Insights
70 pieces written by MaxIron consultants, architects and reliability specialists. An insight takes a position on one thing. Where a decision needs the full treatment, we write a buyer guide instead.
The river
Non-draft insights in the collection.
Each piece lands in exactly one theme from its tags.
The four we send into a programme kick-off most often.
Editorial stance
An insight argues one thing once. It is dated, attributed where we can, and written to be disagreed with in a meeting.
The long-form decision work sits in the buyer guides. The live version sits in the webinars.
Where to start
Not the newest four. The four that change how a programme is set up.
Why Maximo upgrades to MAS Manage drift into re-implementations, and why naming the work correctly changes how the programme is governed.
Why this one: Name the work correctly and the governance follows. Get the name wrong and the budget goes with it.
Continuous delivery on MAS has ended the 2-3 year Maximo programme. Why boards and procurement still act as if it hasn't, and what to change.
Why this one: Continuous delivery changed the shape of the work. Most procurement cycles have not noticed yet.
AI agents are starting to create, close and reassign work in Maximo. The change control model most estates run was not designed for a non-human actor.
Why this one: The change control model on most estates was written for humans. Read this before an agent gets a write path.
Most Maximo integration failures trace back to poor object structures. Build them correctly from the start.
Why this one: The most reliable predictor of whether an integration or a data migration holds up in production.
10 pieces
Written for: IT leads, platform owners and programme boards
Release news read for its consequences rather than its feature list: support dates, the MAS 9.2 channel, dual support ending, and why an upgrade drifts into a re-implementation when nobody names the work correctly.
Where this leads: Maximo to MAS upgradeMaximo 7.6 Extended Support
Extended Support for IBM Maximo 7.6.1 ends 30 September 2026. The three routes left, and the decision each one forces on operators still on 7.6.1.3.
Continuous delivery on MAS has ended the 2-3 year Maximo programme. Why boards and procurement still act as if it hasn't, and what to change.
IBM Maximo Application Suite 9.2 reached general availability on 25 June 2026. What actually shipped, and how to plan the move from 9.1.
Why Maximo upgrades to MAS Manage drift into re-implementations, and why naming the work correctly changes how the programme is governed.
IBM has confirmed MAS dual support for Maximo EAM 7.6.1.x ends 30 April 2027. What it means for perpetual and subscription customers.
IBM's MAS 9.2 Feature Channel delivers monthly drops ahead of the next major release. What it covers, and how to use early access well.
Enterprise asset management is converging on cloud platforms. Why that shifts risk, cost, and capability, and how asset leaders should respond.
IBM Maximo Application Suite SaaS accelerators from April 2026 cover Envizi, inventory optimization, and Renewables. What MAS teams should prepare.
IBM MAS releases 8.7 to 8.11 face support changes on 30 April 2026. What each version transition means and how to respond.
IBM is sunsetting classic Maximo support. What the MAS migration involves and why delaying costs more.
12 pieces
Written for: Maximo administrators, configurers and support leads
The configuration work that decides whether the estate is calm or noisy: job plans, PM design, escalations, start centres, automation scripts, object structures, and promoting configuration without breaking the next release.
Where this leads: Maximo configurationMaxIron Change Control
PM compliance measures schedule execution. The compact maintenance metric set that belongs on the Maximo scorecard, and where compliance still fits.
How to configure IBM Maximo Manage meters so condition-based PMs trigger against real duty, not against a calendar with a duty sticker.
Maximo failure codes decide whether reliability reports are worth reading. Configuration and adoption patterns that produce trustworthy failure history.
Maximo escalations look simple in the application, but they run as cron tasks against production data. Design patterns to keep them fast and safe.
Maximo PM design decisions that decide whether the work order queue is a plan the field can run or a backlog nobody owns. Frequencies, hierarchies, lead time and ownership.
How to use MAS Manage server bundles to isolate UI, cron, integration and report workloads on OpenShift, and the patterns that keep production stable.
Maximo rollouts invest heavily in technician mobile and lightly in the supervisor. That asymmetry defines a recognisable class of stalled programmes.
Maximo job plans drive every recurring work order. Structure, revisions and data choices that decide whether they survive contact with the field.
How to use Maximo Migration Manager to promote configuration across dev, test, and production without breaking the next release or surprising operations.
