Repair Capacity Growth measures whether the system is becoming better at repairing over time.
A system is stable not because it has no problems, but because it learns.
If repair capacity grows, stability compounds.
If repair capacity shrinks, brittleness compounds.
What This Sensor Measures
- Repair speed trend
Time-to-fix decreases over cycles - Repair completeness trend
Root-cause fixes increase, patches decrease - Recurrence decline efficiency
Each cycle produces a bigger recurrence drop - Repair propagation
Fixes spread beyond local hero efforts - System memory
Lessons remain and do not need re-learning
How to Read This Sensor
Healthy signal
Repair gets faster each cycle
Similar problems are handled with less disruption
Fixes become institutional
Best practices spread quickly
Recurrence drops more strongly over time
Danger signal
Repair takes longer each cycle
Fixes don’t hold
Turnover wipes institutional memory
Coordination friction blocks scaling
Drift corrupts feedback so the system cannot learn
Thresholds
Level 1: Compounding repair
Fast improvement in repair throughput and recurrence decline
Level 2: Growing
Clear improvement, still uneven
Level 3: Flat
Repairs happen but learning does not scale
Level 4: Shrinking
Repairs slow down, recurrence persists
Level 5: Repair capacity collapse
Crises become normal, system becomes brittle
Repair Actions
- Build system memory (playbooks, standards, training)
- Reduce drift so truth can travel
- Reduce coordination cost so repairs can propagate
- Train repair competence (tools, skills, redundancy)
- Prioritise recurring failures first (highest learning leverage)
Links
Planet OS Sensors Directory
https://edukatesg.com/planet-os-sensors/
Civilisation Drift Sensor
https://edukatesg.com/civilisation-sensor-drift/
Civilisation Coordination Sensor
https://edukatesg.com/civilisation-sensor-coordination/
Canonical Statement
Repair Capacity Growth measures whether the system learns. If repair capacity is not increasing, long-run stability is not improving.