Coming soon · Book Profile
Equipment Mgmt Post Maintenance
A framework for moving equipment management beyond traditional maintenance functions into a 'post-maintenance era' where a single platform-ownership organization owns the entire equipment lifecycle to meet the demands of complex, fast-changing high-tech industries.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Written by a veteran of Intel and a university engineering-management professor, this book argues that the century-old discipline of maintenance management—built for stable, slow-changing factories—can no longer effectively manage today's expensive, complex, rapidly obsolescing high-tech equipment. It traces the six historical phases of equipment management, dissects the structural, objective, and cultural flaws of the maintenance functional setup (in which departments are rewarded for downtime they should be eliminating), and proposes a new 'post-maintenance era' organized around the platform-ownership concept. Using a systems-theory lens (goals/values, structural, technical, psychosocial, managerial subsystems operating in an environmental suprasystem), the book delivers practical tools—headcount and budget worksheets, indicator formulas, CMMS/CEMS design guidance, training matrices—and a step-by-step transformation roadmap. It is at once a textbook, a practitioner's manual, and a manifesto for making the maintenance department disappear by integrating equipment work into the value-added process.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An equipment or maintenance manager (or engineering-management student) in a high-tech or modernizing manufacturing firm who wants to keep increasingly complex, expensive equipment performing while controlling cost and headcount.
- The problem
- Traditional maintenance methods can no longer effectively manage complex, costly, rapidly obsolescing equipment, and functional silos cause conflicts, communication gaps, and downtime. They feel trapped in a firefighting, reactive role with misaligned incentives—rewarded for the very downtime they should eliminate—and unsure how to advance beyond the maintenance box.
- The plan
- Study your operational scope and equipment characteristics to decide whether to migrate.
- Prepare management mindset, change agents, and communication for the transition.
- Reset equipment management goals and values to align with corporate and user objectives.
- Motivate employees through empowerment, recognition, and development before making technical/structural changes.
- Broaden employee skills and implement enabling technologies (CEMS, mobile tools).
- The payoff
- Clear, focused ownership of the entire equipment management process with accountable platform owners. · Reduced headcount, downtime, and cost alongside improved scheduling, output, and employee morale. · Faster problem resolution, less finger-pointing, and better vendor accountability.
See our guide
Related profiles we’ve built
Additional reading
- Mathematical Aspects of Reliability-Centered Maintenance · Howard L. Resnikoff
Mentioned in the preface as a companion volume that provides a formal mathematical treatment of the subjects covered in the main text.
- Handbook: Maintenance Evaluation and Program Development (MSG-1) · 747 Maintenance Steering Group, Air Transport Association
The direct predecessor document to RCM, used to develop the initial maintenance program for the Boeing 747. It is cited as the first application of decision-diagram techniques.
- Airline/Manufacturer Maintenance Program Planning Document: MSG-2 · Air Transport Association, R & M Subcommittee
An improved version of MSG-1 that was used to develop maintenance programs for the DC-10 and L-1011. The book states that RCM is a more rigorous and expanded version of the MSG-2 logic.
- Reliability and Long Life Design · Robert P. Haviland
Cited in a footnote as an 'excellent detailed discussion of the physical processes present in the failure mechanism,' providing deeper background on the nature of failure.
- Operations Management · Richard Schonberger
Cited by the author to support the definition of core competencies, specifically mentioning that expert maintenance can be a way an organization distinguishes itself positively.
- The Benchmarking Workbook · Gregory Hines
Cited by the author for its definition of a core competency, which includes managing and supporting facilities and capital equipment, directly validating maintenance as a core process.
- The Benchmarking Management Guide · American Productivity and Quality Center
Cited by the author to identify business measures that core competencies should impact, such as Return on Net Assets and Asset Utilization, which are central to the book's thesis on maintenance.
- RCM II · John Moubray
The book recommends this text for a detailed, in-depth approach to Reliability Centered Maintenance, a key technique discussed in Chapter 10.
- The Balanced Scorecard · Robert Kaplan and David Norton
The book dedicates a chapter to explaining the Balanced Scorecard framework and how the book's maintenance strategies and indicators align with it.
- Managing Maintenance Error: A Practical Guide · James Reason and Alan Hobbs
Provides a foundational understanding of human error in the maintenance context, applying theories of organizational accidents to practical situations.