Which book to read first
The best maintenance management books, picked by the problem you have
Twelve maintenance and reliability books compared: who each one is for, what it does best, where it stops, and which to read first as a new manager, planner or supervisor.
By Ivan Getov, author of Fix the System · Updated
Short answer: for maintenance planning and scheduling, start with Doc Palmer's Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook. For a map of the whole field, read Ramesh Gulati's Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices. For RCM, John Moubray. For the business case, Ron Moore. If you manage the department and the same problems keep coming back, read a field manual that ties the routines together, such as Fix the System. The right first book depends on the problem in front of you, so this page sorts twelve books by problem and by role.
Disclosure. I wrote Fix the System, one of the twelve books here. It is listed where it fits, with its limits, next to the books it draws on. No other author or publisher paid to be on this list, and there are no affiliate links.
- Which book to start with for eight common problems.
- All twelve books side by side: edition, length and who each is for.
- What each book covers and where it stops.
- A reading order for managers, planners, supervisors, reliability engineers and plant managers.
Which book to read first, by problem
| If your problem is | Start with | Then |
|---|---|---|
| You are new to running a maintenance department | Uptime (4th ed.) | Fix the System, then Palmer as the reference |
| Jobs reach the crew unprepared | Palmer's handbook | Nyman and Levitt, or Diprose for a newer planner |
| The weekly schedule falls apart by Wednesday | Palmer's handbook | Fix the System, Chapters 7 and 19 |
| The same failures keep returning | Fix the System, Chapters 13 and 16 | ABS Root Cause Analysis Handbook for formal investigations |
| You need to decide what PM each asset gets | Moubray, Reliability-Centered Maintenance | Gulati for the wider picture |
| You need leadership to fund reliability | Moore, Making Common Sense Common Practice | Wireman's benchmarking book for the gap |
| You just became a supervisor | Levitt, Leadership Skills | Fix the System, Chapter 27 |
| You are studying for a certification exam | Gulati, Best Practices | Smith and Martin, KPIs 101 |
The twelve books compared
| Book | Author | Latest edition | Length | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook | Richard D. (Doc) Palmer | 4th edition, McGraw Hill, 2019 | 960 pages | Planners and the managers who set up planning |
| Maintenance Planning, Coordination, & Scheduling | Donald H. Nyman and Joel Levitt | 2nd edition, Industrial Press, 2010 | 336 pages | Planners who want the job-by-job workflow |
| The Maintenance Planners Playbook | Chris Diprose | Planner HQ, 2025 | 274 pages | New planners, CMMS admins and reliability engineers |
| Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices | Ramesh Gulati | 3rd edition, Industrial Press, 2020 | 768 pages | Anyone preparing for a maintenance and reliability certification exam |
| Uptime: Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management | John D. Campbell and James V. Reyes-Picknell | 4th edition, Productivity Press, 2026 | About 256 pages | Maintenance managers and plant managers setting a multi-year direction |
| Making Common Sense Common Practice: Models for Operational Excellence | Ron Moore | 5th edition, Reliabilityweb.com, 2017 | Long (the 4th edition ran 547 pages) | Plant and operations leaders who need the business case for reliability |
| Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM2) | John Moubray | 2nd edition, Industrial Press, 1997 | 448 pages | Reliability engineers running RCM analysis |
| Benchmarking Best Practices for Maintenance, Reliability and Asset Management | Terry Wireman | 3rd edition, Industrial Press, 2014 | 300 pages | Managers who need to grade their maintenance function against others |
| Maintenance Reliability Metrics/KPI's 101: Keeping it Simple | Ricky Smith and David A. Martin | 2nd edition, Reliabilityweb.com Press, 2012 | 76 pages | Someone who needs a short KPI primer this week |
| Root Cause Analysis Handbook | ABS Consulting | 4th edition, Rothstein Publishing, 2026 | 448 pages plus downloads | Whoever leads formal incident and failure investigations |
| Leadership Skills for Maintenance Supervisors and Managers | Joel D. Levitt | 1st edition, CRC Press, 2020 (paperback 2024) | 267 pages | Technicians moving into their first supervisor job |
| Fix the System: A Maintenance Manager's Field Manual | Ivan Getov | 1st edition, 2026 | 358 pages (paperback) | Maintenance managers whose problems keep coming back after they fix them |
Editions, years and page counts were checked on publisher pages and library records in November 2026. Check the listing before you buy: older editions are still sold and differ.
Each book: what it covers and where it stops
1. Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook
Richard D. (Doc) Palmer · 4th edition, McGraw Hill, 2019 · 960 pages
Best for: Planners and the managers who set up planning.
