Best Energy Management Software for Industrial Facilities
The short version: “Energy management software” is not one category, and the biggest mistake industrial buyers make is comparing tools that solve di... Read more.
Best Rugged Tablets and Handhelds for Industrial Maintenance
The short version: Choosing a rugged device for a maintenance and reliability team is a fit decision, not a horse race. The right device depends on where the wo... Read more.
Chemical Plant Walking Surfaces: The Hazard That Hides in Plain Sight
Ask a chemical plant safety manager to name their biggest hazard and you'll hear about reactive chemistry, confined spaces, or pressure vessels. All valid. All ... Read more.
Deferred Maintenance Backlog Statistics: Federal and Higher-Ed Data
The short version: The widely cited deferred maintenance backlog figures come from federal watchdog reporting and one higher-education benchmarking dataset. GAO... Read more.
Motor Repair vs. Replace: Horsepower Breakpoints and Decision Factors
The short version: There is no universal horsepower at which a failed motor stops being worth repairing. The number most plants are looking for is a calculated ... Read more.
Reactive Maintenance Costs 3 to 5x More: Tracing the DOE Claim
Search “reactive maintenance cost” and you’ll hit the same sentence over and over. Reactive maintenance costs three to five times more than pr... Read more.
API 510, 570, and 653 Inspection Intervals: Vessels, Piping, and Tanks
Editor’s note: The API inspection standards are revised on multi-year cycles, with periodic addenda and errata, and specific provisions can change between... Read more.
Maintenance Staffing Ratios: Planner, Supervisor, and Technician Benchmarks
The short version: Three staffing ratios circulate constantly in maintenance justification decks, and they are not equally well-founded. The planner-to-technici... Read more.
CMMS Adoption Statistics: What Plant Surveys Actually Show
The short version: Plant Engineering’s recurring maintenance surveys, produced with sponsorship from Advanced Technology Services (ATS), are one of the mo... Read more.
Lockout/Tagout Reference: 29 CFR 1910.147 and Its Most-Cited Provisions
The short version: OSHA’s Lockout/Tagout standard, 29 CFR 1910.147, requires employers to control hazardous energy during servicing and maintenance so tha... Read more.
Maintenance and Reliability KPI Reference: Formulas, Benchmarks, Standards
The short version: This is a reference for the core maintenance and reliability KPIs: what each one measures, how it is calculated, and where it sits in two maj... Read more.
NFPA 70B Compliance: What Changed and When It Actually Applies
Editor’s note: NFPA 70B is revised on a multi-year cycle. The 2023 edition made the pivotal change described here, from recommended practice to standard. ... Read more.
Equipment Breakdown Insurance Loss Statistics: Causes and Cost Shares
The short version: Much of the commonly cited equipment breakdown loss data comes from the insurers who sell the coverage, chiefly FM (through its Boiler Re rei... Read more.
The Aging Transformer Fleet: What the 40-Year Claim Really Says
Every grid-crisis story published this year leans on the same sentence: the average US transformer is more than 40 years old. It shows up in congressional testi... Read more.
Turnaround Cost Overrun Statistics: Tracing the 80% Claim
Walk into any turnaround readiness pitch and you'll hear a version of the same statistic: 80% of turnarounds miss their budget or schedule. Sometimes it's 82%. ... Read more.
Does 80% of Downtime Come From 20% of Assets? Tracing the Claim
You've heard it in every reliability pitch deck, bad-actor program kickoff, and CMMS demo: 80% of your downtime comes from 20% of your assets. It sounds like a ... Read more.
MRO and Spare Parts Inventory Statistics: Stockouts, Accuracy, Costs
The short version: We could not locate any government agency or standards body that publishes MRO storeroom inventory as a dedicated benchmark category, so the ... Read more.
Arc Flash Statistics: Incident Frequency, Injury Data, and Costs
TL;DR: No single database counts every arc flash incident in the United States. The most rigorous compilation to date, a Johns Hopkins University analysis of OS... Read more.
Heat Exchanger Fouling: Energy Penalty and Cost Statistics
Last updated: July 2026 | By the editors at Reliable TL;DR: Heat exchanger fouling is one of the most expensive chronic problems in industry, with total cost pe... Read more.
Preventive Maintenance for Electric Motors: What Actually Works
Electric motors drive somewhere around two-thirds of the electricity used in industrial plants. When one fails without warning, you lose production, you scrambl... Read more.
