We have, over the year, in the pages of this newsletter and in press articles, written extensively on the evolving Chinese technical service market. In 2013, China has come a long way, yet plant owners still have difficulties recruiting in-house maintenance teams and finding qualified contractors. At the same time, some service providers have significantly developed their capability but still have problems finding customers.

Many companies feel that their facilities or their organization are too small to implement a CMMS or to hire the services of a consulting firm like Siveco. This is especially the case in China, where small to mid-size factories may use second-hand equipment (low accounting value) and rely on relatively cheap labor (low perceived maintenance cost). Another China-specific phenomenon is that rather large companies may still consider themselves small…

This month’s Reliability article will summarize two of the presentation’s key points, which were not covered in the original article. It will also answer some of the most frequent questions that were asked during the event.

This month’s Reliability article is a follow-up on the 2012-2013 “Maintenance in China” survey report which was released last month.

This 2012-2013 Maintenance in China survey report provides a snapshot of the current maintenance management practices of industrial companies in China and of their improvement plans in the near future.

Maintenance is seldom recognized as a key aspect of plant operations in China – how many articles have you read on the subject? Trendy topics such as Green Technologies or Lean Manufacturing are almost never seen in relation to maintenance, which however plays a critical role in their successful implementation.