The purpose of this study is to develop a new framework to provide guidance and support for those
companies who aim to reach world-class standards both in maintenance and manufacturing processes
through continual improvement. Based on this study, a strategic framework was developed through
conceptual integration of three popular process improvement strategies, which are six-sigma, total
productive maintenance and lean. An attempt was made to analyze and address some major limitations
of existing frameworks to pave the way of achieving manufacturing excellence. The result of this study
showed that achieving world-class level is a moving target and the quest for reaching to such status is
not a destination, but an ongoing journey that creates more and more improvement opportunities over
time