What it covers: The standard reference on planning and scheduling: separate planning principles and scheduling principles, labor-hour estimates, how much detail a job plan needs, weekly and daily schedules, kitting, reactive work, the CMMS, KPIs and shutdowns. The wrench time tiers many plants benchmark against were first developed by Palmer.
Where it stops: It is a 960-page reference, so few people read it cover to cover. Root cause analysis, PM strategy and supervisor leadership sit outside its main scope.
2. Maintenance Planning, Coordination, & Scheduling
Donald H. Nyman and Joel Levitt · 2nd edition, Industrial Press, 2010 · 336 pages
Best for: Planners who want the job-by-job workflow.
What it covers: Follows one job from scoping and planning through materials, labor and duration estimates, coordination and scheduling, to close-out. Adds chapters on backlog, staff sizing, shutdowns and metrics, and compares two ways of measuring schedule compliance.
Where it stops: The current edition is from 2010, so CMMS screens and mobile work orders are older than what most plants run today. The method itself has aged well.
3. The Maintenance Planners Playbook
Chris Diprose · Planner HQ, 2025 · 274 pages
Best for: New planners, CMMS admins and reliability engineers.
What it covers: A recent practitioner book on job plans, frozen weekly schedules and schedule compliance, CMMS data and close-outs, spares and job readiness, KPIs, and how a planner gets things done without authority over the crew.
Where it stops: It stays with the planner's seat. Paperback and hardback only; the author's site lists no ebook.
4. Maintenance and Reliability Best Practices
Ramesh Gulati · 3rd edition, Industrial Press, 2020 · 768 pages
Best for: Anyone preparing for a maintenance and reliability certification exam.
What it covers: A survey of the whole field in 13 chapters: culture and leadership, work management, materials, operator-driven reliability, optimization, workforce, and standards including ISO 55000. Heavy on self-assessment questions, with a separate workbook.
Where it stops: Breadth is the point, so each routine gets a section rather than a full method. Pair it with a deeper book on the area you need to fix.
5. Uptime: Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management
John D. Campbell and James V. Reyes-Picknell · 4th edition, Productivity Press, 2026 · About 256 pages
Best for: Maintenance managers and plant managers setting a multi-year direction.
What it covers: Built on the Uptime Pyramid of Excellence (leadership, essentials, choosing excellence) and a four-stage roadmap: stabilize, control, optimize, innovate. The new edition adds evidence-based asset management, precision maintenance, a work identification chapter and a standard job plan template.
Where it stops: It works at strategy and roadmap level. For the weekly mechanics of planning and scheduling, go to Palmer or Nyman and Levitt.
6. Making Common Sense Common Practice: Models for Operational Excellence
Ron Moore · 5th edition, Reliabilityweb.com, 2017 · Long (the 4th edition ran 547 pages)
Best for: Plant and operations leaders who need the business case for reliability.
What it covers: Makes the business case for reliability through a running case study of a fictional company, Beta International. Covers uptime, cost, benchmarks, design, procurement, parts, maintenance, training and the CMMS. The 5th edition adds a lean readiness model.
Where it stops: It argues for the system more than it hands you the weekly routines. Older editions carry a different subtitle (Models for Manufacturing Excellence), so check the edition before you buy used.
7. Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM2)
John Moubray · 2nd edition, Industrial Press, 1997 · 448 pages
Best for: Reliability engineers running RCM analysis.
What it covers: The RCM method in full: functions and functional failures, failure consequences, preventive tasks, default actions, the RCM decision diagram and how to implement it. The 2nd edition added material on condition monitoring, human error, risk and failure finding.
Where it stops: It answers which maintenance each asset should get. It does not cover how that work gets planned, scheduled and closed out each week.
8. Benchmarking Best Practices for Maintenance, Reliability and Asset Management
Terry Wireman · 3rd edition, Industrial Press, 2014 · 300 pages
Best for: Managers who need to grade their maintenance function against others.
What it covers: A step-by-step benchmarking method, a survey form for grading maintenance management, results from more than 100 companies, and an overview of ISO 55000.
Where it stops: It tells you where you stand. Closing the gaps it finds is the job of the other books on this list.
9. Maintenance Reliability Metrics/KPI's 101: Keeping it Simple
Ricky Smith and David A. Martin · 2nd edition, Reliabilityweb.com Press, 2012 · 76 pages
Best for: Someone who needs a short KPI primer this week.
What it covers: A quick read on maintenance and reliability KPIs, written to be kept on the desk as a reference.
Where it stops: At 76 pages it introduces the metrics; it does not go deep on fixing what they show.
10. Root Cause Analysis Handbook
ABS Consulting · 4th edition, Rothstein Publishing, 2026 · 448 pages plus downloads
Best for: Whoever leads formal incident and failure investigations.
