The rush to reliability, fueled by rising competition, high fixed costs, capital intensity, and the pressure for greater on stream performance, is providing the planning and scheduling function with an opportunity to add further value to its business objectives. The chief engineer might better be described as asset reliability coordinator. Across the landscape of building maintenance, the asset performance picture is not all that good. Consider the following;

• Thirty percent of newly overhauled equipment fails on start-up
• An estimated 1/3 of the money spent on preventive maintenance is wasted
• 60% of premature bearing failures is due to improper fitting, maintenance,
   and handling
• Maintenance and operation account for 70% of the money spent on pumps

The starting point for improving maintenance planning is the interface between operations and maintenance, to identify sources of uncertainty that would adversely affect planning and schedule and the execution of maintenance tasks. Since 1995, Vincent Pate (Chief Engineer) of Equity Office, 1301 6th Ave., NYC has been using TDR testing on his building motors. Below is a sample of the problems discovered using TDR. The motor connections were leaking and, if left uncorrected, the motor would have failed. The motor in question was a 150 HP air handler and would have created severe disruption of building HVAC service. Over this time period, the motor failures have dropped dramatically as have the emergencies.

New York Building Field Study