When GE Energy executives Jim Rogers and Matthew Conkrite visited our Birmingham, Ala., offices a few months ago, they got our attention when they talked about maintenance as a profit center.

Plant managers and process engineers traditionally assume that pump failures are to be expected and simply a cost of doing business. In fact, only 11 percent of all equipment failures are due to wear—and most failures can be avoided with an appropriate life-cycle-based asset management program.