The tension between maintenance and operations in production situations is well known. The maintenance department insists that equipment life is shortened, quality is reduced and safety is compromised if preventive maintenance schedules are not followed to the letter. The operations department counters that maintenance schedules are notoriously conservative and that there is some “wiggle room” in the schedules that will permit operations to schedule maintenance to equipment in accordance with the needs of their production. From the perspective of a facility manager, what are the ethical consequences of their disagreement and how would you get the maintenance and operations supervisors in your production facility to agree?