Question 1

My CMMS already shows PM compliance. Why do I need this?

Accepted Answer

Because a compliance percentage hides two lies. The first is deferral — a PM that keeps getting pushed to a later date can stay “on schedule” indefinitely while the work never happens; a PM deferred twice is almost never done. The second is pencil-whipping — a 40-minute PM signed off in 4 minutes. Both show up as green on a compliance dashboard. This tripwire reads the same CMMS export and separates a signature from an actual maintenance event, so the gearbox that fails next quarter isn’t sitting at 96% compliant right up until it goes.

Question 2

How does it detect pencil-whipping without watching the technician?

Accepted Answer

By comparing the logged completion time against the PM’s standard duration. If a task with a 40-minute standard is logged as complete in 5 minutes, the plausibility ratio is 0.12 — the work physically couldn’t have been performed in that time. The tripwire flags any completion logged below a plausibility floor (35% of standard by default) as implausible. It doesn’t accuse anyone; it flags the record for investigation, because a completion the clock says didn’t happen is not maintenance you can rely on. In the worked example a 100%-compliant critical gearbox reads RUN-TO-FAILURE for exactly this reason.

Question 3

Why does a 100%-compliant asset read RUN-TO-FAILURE?

Accepted Answer

Because compliance measures whether a box was checked, not whether the work was done. The dispositive gate fires on a criticality-A asset when either fatal condition is present — a PM that was deferred and then deferred again, or a completion logged in less time than the work could possibly take. A critical asset at 100% compliance whose PMs are all pencil-whipped is the most dangerous state of all, because the dashboard says everything is fine. The gate is worsen-only: it can push a passing execution score down to RUN-TO-FAILURE, never lift a failing one up, and it releases the moment both conditions clear — stop the double-deferral, or log plausible completion times.

Question 4

Does a deferred or short-logged PM on a minor asset also trip the gate?

Accepted Answer

No — the run-to-failure gate is scoped to criticality-A assets, the ones where failure means line-down or a safety event. A B or C asset with the same repeat-deferral or short logged time bands on its execution score instead: it may read SLIPPING, but it is not forced to RUN-TO-FAILURE. That is deliberate. A cooling-tower fan that gets deferred is a backlog problem; the same pattern on the main gearbox is a failure waiting to happen. The gate never cries wolf on a non-critical asset, so a RUN-TO-FAILURE verdict always means something.

Question 5

Does it connect to my CMMS or score my technicians?

Accepted Answer

Neither. You export the numbers you already have — PMs due and completed, deferral counts, standard and logged durations, per asset — and the tripwire reads that file offline. It connects to nothing and scores an asset’s maintenance execution, never a person. There is no field for who signed the work order, and a pencil-whip flag points at a record to investigate, not at an individual to discipline. It is not a safety-compliance certification and not engineering advice.

Question 6

What do I get, and does the workbook match the tool?

Accepted Answer

You get a runnable Python engine (stdlib-only), a workbook that reproduces the identical verdicts (Start Here, Dashboard, Tripwire tabs), a seven-asset worked example, and two playbooks — a PM-integrity audit guide for reading your CMMS export honestly, and a deferral-and-completion runbook for closing the gaps in the order that prevents the most failures. The engine, the workbook, and the on-page demo are verified to produce byte-exact matching verdicts on the shipped sample.

96% compliant —right until the gearbox fails.

Compliance measures whether a box was checked, not whether the work was done.

Grade an asset. Watch 100% compliance still trip the wire.

One command reads your CMMS export and names the asset to act on.

Three rules keep maintenance honest.

A signature isn't a maintenance event

Run-to-failure is criticality-scoped

Your data, no benchmark

An execution-integrity tripwire, not a sensor or a scorecard for technicians.

Anyone who owns a PM program or reports its compliance.

The plant reliability desk.

OEE Honesty Grader

Manufacturing & Distribution Ops Pack

The Key-Person Risk Audit

The honest answers.

Catch it in the export,
not in the breakdown.