Limble to Unveil New State of Maintenance Research at 2026 Maintenance Hero Summit

Virtual event featuring John Ratzenberger will explore "Maintenance Intelligence: From Data to Decisions" and reveal new industry data on the risks and opportunities facing maintenance organizations

LEHI, Utah, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Limble, the modern maintenance and asset management platform, will unveil findings from its inaugural State of Maintenance Report during the virtual 2026 Maintenance Hero Summit on Oct. 7 at 12 p.m. ET.

The free event will bring together maintenance, reliability, plant, facilities and operations professionals to explore how organizations can transform maintenance data and workforce expertise into better operational decisions. Built around the theme "Maintenance Intelligence: From Data to Decisions," the Summit will feature actor and manufacturing advocate John Ratzenberger, new industry research and a look at Limble technology designed to help maintenance organizations move toward more predictive and efficient operations.

"Maintenance professionals solve complex problems every day and keep the world's assets running, often without receiving the recognition they deserve," said Gary Specter, CEO of Limble. "But as teams get leaner and experienced workers retire, the expertise they've built over decades becomes increasingly valuable and vulnerable. This Summit is about celebrating their contributions while exploring how better data and technology can preserve their expertise, strengthen decision-making and help them operate smarter."

New Research Reveals the Risk of Lost Maintenance Knowledge

Maintenance teams have access to more operational data and technology than ever, yet many organizations remain caught in reactive firefighting. At the same time, leaner teams, persistent hiring challenges and aging assets are increasing the pressure on maintenance professionals to keep critical equipment running longer with fewer resources. Much of the expertise required to maintain those assets still resides only with experienced employees, putting organizations at risk when those individuals retire or leave.

Limble's inaugural State of Maintenance Report, which will be unveiled in full at the event, quantifies the scope of that risk:

• 74% of maintenance organizations have critical assets that depend on a single person's knowledge.
• Two-thirds of maintenance professionals personally hold critical knowledge that exists nowhere in their organization's systems.
• 47% reported losing knowledge they could not recover when someone left.
  • Organizations with a larger staff of 51–100 were 50% more likely than average to report this, suggesting that larger teams don't necessarily have the documentation needed to preserve institutional knowledge.
• When asked which improvement would have the greatest business impact, maintenance leaders ranked hiring and retaining technicians ahead of AI.

Based on insights from nearly 700 maintenance technicians and leaders across the United States,* the research reinforces a central theme of the Summit: technology delivers the greatest value when it captures workforce expertise and empowers the people doing the work.

Maintenance Intelligence Starts With People

John Ratzenberger, known for his role as Cliff Clavin on Cheers and as the voice of Hamm in the Toy Story franchise, will join Limble's Chief People Officer Sara Patterson for the Summit's conversation about how the industry can attract, develop, and retain the people who keep the world running.

A longtime advocate for American manufacturing, skilled trades and apprenticeships, Ratzenberger will discuss how organizations can elevate technical careers, bridge the generational skills gap and transfer hard-earned knowledge before it disappears.

Additional sessions will examine how maintenance organizations can turn asset and work history into better decisions, including how to capture institutional knowledge, build trustworthy maintenance records and advance toward predictive and prescriptive maintenance. Limble will also introduce technology designed to help teams put Maintenance Intelligence into practice.

The Summit will conclude with the Maintenance Hero Awards, honoring frontline professionals whose work often happens behind the scenes but delivers an outsized impact across their organizations. Nine peer-nominated winners will be recognized for achievements in reliability, innovation, leadership, operational excellence and dedication to the maintenance profession.

The 2026 Limble Maintenance Hero Summit is free and will take place virtually on Oct. 7 at 12 p.m. ET. Register for the Summit.

About Limble
Limble is the modern maintenance and asset management platform. It empowers teams to increase uptime, extend asset life, and bring together maintenance and asset management on one platform. By unifying asset data, work orders, preventive maintenance, inventory and analytics, Limble simplifies work for technicians and drives asset decisions with confidence. Learn more at limble.com.

* Methodology: The survey was conducted July 29–August 6, 2026, among 686 full-time U.S. employees directly involved in maintenance or operations, with a 95% confidence level and ±3.7% margin of error. Respondents included maintenance and operations leaders and frontline technicians across manufacturing, wholesale and distribution, facilities-intensive services, infrastructure and the public sector.

SOURCE Limble