Reliability Academy

There’s money in maintenance.

Some might say that those are contradictory words.

Because often, maintenance is seen as a cost centre.

A source of expenses.

At least, that’s what top management normally sees.

But the truth is, there are many opportunities in maintenance that will increase your plant’s profitability.

All it takes is a simple change in mindset to see them.

Instead of looking at maintenance as “expenses” or “liability”... try looking at it as “opportunities”.

Here’s what I mean.

By implementing these elements effectively in your organisation, you can indirectly increase your profitability:

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling – Increase your productivity by up to 35% WITHOUT hiring new people.

Preventive Maintenance – Research shows that 60% of most PMs are adding little to no value.

Defect elimination – 80% of defects that occur in a plant have already happened before. There’s a way to fix them forever through defect elimination.

These are opportunities to be cost-efficient.

In fact, one of our clients, TIP trailer services, has reported that they have increased their annual revenue by 7 figures after a year of implementing our Planning & Scheduling process.

And that comes from the resulting 13% increase in their direct productivity.

Imagine if they implemented the other elements of the Road to Reliability framework.

As Ron Moore put it...

“A Reliable Plant is a Safe Plant is a Cost-Effective Plant”

How do you see maintenance? Let us know in the comments.

Sick of failed planning & scheduling?

It's not your fault...here are the REAL reasons it keeps failing:

If you're struggling to implement effective planning and scheduling, don't beat yourself up. Most maintenance teams fail at first.

In my experience, there are consistent root causes:

→ No change management. You can't just force new processes on people. You need a structured change plan.
→ Wrong planner selection. You need deep technical expertise for this role.
→ Letting planners work current jobs. This erodes the entire scheduling process.
→ Not confirming job readiness. All materials must be staged before scheduling work.
→ Poor feedback loops. Continuous improvement requires closing the loop after jobs.
→ Incorrect metrics. You get what you measure. Make sure your KPIs drive the right behaviors.

Often, it's not the process, but how the process is implemented that causes issues.

Follow structured change management, pick experts as planners, and get your metrics right.

Do this and your planning & scheduling will transform your maintenance.

If you want to learn how to successfully implement maintenance planning & scheduling so that you finally escape the vicious cycle of reactive maintenance, then check out our online course using this link—

https://hubs.li/Q04fnm3f0

What’s inside a work pack?

To execute maintenance tasks efficiently, your maintenance crew needs a complete work pack.

And it should include everything a technician needs to know to do the job safely and efficiently.

Nothing more, nothing less.

If the work pack is incomplete, then chances are, your crew will waste their time looking for the information they need in manuals, drawings, and procedures.

Or worse, they won't look for it ...

Either way, without a complete work pack, you’re creating heaps of waste and inefficiencies.

No, a complete work pack isn't necessarily a big, heavy, A4 binder of documents. It could be just a couple of pages of paper.

That's why you want a Maintenance Planner with a solid trade background, someone who knows how to do the job and who can document it effectively.

If you want to learn more about creating work packs and other responsibilities of the Maintenance Planner...

Then read our blog article, “Without Planning and Scheduling You Will Fail”.

Link in the first comment.

Are you a Plant Manager or Maintenance Manager?

Then you might want to check out our Maintenance Planning & Scheduling Scorecard.

It’s a tool to assess your Planning & Scheduling performance across 6 key areas.

By answering 40 simple questions, you will receive a personalised report in your email that will score your Maintenance Planning & Scheduling efforts, ang give you clear, actionable advice on how to improve.

-It’s completely free.

-It takes less than 10 minutes.

-And the customised results will be sent to your email instantly.

This is a quick and practical alternative to our full-blown Planning & Scheduling Assessment Tool which consists of over 140+ questions over 10 elements.

If you want to know where you are when it comes to Maintenance Planning & Scheduling, and you want to receive a guide on how to improve your efforts…

…then you can start by answering the Scorecard.

You’ll find the link to the scorecard in the first comment.

Is your company sponsoring your maintenance training?

Many maintenance professionals out there are not as effective in their roles as they should be—often because they lack the right kind of training.

Unfortunately, their companies don’t invest in their professional development. And so, they have no choice but to pay for training out of their own pockets.

To make matters worse, lack of training could be why you’re missing out on lucrative job opportunities in maintenance and reliability!

If that’s you, then it’s time to apply for a scholarship!

** The Reliability Academy Scholarship Program**

Apply for a scholarship today and get 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝟕𝟓% 𝐨𝐟𝐟 the original price!

→ Get lifetime access to tools, resources, and templates that can help you implement the processes that we teach inside our courses.

→ Advance your career, secure that promotion, and become a key asset to your organisation.

→ Join over 300 scholars in transforming the maintenance landscape.

This opportunity is perfect for those keen to advance their careers but lack company-sponsored training support.

𝐒𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝!

So don’t miss your chance to be one of our successful scholars!