Automation scripts are powerful but accumulate fast. A practical governance framework for managing Maximo scripts without losing control.
Maximo Start Centers work when they match real roles and tasks. Patterns for landing pages that speed work, not clutter dashboards.
Most Maximo integration failures trace back to poor object structures. Build them correctly from the start.
11 pieces
Written for: Reliability engineering, operations and capital planning
Monitor, Predict, Health, Visual Inspection, Renewables, Real Estate and Facilities, and the field service layer. Written from rollouts, so each piece states the readiness conditions and what the module will not do for you.
Where this leads: The MAS suite, module by moduleMaximo integrations
Maximo Asset Investment Planning shipped with MAS 9.1 in June 2025. A year on, what the AIP module actually does, and where it earns its keep.
Operating notes from running utility-scale wind, solar and BESS portfolios on IBM Maximo Renewables, where it earns its licence, where it does not, and the rollout patterns that hold up.
Three decisions tend to decide whether an IBM Maximo Field Service Management rollout lands or quietly fails: scope, the asset record, and the dispatch operating model. Operating notes from the field.
How to connect an OT historian to IBM Maximo Monitor cleanly: the OT/IT boundary as a first-class constraint, the patterns that work, and the patterns that quietly get rolled back.
When IBM Maximo Real Estate and Facilities (the IWMS capability formerly known as TRIRIGA) earns its licence over a stand-alone IWMS, and when it does not.
IBM Maximo Application Suite pays off faster when Maximo Manage is stable before you add Monitor and Predict. Readiness checks and sequencing tips.
How to present an asset criticality and risk score from IBM Maximo Health to an executive audience, what the number means, what it does not mean, and how to keep the conversation about decisions.
How IBM Maximo Visual Inspection earns trust in safety-critical inspection workflows: who has to be in the room when the model is built, what the audit trail has to look like, and what fails when the model is dropped on a workflow it has never seen.
How to size and cost an IBM Maximo Health rollout so it pays back against the capital plan it is meant to inform, what the readiness work actually costs, and how to scope a first programme that lands.
A practical comparison of IBM Maximo Predict and a well-run RCM programme: where each one earns its keep, where they overlap, and how to choose between them on a specific asset class.
How to design IBM Maximo Monitor anomaly rules that the night shift trusts: what an anomaly actually means, how to triage it, and how to keep alerts from becoming wallpaper.
9 pieces
Written for: CIOs, heads of asset management, risk and audit
Where AI is doing real work on a Maximo estate today, what it needs from your data before it can, and what has to be true before an agent is allowed to write anything. The consistent theme: a mechanism and a review gate, or it does not count.
Where this leads: AI governance and review gatesMaxIron AI Smart Data
IBM shipped a Maximo MCP server in MAS 9.2, giving external AI agents a supported route into Maximo Manage. What it is, and what to verify.
AI agents are starting to create, close and reassign work in Maximo. The change control model most estates run was not designed for a non-human actor.
Two 2026 maintenance reports show industrial maintenance AI has gone mainstream, yet unplanned downtime has not fallen. What the numbers actually mean.
New industry research shows AI is reshaping manufacturing jobs upward, not eliminating them. What that means for asset and maintenance teams.
Chasing AI-ready asset data produces unbounded data programmes that never finish. Decision-ready, scoped from named asset decisions, is the better target.
What the next 24 months of AI-led change actually mean for an asset-intensive operator running IBM Maximo Manage today: what is real, what is not, and what to plan for without abandoning the Manage discipline that pays the bills.
IBM Maximo Condition Insight brings agentic AI to Asset Performance Management inside MAS. What Maximo functional teams should check before turning it on.
The EU AI Act imposes new requirements on AI systems in industrial settings. Asset managers need to act now.
Where AI and IoT in IBM Maximo and the MAS suite earn their licence in 2026, where they do not, and the integration strategy that gets value out of them without a marketing-led project.
17 pieces
Written for: Heads of asset management and reliability leads
Criticality that changes maintenance behaviour, backlog that means something, spares that follow risk, root cause analysis run as a programme, and ISO 55001 kept out of the software project it keeps turning into.
Where this leads: Business process optimisationThe Maximo Health Check
Written schemes and thorough examinations produce the estate's best inspection data. A working pattern for filing statutory findings inside the CMMS.
Master data governance holds or fails on how changes are approved after go-live. The change record, the approval path, and what stays hard.
