Thank you for that, Sue ... quite interesting. Context (or background) is always important.
Just a quick point (that you have already touched on, in fact); I would say that actual planned preventative maintenance only takes place in industry (aircraft maintenance being the obvious example, but also in factories, pumping stations et al). Routine PM of hospital equipment is really more like "keeping on top of things" (I call it just PM - planned maintenance, myself). In a word, it's all about the conditions and environment in which stuff is used.
From my own point of view, the only snag with the processes you describe is that we, on here, don't learn anything from it.
Anyway, good luck to your students. Maybe we'll see them making a contribution on here in the future.
