How is TPM related to Software Engineering vs. People and Machinery?

I have to made an essay for College about how can we relate TPM with software engineering. As I have read, TPM is related to all levels of organization (people and machinery), but how a software system is related? Can we consider a software system part of the machinery?. Please I need help about it!!!

[Elsmar Server Administrator]

I've never really thought about TPM in a software sense. As the presentation in the pdf_files directory says, TPM = Medical Science of Equipment. The Main objective of TPM is :
Zero Interruptions
Zero Defects
Zero Accidents

Essentially, it's a maintenance based program.

I sure would appreciate your coming back and letting us know what you come up with. If you do a paper and want to post a copy here, you would be welcomed.

Hi. You know I was thinking about it. Maybe we could consider an information system in a bank. The system information is composed by a hardware platform, operting systems and the software system itself. Sometimes the personel claims for more speed to any of the systems area personel, maybe the computer is got slow because the hard disk is not well maintained, or a very large path to make an action, not because the design was bad, but some another person would like to have a faster way to do it. So, TPM would increase personel productivity by learning how to improve their operating systems performance, or maybe some new option in the software system. Thus, information flow between the external user or bank customer and the bank would be constant, and the information flow among internal users or bank's information system users would be constant also. So, what I see is that TPM is not only useful in machinery, and I have read is not only for machinery. What I see is we could treat an information system like part of machinery, but Im not sure about that. We know also, that predictive maintenance, improve-related maintenance and maintenance prediction also exists in the software engineering area. We could create maintenance teams also, like in the original TPM idea. We could achieve more commitment from internal users. I would like to know your opinion about it. Thanks for yor help. See ya.

[Marc]

I guess software reaction to 'bugs' would be part - like instead of causing a freeze it will generate an error code and resume from the previous operation. Maintenance would include a daily review of, and reaction to, error codes generated.

[Marc]

TPM as I know it deals with functioning process environments. From this I am not sure how you would relate it to initial development but as you know, software is typically revised on an ongoing basis to squash bugs and to introduce new features (and to have a reason to [$] charge for an upgrade once or twice a year).

Hi Marc. I guess we agree in that point, reducing 'bugs', but what I would like to know if it is correct, I mean: Am I respecting all TPM rules? or maybe TPM can't be applied to software engineering. You know what, I was thinking, that there are two ways where TPM 'could be applied' to software engineering, one of them is when a software system is used, and the other is when a software system is created. What do you think?. Well, I'll wait until your response. Thanks.