Mastery of the fundamentals dictates future success The most
critical aspect of successful industrial maintenance is the
existence of a well-defined, properly understood, and well-
executed maintenance program. There are many advantages to the
organization that defines its maintenance program properly. It
allows the elements of an existing program to be confirmed. The
best organization derives from a well-defined program as does
the ability to select and use the right information system. New
strategies such as reliability centered maintenance (RCM) or
total productive maintenance (TPM) can be implemented with
success because the program definition has caused maintenance to
master the fundamentals. The maintenance program should
prescribe what maintenance does, how it is done, who does what,
when, and why. Because the maintenance program includes
coordination with production or obtaining services from
warehousing, for example, it must clearly describe these
essential interactions. The absence of a well-defined