The maintenance backlog reveals whether the operating model is working. A practical view of what a healthy backlog looks like and how to run it.
Operational readiness decides whether a new asset performs from day one. A working model for handover, asset data and maintenance strategy.
Most operators run root cause analysis as a reactive task. Treating RCA as a managed programme is what produces sustained reliability outcomes.
Stocking policy disconnected from asset criticality traps working capital and misses outages. A spare parts strategy that follows risk.
ISO 14224 only pays back when failure data changes maintenance decisions. A practical view of where adoption stalls and what good looks like.
Turnaround scope discipline separates predictable outages from costly overruns. A working model for setting, freezing and holding scope.
Asset management decisions are really made in the annual capital cycle, not in the CMMS. Why APM evidence rarely arrives in time, and what to change.
ISO 55001 asks for an asset management system, not a new CMMS. Why programmes confuse the two, and how to reset the narrative.
A maintenance strategy only matters when it changes what crews do. How to turn intent into deployable rules, data, and controls.
ISO 55001 defines requirements for an asset management system. Here is what certification means for leaders, crews, and auditors in practice.
Asset data governance fails when it stays in policy documents. A practical framework for governing data that drives maintenance decisions.
Predictive maintenance projects consistently stall at proof-of-concept. The problem is not the algorithms.
Asset criticality scores often sit unused. Build a framework that changes maintenance behavior, not just registers.
When IBM Maximo and MAS are the right call for a mid-sized operator, when they are not, and the deployment patterns that keep the platform proportionate to the business in 2026.
What Maximo and MAS training and certification looks like in 2026, what it costs the rollout when an organisation skips it, and the role-based learning paths that actually move the needle on adoption.
11 pieces
Written for: Anyone who has to brief a board or a regulator
Regulatory determinations, market movements and sector signals, with the part that actually lands on an asset team pulled out. Ofwat and Ofgem determinations, ESG reporting duties, OT security expectations, and where the money is going.
Where this leads: Sector pagesBusiness process optimisation
An autonomous AI agent breached Hugging Face on 16 July 2026. What the AI model supply chain risk means for manufacturing and asset-intensive operators.
A recent Plant Engineering piece frames corrosion awareness as a culture, not a project. What that means for teams running a Maximo estate.
Battery storage asset management is now its own discipline. What the shift from project delivery means for owners, operators and industrial sites.
EAM procurement still scores CMMS-era feature checklists while the platforms have moved on to consumption pricing, embedded AI, and managed delivery. Buyers are picking the wrong fight.
A widely reported case argues safety and asset management belong inside one cohesive strategy. What the trend means for asset-intensive operators in 2026.
Ofwat's April 2026 PR29 proposals tie capital maintenance allowances to forward-looking asset health data. What it means for water company asset managers.
IBM Maximo Application Suite has FedRAMP Moderate authorisation on AWS GovCloud. What the MAS announcement covers and what federal buyers should do now.
Ofgem's RIIO-3 price control began on 1 April 2026 with £28.1 billion of approved investment. What changes for UK network asset management.
Operational technology cybersecurity belongs to asset management, not just IT. Here is why the CMMS is the starting point.
New forecasts project the enterprise asset management market at $21.33 billion by 2035. What is driving the growth and what should asset managers pay attention to.
New ESG reporting rules demand asset-level emissions data most organizations lack. Here is what changes in practice.
Published recently
Written schemes and thorough examinations produce the estate's best inspection data. A working pattern for filing statutory findings inside the CMMS.
PM compliance measures schedule execution. The compact maintenance metric set that belongs on the Maximo scorecard, and where compliance still fits.
How to configure IBM Maximo Manage meters so condition-based PMs trigger against real duty, not against a calendar with a duty sticker.
An autonomous AI agent breached Hugging Face on 16 July 2026. What the AI model supply chain risk means for manufacturing and asset-intensive operators.
Extended Support for IBM Maximo 7.6.1 ends 30 September 2026. The three routes left, and the decision each one forces on operators still on 7.6.1.3.
Master data governance holds or fails on how changes are approved after go-live. The change record, the approval path, and what stays hard.
Thirty minutes with a senior MaxIron engineer on a decision in front of you. Where the work needs more than an opinion piece, the buyer guides work it end to end and the webinars cover the same ground live.
Worth having to hand