Employee participation in total productive maintenance – a bottom-up perspective

Purpose This study emphasises the importance of employee participation in total productive maintenance and identifies the key factors influencing employee participation. The Motivation-Opportunity-Ability (MOA) framework is adopted to identify and categorise key factors. Design/methodology/approach An embedded case study with a power plant service provider in England was conducted with a variety of research methods, for example interviews and questionnaire surveys, to gain a wide range of data. Findings Following the MOA framework, this study shows various key aspects of employees' motivation, opportunity and ability when participating in total productive maintenance. It also compares first-line machine operators and maintenance specialists in terms of the drivers and barriers to total productive maintenance for them, and reveals that they need different mechanical skills in order to participate in total productive maintenance. Originality/value The study extends the applications of the MOA framework to total productive maintenance initiatives and provides managers with guidance on how to correctly consider and prioritise employee participation in their implementation. Moreover, this is the first study to identify differences between first-line machine operators and maintenance specialists, in terms of their willingness to participate in total productive maintenance.