Best of April 2026 features: Aerospace manufacturing, Maintenance 4.0, and workforce challenges
From digital maturity gaps on the plant floor to the complexity of building next-generation space systems, Plant Services’ most-read features in April highlight an industry balancing transformation with safe execution. Coverage spans why many organizations are still falling short of Maintenance 4.0, alongside candid insights from reliability professionals facing persistent workforce, data, and asset challenges.
Deep dives into propulsion and core stage manufacturing for NASA’s Artemis II mission illustrate precision engineering, safety, and quality at scale under extreme requirements. Rounding out the list, Grainger’s perspective shows that supply chain resilience is evolving into a broader mandate for agility and operational continuity.
Together, these stories circle a common theme: industrial performance now depends on tightly integrating people, processes, and technology across the entire value chain.
Top new features for April 2026
Six reasons why you haven't earned Maintenance 4.0 yet
Most organizations can't fully take advantage of Maintenance 4.0 concepts, not because the technology is not real, but because they lack a foundation to support it.
From thrust to separation, Artemis II boosters showcase industrial precision, simplified designs, and enhanced reliability.
For Grainger, resilient supply chains are only the start
More than 10,000 individuals from across the MRO specialist’s ecosystem gathered in Orlando for Grainger Show 2026.
The word on the street: Five reliability professionals share their top challenges
A frank panel discussion at the 2026 Fluke Xcelerate event reveals the challenges currently keeping MRO professionals up at night.
The Industrial Science Report: Inside NASA and Boeing’s SLS core stage build for Artemis II
Friction stir welding and vertical integration work to scale spacecraft production, and precision engineering and testing launch the astronauts safely in our first return to the Moon.