According to a Southwest line mechanic I know, they had all of the missed checks completed within ONE day. Apparently these rudder manual reversion system operational checks don't take very long for a mechanic to accomplish. It seems that while this glitch added somewhat to some of the line mechanics workload for one day, they got back to their normal business without delay. My acquaintance always seems happy to put in a couple of hours of OT for the company, but did express a desire for the mx planning dept improve it performance as necessary to prevent missed checks in the future.
The maintenance scheduling of such a large fleet is a dauntingly complex task that requires constant attention and scrutiny. The application of computerized data processing to real-time maintenance tracking and scheduling is only as reliable as the humans who design and implement the software and the humans who manage and monitor the automated mx tracking system performance and are responsible for the outcomes can make it. Could company management employees be subject to a similar over-reliance on automation that pilots sometimes appear to be?
It seems to me that in this case a required mx task didn't make it into the work assignment schedule for one reason ot another. The error was detected, reported and acted upon. The only thing left to do is find out why the error happened and correct the defective process. Since SWA probably don't like bad publicity, paying fines or possibly adding accident/incident risk in their operation, I would expect that they are working on how to prevent future similar occurrences. At least that's what I'd be doing if I was in the big chair...