In a previous stop in my publishing career, I once worked for a brash, ambitious company president who was fond of saying: "I don't believe in incremental change." Because this particular president also was a key owner of the company, the phrase carried quite a bit of weight and more or less became the unofficial company motto.
As one might expect, it led to some chaotic situations in which strategies for moving from Point A to Point B were not always completely thought out, and invariably led to some expensive and inefficient side visits to Points C through E. Still, this propensity for action also led to moments of brilliance, when the company caught the cusp of an emerging market and developed products to profit from it before any of its competitors.
All of which came to mind as we were preparing this month's cover story on reliability-centered maintenance (RCM).
While the fundamentals of RCM have long been in the public domain and have more recently been accepted by JCAHO, health facilities managers have been slow to take action and move away from traditional calendar-based maintenance strategies. To some extent, this is understandable. Systemic change is always difficult, and the possibility of failure in the hospital setting could lead to scenarios that nobody would want.
Still, RCM has a successful history in industries as diverse and dangerous as aerospace and nuclear power, and the act of separating critical and noncritical equipment can go a long way toward maintaining a facility manager's comfort level while allowing him or her to reap the benefits.
So, take some time to read this month's cover story. Even if you're more cautious than the aforementioned company president, RCM might still have something for you.
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This article first appeared in the April 2004 issue of HFM.
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