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Independent fact-finding and root cause analysis for customer, process, quality and operational breakdowns.
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Nationals of more than 100 countries trained; seminars led in over 20 countries.
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Introduction to Incident Investigation 1dIncident Investigation Techniques 2dIncident Investigation & Root Cause Analysis 5dLead Investigator 5dRCA Specialist & Facilitator 5dInvestigation for Leaders 1dSkills & reporting
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Home / Investigations / Machinery & Equipment
The machine warned you. Someone wrote it down.
Cranes, forklifts, lifting gear, presses, conveyors and rotating equipment rarely fail without warning. We investigate what failed and how, then read back through the maintenance history to find the warning, and why nobody acted on it.
Since the 1990s
30
years investigating
250+
investigations closed, incl. HiPOs
15
countries served
20+
countries of lead seminars
100+
nationalities trained
Read the logbook
This is what a maintenance log looks like before a serious failure. Read it once as the team did. Then switch to the investigator's view.
Eight ordinary entries. Nothing here looks alarming on its own.
Illustrative log, typical of what equipment failure investigations uncover.
A machine down this week? A first call costs nothing, and tells you which parts to keep before the repair starts.
What reliability research found
In 1978, Stanley Nowlan and Howard Heap studied the failure records of airline components for United Airlines. They found that most failures were not related to how old a part was. Replacing parts on a fixed schedule missed them.
What does catch them is watching for the warning: a change in noise, heat, vibration or oil. The time between the first warning and the failure is the window in which an organisation can act. Most of the failures we investigate happened inside that window.
First warning
Failure
The window to act
Time →
Condition
Simplified from the P–F interval used in reliability engineering. Source: Nowlan & Heap, Reliability-Centered Maintenance, 1978.
Two warnings the world ignored
Overseas — aircraft maintenance
Part of the roof tore away in flight. The aircraft had flown many thousands of short, high-humidity flights, and fatigue cracks and corrosion had been missed during inspections. One crew member died.
Overseas — heavy lift
One of the world's largest cranes collapsed while lifting a stadium roof section in high wind, killing three ironworkers. The lift went ahead despite the conditions, under schedule pressure.
What we find in Pakistani workshops
Bearings, seals and couplings sourced locally or machined in-house, with ratings nobody has checked.
Low and fluctuating supply, and frequent restarts after power cuts, shorten motor and drive life.
Cement dust, cotton lint and summer heat clog cooling and contaminate lubrication far faster than manuals assume.
Imported cranes, hoists and slings marked in tons, tonnes or pounds, and loads estimated by eye.
Machines run twice the hours they were planned for, while servicing stays on the original calendar.
Known faults are left running "until the annual shutdown", which is often months away.
The P3i approach
Every P3i investigation is led by a senior investigator and supported by internationally qualified process specialists. You will not receive a list of people to blame, or a long list of generic actions. You will receive the facts, the proven causes, and a short plan that closes the gaps, in this case and across your system.
Independent
No products, repairs or contracts to sell you afterwards.
Senior-led
Thirty years of investigation, from the first call to the final briefing.
Beyond the event
Process specialists find the other cracks before they fail.
Ready to present
Written for boards, buyers, insurers and regulators.
How P3i does it for you
Keep the broken part
We tell you what to bag and label before the repair starts.
Read the logbook
Maintenance history, spares and every warning recorded.
Establish how it failed
With engineering specialists where needed.
Find why the warning was missed
Planning, spares, pressure and reporting.
Protect every other machine
Our process specialists review similar equipment and the maintenance system.
What you receive
Call us when
Free 30-minute case assessment.
Tell us what happened. In confidence, we will tell you what the investigation should cover, how long it will take and what to preserve today.
How we work with you
After a failure, the first call is about keeping the broken parts and the logbook before the repair starts. From there, this is the usual pattern.
First hour
A call with a lead investigator. You leave it knowing what to preserve today and who to call next.
Day one
An investigator on site, anywhere in Pakistan. Scope and fixed fee agreed in writing.
Week one
A private briefing on early findings, so urgent risks are dealt with before the report is finished.
Weeks three to four
The final report, the wider system review and a remedial work plan, presented to your team.
After
We come back to check the actions were completed and actually worked.
Typical timings for a single-site event. Complex, multi-party matters take longer, and we tell you so on the first call.
What you receive
The summary is what leadership reads first. Behind it sits the complete file: every witness heard, every document and record examined, and every finding tied to numbered evidence, so a board, an insurer, a buyer or a regulator can test it.
1 · Established sequence
2 · Causes
3 · Wider system findings
4 · Remedial work plan
Illustrative summary page. Report length and structure depend on the scope of each case.
Inside the full report
Every action has an owner, a date and a test of whether it worked. The evidence stays indexed, so any reader can check how each conclusion was reached.
You commission one investigation. You get a review of the whole system.
After the failure is explained, our process specialists review similar equipment, the spares, the maintenance plan and the way defects are reported. You get a short list of targeted actions that protect the rest of the plant, not a generic maintenance checklist.
The event
A coupling fails at speed on a production line
First recorded cause: component wear.
Spares
A third of critical spares on site were non-original and unrated.
Guarding
Guards removed for maintenance on four other lines had not been refitted.
Planning
Service intervals had not changed since the plant moved to double shifts.
Escalation
No rule said who decides whether a machine keeps running with a known fault.
Condition checks
A vibration meter had been bought, but no one had been trained to use it.
Insurance
The breakdown policy required maintenance records the site could not produce.
A typical example, based on what we see across many equipment failure investigations. Not a single client’s case.
From our files
See all 16 cases → Client names, people, locations and dates removed.
Questions after a failure
Because most failures give warning, and the question is why the warning was not acted on. The answer usually lies in spares, planning, production pressure or reporting, and those affect every other machine on site.
Once the failed parts are secured. Bag and label broken components exactly as found, and do not return them to a supplier or send them for scrap. After that, repair can usually go ahead quickly.
Often not. Reliability research found that most failures are not related to age, so fixed intervals miss them. Checking condition — noise, heat, vibration, oil — catches far more.
Yes. We provide independent findings on failure mode, maintenance and operation for insurers and loss adjusters. Policy interpretation and adjusting decisions stay with them.
No. Our process specialists review similar equipment, spares, planning and defect reporting, and give you targeted actions for the gaps that would cause the next breakdown.
Yes. P3i has worked in 15 countries.
A machine down?