What it covers: The SOURCE investigation method: data gathering, timelines, cause-and-effect trees and the Root Cause Map, which comes as a wall chart, plus a downloadable toolkit of more than 300 pages.
Where it stops: It is built for formal investigations and priced like a professional handbook. For a repeat pump failure on the floor, a lighter RCA routine is often enough.
11. Leadership Skills for Maintenance Supervisors and Managers
Joel D. Levitt · 1st edition, CRC Press, 2020 (paperback 2024) · 267 pages
Best for: Technicians moving into their first supervisor job.
What it covers: Four parts: the psychology of supervision, maintenance management for supervisors, a supervisor's toolbox (the move from worker to supervisor, meetings, delegation) and the future of the role.
Where it stops: It is about leading people. The planning and scheduling system they work inside gets less room.
12. Fix the System: A Maintenance Manager's Field Manual (my book)
Ivan Getov · 1st edition, 2026 · 358 pages (paperback)
Best for: Maintenance managers whose problems keep coming back after they fix them.
What it covers: Connects the five stages of the maintenance cycle (identify, plan, schedule, execute, close out and learn), then gives ten problem playbooks: PM compliance, repeat failures, backlog growth, reactive work, schedule compliance, inspections, spare parts, condition monitoring, downtime and MTTR. Later chapters cover accountability, the supervisor's job and a 30-day quick start. Its 50 companion worksheets are free online, with no purchase or email needed.
Where it stops: It is new (September 2026), so it has few reader reviews yet. It is a management field manual: it draws on Palmer, Wireman and Moubray rather than replacing them, and it gives no equipment-specific instructions.
See who Fix the System is for · Read a sample · Browse the free worksheets
A reading order for each role
| Role | Read in this order |
|---|---|
| New maintenance manager | Uptime for the roadmap, Fix the System for the routines that keep problems from returning, then Palmer on the desk as the planning reference. |
| Maintenance planner | Palmer first. Nyman and Levitt or Diprose second, depending on whether you want the classic workflow or a 2025 practitioner view. |
| Maintenance supervisor | Levitt for leading the crew, then the supervisor chapters of Fix the System for the daily and weekly routines. |
| Reliability engineer | Moubray for RCM, the ABS handbook for formal root cause analysis, Gulati for the map of the whole field. |
| Plant or operations manager | Moore for the business case, Wireman to measure where you stand, Uptime for the multi-year plan. |
Comparing Palmer and Fix the System directly? Fix the System vs the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook lays them side by side.
How these twelve were chosen
- Written for people who run maintenance. Textbooks for engineering degrees and CMMS vendor ebooks are left out.
- Still in print or easy to find, with the latest edition named.
- One clear job each. Every book earns its place by being the best first read for at least one problem or role in the tables above.
- Limits stated for every book, including mine. "Where it stops" describes what each book sets out to cover, not a verdict on its quality.
If the real problem is leadership rather than maintenance, two books outside this list: L. David Marquet's Turn the Ship Around! (Portfolio, 2013) on handing decisions down to the crew, and my other book, Leadership Isn't Personal, on results that depend on one person.
Questions readers ask
What is the best book on maintenance planning and scheduling?
Doc Palmer's Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook (4th edition, 2019) is the standard reference. Nyman and Levitt's Maintenance Planning, Coordination, & Scheduling is shorter and follows one job through the workflow. Chris Diprose's The Maintenance Planners Playbook (2025) is the most recent practitioner take.
Which maintenance book should a new maintenance manager read first?
Pick the one that matches your biggest problem. If you do not know it yet, start with a book that covers the whole department: Uptime for the multi-year roadmap, or Fix the System for the weekly routines. Keep Palmer on the desk as the planning reference.
Is there a maintenance book with free templates and worksheets?
Yes. Fix the System has 50 companion worksheets, checklists and one-pagers, free on this site with no email required: the Fix the System toolkit. The new Uptime edition includes a standard job plan template, and the ABS Root Cause Analysis Handbook comes with a downloadable investigation toolkit.
Are the older maintenance books still worth reading?
Yes. Moubray's RCM book is from 1997 and Palmer's method goes back decades, and both are still the references people cite. What dates is the software around them, not the principles.
What is the best book on maintenance KPIs?
For a short primer, Smith and Martin's Maintenance Reliability Metrics/KPI's 101. For comparing your plant with others, Wireman's benchmarking book. For formulas and targets you can use today, see the free maintenance KPI examples guide.
Related reading
Not sure which problem to fix first? The maintenance reliability scorecard points to the weakest part of the system. For how planning and scheduling fit together, read the five-stage weekly system.
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