Have you ever been sitting on the tarmac waiting for the plane to take off when you hear the pilot make an announcement? Typically, it has something to do with the side of air travel we don’t see, maintenance. Boeing’s pilot and technician outlook reported 610,000 new maintenance technicians will be needed for maintenance, repair, and overhaul services over the next twenty years. Production of aviation maintenance technicians will need to increase by at least 20% to meet the projected workforce demand.

Enduring nearly 2,000 years of foot traffic, harsh weather, and earthquakes the Pantheon is one of the most impressive structures in the world. Modern concrete structures only last an average of 100 years, assuming proper maintenance is regularly performed. Yet the Romans were able to create a material that has the ability to heal small fissures on its own, allowing their infrastructure to withstand the test of time. Being that concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world, scientists have been searching for the lost recipe to self-healing concrete for hundreds of years without success. Until now, when a team of scientists finally cracked the code.

In September of 2022, poor maintenance procedures led to sailors aboard US Naval ships drinking and showering in contaminated water. They were exposed to e-coli and jet fuel found in the potable water systems on board the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Nimitz. The Navy launched an investigation and recently released official reports which revealed the root cause of the incidents and plants to implement remedial action. 

Following the CHIPS and Science Act, semiconductor manufacturers have announced over $200 billion in investments for manufacturing. The United States currently produces 10% of all chips but hopes to increase production and account for 30% of global chip production by 2030. McKinsey predicts this aspiration will result in a deficit of 300,000 engineers and 90,000 skilled technicians.

The original locks have been in constant use since their completion over one hundred years ago. The Panama Canal has strict maintenance schedules in place to ensure the reliability of the canal as forty ships pass through daily. Nearly every 5 years each chamber is refurbished and every 25-30 years the gates are reconditioned. According to Miguel Lorenzo, the VP of Infrastructure and Engineering for the Canal Authority, their maintenance plan is designed to extend the Panama Canal’s life for another 100 years.

In recent years, there have been many shortages, seemingly random products were in high demand yet missing from store shelves. Russia is becoming all too familiar with the scarcity of one product you would not expect, ball bearings. These rolling element bearings are increasingly hard to come by even though they are in extremely high demand.  

Électricité de France (EDF), a French energy group, is facing a severe maintenance crisis. In 2022, half of their nuclear reactors were down due to maintenance issues and the repairs continue to be pushed back, meaning some plants will remain shutdown well into 2023. 

Japan is known for their high-speed passenger trains, or Shinkansen, the world’s most reliable high-speed train network. The key to maintaining the railways spotless record: Dr. Yellow a bright yellow inspection train that uses highly sophisticated condition monitoring equipment to ensure the trains reliability and safety.

An industrial outbreak of blastomycosis is being investigated at a paper and packaging mill in Escanaba, Michigan. This is the first fungal outbreak of its kind in the history of the United States and the mill has decided to temporarily halt operations to ensure the health and safety of workers.