Book review: "Lean Maintenance" by Joel Levitt

I don’t generally find the opportunity to much more than glance through the many books that publishers send me about industrial asset management, reliability and maintenance, but when I gave that standard treatment to Joel Levitt’s latest work, "Lean Maintenance," I realized that this is a volume I wanted to read cover to cover. Instead of the usual pile of magazines, I took it along and read it on my last airplane ride.

Levitt uses the concept of “Lean” as a guide to maximizing the cost-effectiveness of maintenance and reliability practices. He draws on his deep experience and uses real-world examples to make his points in ways you’ll immediately be able to connect to the workplace. If you read this book, you’ll learn how to use Lean concepts to overcome your (and others’) preconceptions about what maintenance and asset management are supposed to do, and how to get the most of what’s really needed from an industrial maintenance organization.

What’s more, Levitt says Lean projects should be fun, and while I couldn’t test his suggestions, I think he’s onto something. Everybody enjoys their work more when they are able to experiment and learn, to do things better and more efficiently, and to share the process with trusted coworkers.

From the extraordinary dedication and foreword through the “guiding quotations,” explicit worksheets and many references to further and deeper information, this book is an informative, entertaining and inspirational read. "Lean Maintenance" (264 pages, $44.95, ISBN 978-0-08311-3352-8) is published by Industrial Press. See more at http://new.industrialpress.com/node/962 and www.amazon.com.