ON THE ORIGINS OF MAINTENANCE

Countless reliability texts discuss the different types of maintenance, the evolution and history of it all… well I am here to tell you they got it all wrong! ??

Keep reading to find the real origins of each type of maintenance.

Reactive Maintenance

The true origin of reactive maintenance actually came about circa the Carter administration in the 1970’s!? You’ve got to believe me… all you have to do is remember that the following phrase was actually coined by Bert Lance (appointed by President Carter as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, OMB).

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Now, Lance, as some may know, had to resign his position 6 months after being appointed, but I can assure you that Reactive Maintenance stuck around in many corners of the maintenance community for long after that!

Time Based Maintenance

Many people like to think that this was a natural evolution away from Reactive Maintenance, but evolution is many times non-linear, and so is maintenance.? That being the case, Time Based Maintenance is actually known to have preceded Reactive Maintenance by more than a century’s time… Of course, in those days, it was known by another phrase:

“An apple a day, keeps the doctor away.”

This proverb originated in Wales circa 1860.? Back then, it was phrased slightly differently as “Eat an apple on going to bed and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread”.? “Bread” being his money.? Time based maintenance was known to save money, even back then!

Condition-Based Maintenance

Now, a lot of misconceptions arises when we start talking about condition-based maintenance (CBM).? Normally, I’d just gloss over this, but I think we have some time, and you’ve made it this far into my article, I have to assume that you’re probably somewhat invested in getting to the end with me.?

CBM is maintenance we do when we find our equipment meets a particular condition.? It is not maintenance we schedule for some time down the road.? It’s got to be now (I’ll let you order parts if you need to, but get on with it), and the task and condition is more or less defined before we ever even go look to see if we met the condition (if you meet condition A, then replace part Z).? It’s simple, it’s easy, and it’s not hard to mess up.

Well, this phase of maintenance, really all started in the early part of the 1700’s (back to the non-linear nature of evolution) with the phrase

“A stich in time saves nine.”

This comes from Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs; Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British.

Aside:? I did some research for this article, but I’m not gonna lie, I did not look up the definitions for Gnomologia or Adagies.

Moral of the story: fix a problem when it’s small, you’ll be thanked by all!

Predictive Maintenance

Yeah, so we finally made it to the end of our story!? Well as it turns out, it is just the beginning, because the more we advanced to 'here', the farther back in time we seem to have to go.?

So, predictive maintenance goes back a reeeeeeeeaaaaaaallllly long time ago.? Even I was shocked, and I am not even sure even static electricity was invented back when predictive maintenance was first discovered (or named).

I had to dust off the BIBLE to find this origin story: Matthew 16:2-3.? It varies by translation, but the common quote, derived from this passage, you know today as follows.

“Red sky at night, sailors’ delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors’ warning.”

And as it turns out, this is really a combination of condition monitoring (as before), but with a little bit of physics (or suitable physical science) mixed in - providing you the foresight of prediction! A red sky at night could be indicative of a low pressure storm system leaving the area, and a red sky in the morning could mean an approaching storm system from the west.

Next Evolution

What’s next for maintenance, you say?? Well, if history is any guide, then…

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Nah, I'm not gonna spoil it for you!

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, as much as I did writing this...

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