This chapter really needs to be rewritten every few months to reflect changes in the state of the art, and take account of innovations in such widely disparate fields as tele-communications, medicine, aviation, computer science, and AI, Internet II, mobile computing, imaging, pattern recognition, nano technology. All these developments and hundreds of others can have an impact on the delivery of maintenance service. Anything that has an impact on maintenance service can be twisted around to be used for Lean purposes.

Probably the biggest impact has come from Moore's Law which states that computer power will double or cost will halve, every 20 24 months. Having gigahertz of processor power and terabytes of storage at reasonable prices makes possible things that were impossible a short time ago. These capabilities are being exploited by vendors, with new features and capabilities.

For lovers of new technology this current period has been great to work in. As in any field touched by technology, entire industries have emerged and disappeared. We can certainly look forward to increasingly sophisticated gadgets, tools, software and systems, to help us to manage maintenance. Lean maintenance uses new tools but does not depend on them. W.E. Deming issued a warning that gadgets will not fix the problems with quality.

The same thing is true for Lean Maintenance. Gadgets are great, but buying them will not make thee lean! Lean is a mental attitude that is supported by whatever tools you can get your hands on and use. With the right...