Remarkable improvements have occurred recently in the maintenance management of physical assets and productive systems, so that less wastages of energy and resources occur. The requirement for optimal preventive maintenance, using, for instance, just-in-time (JIT) and total quality-management (TQM) techniques, has given rise to what has been called the total productive-maintenance (TPM) approach. This study explores the ways in which Nigerian manufacturing industries can implement TPM as a strategy and culture for improving its performance and suggests self-auditing and bench-marking as desirable prerequisites before TPM implementation. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.