In order to stay competitive in today’s marketplace, it is vital to reduce activities that do

not create value. Lean production has in the last decade been seen as a philosophy to

reduce non-value time. The office environment often presents a major improvement

opportunity to reduce non-value time. Lean contributes positively to business

performance applied in a manufacturing context and is also suggested to do the

same in a service context. The purpose of the paper is to analyse and determine how

total productive maintenance (TPM) can be applied within the support process and

to identify effects from an employee and business perspective. A case study has

been performed and a qualitative research approach was selected. Empirical data

were gathered by using semi-structured interviews at one case company, but from

several teams that had applied TPM. The result was then used as an inductive

approach to explore how TPM can be applied in a support process. To implement

and apply TPM within an office context, it should be structured in three steps

(i) define, (ii) implement and (iii) sustain. TPM should be conducted as a part of the

ordinary day-to-day work. The planning and discussions connected to TPM can be

included in regular daily departmental ‘stand-up meetings’ involving everybody. The

work with 5S and maintenance should also be a part of the TPM structure,

connecting it as a system and not as an isolated activity. TPM can create value from

both a business and an employee perspective. In the employee perspective, TPM

reduces the risk of missing/forgetting areas of responsibility and creates more

involvement. In the business perspective, objectives such as cost and quality are

improved, but TPM also enables the reduction of waste.