The challenge
Waiting in an airplane on a runway due to an equipment issue is one thing. Lying on a gurney ahead of a surgery is quite another.
To prevent delays due to the failure of its endo-surgical equipment, a large U.S. manufacturer routinely sends highly trained sales personnel to visit hospitals and examine each piece of equipment. Not only is that process painstaking, it is also extremely costly. It creates opportunity costs, as well: all the service activity results in lower sales. Further, the manual nature of maintenance means the company responds to failures slowly.