In the world of maintenance, there are two kinds of companies – those who are modernizing their maintenance programs and those who will. Companies on the trailing edge face one of two risks depending on their industry and geography:

Losing revenue to competition as demand for production capacity heats up.

Losing profits to competitors who export from low-cost labor markets abroad.

Averting these risks requires a process called change. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Change can be evolutionary or revolutionary. Evolutionary change is incremental, more manageable and lower in risk.

However, for those laggards who have put off the inevitable, time may be running out. For them, the end to business- as-usual has arrived.

Catching up to already fast-paced competitors who are further along in the maintenance evolution may require sizeable short-term budgets for training, new tools and knowledge technologies.

Some of these companies may have to leapfrog over evolutionary and move straight to revolutionary. This would involve rapidly reinventing their work environment, maintenance practices, metrics and culture.

Instead of controlled and well-managed incremental improvements, breakthrough innovations may be required instead. Revolutionary change can be disruptive and often a source of stress and distress in the workplace.

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Costly particulate contamination slowly degrades and jams machine components causing product defects, shorter machine life., increased production downtime and decreased energy efficiency. Even the smallest amount of water, or the most microscopic particles, can ·eventually grind a machine to a halt. Yet, maintenance has historically been a ·reactive type activity .. When a machine breaks down, maintenance personnel give the failed components the “4R Treatment”- that is remove, repair, rebuild and/or replace. When evidence suggests that material degradation and/or deterioration is taking place at an accelerated rate, the cause has been determined and. action taken to correct the problem. In today’s world when there are increasingly complex- systems., maintenance personnel must supplement such traditional reactive maintenance Practices with proactive methods that can identify aberrant root causes of failure long before materials or component performance degradation occurs. No maintenance discipline has previously taken the micro view on machine damage concentrating on the· causes instead of the symptoms of wear. Proactive maintenance is that discipline, and it is quickly being recognized worldwide as the most important means of extending machine life.

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