to promote innovation adoption. Our results may help practitioners with the digita
lization of TPM by offering a more realistic vision of the difficulties and benefits they may experience in practice.
We conclude the paper with five research propositions derived from the multiple case data findings.
1. Introduction company or throughout the whole supply chain (Marodin et al., 2017).
Additionally, the delivery of high-quality products with tighter product
Maintenance is an important activity that occurs on the tolerances and lower levels of scrap and rework also relies on
manufacturing shop floor. Machines’ failures during production may well-maintained equipment (Kaur et al., 2015), providing another
lead to adverse effects on the production schedule, delaying delivery, or reason for developing more effective maintenance activities and
culminating in the necessity of employees’ overtime and rework to processes.
compensate for production losses (Hooi and Leong, 2017; Habidin et al., Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a popular managerial
2018). In essence, the effects of inadequate or inefficient maintenance approach that aims to address equipment downtime through comple
activities can determine the profitability and survival of the business mentary maintenance methods and techniques (Nakajima, 1988; Tor
(Rodrigues and Hatakeyama, 2006; Poduval et al., 2015). Manufacturers torella et al., 2018). TPM has gained further attention during the 1990s
undergoing lean implementation are constantly seeking the elimination as an approach to maximize resource utilization through maintenance
of wastes towards a just-in-time production system (Shah and Ward, and basic stability practices (Ahuja and Khamba, 2008a). In the context
2003; Pinto et al., 2018). In this context, more reliable processes and of emerging economies, where capital expenditure levels are reduced
equipment are fundamental to ensure lower inventory levels (Cua et al., and new machine purchase demands a greater effort, proper equipment
2001; Jiang et al., 2015). That can be observed either within one utilization and maintenance are crucial for enhancing shop floor
* Corresponding author. The University of Melbourne, Melbourne. Australia.
E-mail addresses: gtortorella@bol.com.br (G.L. Tortorella), ffogliatto@producao.ufrgs.br (F.S. Fogliatto), paulo.cauchick@ufsc.br (P.A. Cauchick-Miguel),
sherahk@unimelb.edu.au (S. Kurnia), djurburg1@um.edu.uy (D. Jurburg).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108224
Received 16 February 2021; Received in revised form 3 June 2021; Accepted 5 July 2021
Available online 13 July 2021
0925-5273/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
