SIRF ISW | Joel Levitt - Fundamentals of Maintenance Oct 2026

Thank you to those that attended our recent Fundamentals of Maintenance session we held with international maintenance and reliability specialist Joel Levitt.

A Special Thank You

We’d like to thank Joel for delivering his new course, Fundamentals of Maintenance, accompanying his recently released book: What Bosses Don't Know About Maintenance Will Cost Millions.

Event Recap

A central theme throughout the session was that maintenance performance is shaped long before maintenance teams ever pick up a tool. While maintenance is often viewed as a technical function, organisational culture, leadership decisions, and cross-functional collaboration are frequently the real drivers of reliability outcomes.

Here’s a quick recap of what we covered:

• Culture drives maintenance performance more than technology
• Reliability is largely determined before maintenance interacts with the equipment
• Emergency work should be viewed as a symptom, not a normal operating condition
• Cost-cutting decisions can unintentionally increase total business costs
• Many equipment failures are preventable and often linked to human factors rather than wear and tear alone
• Sustainable reliability depends on proper operation, effective maintenance practices, and defect elimination across the organisation
• Maintenance is not simply a support function, but a strategic lever for business performance

The session challenged leaders to think beyond traditional maintenance activities and consider how their decisions influence asset performance, workforce effectiveness, operational reliability, and long-term organisational success.