Bob Mau - WAO'98 Abstract

 Fermilab in the early years ran a maintenance program 
 that included weekly scheduled maintenance periods or 
 preventative maintenance.  In the mid 1980's we 
 changed our maintenance style to what is lovingly 
 referred to as "run it till she blows."

 The question one has to ask is:
  
   "Is it better to perform preventative maintenance
   on a regular basis, taking your chances that the
   machine reproduces quickly, or attempt to maximize
   operating time by running the machine until a
   failure impedes progress, taking your chances that
   things don't decay to the point that it's
   disastrous when something does break"
  
 We, at Fermilab, believe that if you are sufficiently 
 organized and prepared you can react on short notice 
 thereby taking advantage of the "running it till she 
 blows" style.