Check out our scholarship page to learn more and send in your application!

https://hubs.li/Q049bwXx0

How do you measure/assess “Reliability Culture”?

To help us answer that question…

I have developed a Reliability Culture Ladder that distinguishes 5 levels of maturity for a reliability culture (Based on the Safety Culture Ladder by Professor Patrick Hudson).

Here’s a quick overview of the five levels:

𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝟏 – 𝐓𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞:

Reliability isn’t prioritised, and stress is normalised. Maintenance is purely reactive, with 'overtime heroes' celebrated for fixing breakdowns instead of addressing root causes.

Key Attitude: “We don’t care about reliability, as long as it doesn’t impact me, or we don’t get caught out.”

𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝟐 – 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞:

Most organisations fall here. Teams want to improve but are stuck in high-stress, reactive cycles with ineffective processes and misaligned leadership actions.

Key Attitude: “Reliability is important, we do a lot to improve every time we have a failure.”

𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝟑 — 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞:

Processes like planning, scheduling, and preventive maintenance are in place. Stress levels drop, and collaboration between maintenance and operations begins to take shape.

Key Attitude: “We have systems in place, we know they work and give us results.”

𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝟒 — 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞:

Core processes are highly effective, and there’s a structured focus on continuous improvement. Maintenance and operations work as partners, with shared goals and mutual respect.

Key Attitude: “We improve our systems and processes, and always aim higher.”

𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝟓 — 𝐄𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞:

Reliability is embedded into the organisation’s DNA. Everyone understands their role in achieving reliability, and continuous improvement is a core value.

Key Attitude: “Reliability is in our DNA; it’s just how we do business around here.”

Where does your organisation sit on this scale?

What level on the Reliability Culture Ladder do you need to reach?

If you want to learn more about the different levels of Reliability Culture, read our blog article: “The Reliability Culture Ladder”.

Link in the first comment.

According to Winston Ledet, defects are the basic cause of all our failures.

And they can be classified into three sources: A, B, and C.

𝐀 – 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠

These are slow and predictable. Think rust, corrosion, cracking concrete. They account for just 4% of all defects—and happen even if the equipment isn’t in use.

𝐁 – 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐫

Roughly 12% of defects. These defects become failures over shorter periods of time, say one month to seven years, depending on the quality and suitability of the design. They are usually the easiest to observe in the critical equipment of a plant.

𝐂 – 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐇𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐬

And here’s what's surprising. Careless work habits contribute to the remaining 84% of the defects, and these become failures over random periods of time. Careless work habits can come from:

→ A design engineer specifying the wrong material.

→ A maintenance engineer omitting a critical failure mode in the PM program.

→ A manager ignoring deteriorating performance trends.

When you consider that these are all careless work habits, you can see why 84% of all defects come from them.

That’s why it’s really important that you get an effective Defect Elimination process in place.

Defect elimination is all about eliminating small, repetitive reactive work before it happens, and in such a way that it won’t happen again. Most of which stem from careless work habits.

By focusing on removing defects at their source, you:

→ Break the cycle of reactive maintenance.

→ Reduce the likelihood of failures.

→ Turn “forever fixing” into “fixed forever.”

If you want to learn more about the ABCs of failure, be sure to read our article: “Defect Elimination why you can’t do without”.

Link in the first comment.

Planning is the WHAT and HOW.

It’s about eliminating delays during jobs. It ensures that every job is ready before it starts. If a technician has to stop mid-task to find missing parts, tools, or instructions, that’s a failure of planning. A well-planned job includes:

→ A clearly defined work scope

→ The right materials and parts available

→ Special tools and equipment ready

→ Work instructions that outline the proper method

→ Necessary permits and access arranged

Scheduling is the WHO and WHEN.

It’s about eliminating delays between jobs. If a crew finishes one job but has to wait around for their next task, that’s a failure of scheduling. It ensures that work is assigned at the right time and in the right sequence. A well-scheduled job takes into account:

→ Technician availability

→ Equipment downtime and operational constraints

→ Coordination with other trades

→ Grouping of tasks to maximise efficiency

You need BOTH to succeed.

When you combine good planning with good scheduling, you can increase your team’s maintenance productivity by up to 35%, without hiring more people.

If you want to break free from reactive maintenance, start by making sure your planning and scheduling processes are working together.

And if you want to learn more, check out our blog article: “Without planning and scheduling you will fail”

Link in the first comment.

Are you using the words “Maintenance” and “Reliability” interchangeably?

These are 2 completely different things.

While maintenance keeps your plant running as designed... reliability doesn’t stop there.

→ Reliability starts at the design and construction phase of your plant.

→ Reliability is embedded in your systems, processes, and equipment choices.

→ Reliability is dependent on proper operation.

Even the best maintenance plan won't be enough to ensure reliability.

That’s why, like safety, reliability is everyone's responsibility… not just the maintenance team's.

It is sustained through effective maintenance processes.

And it thrives with strong leadership and culture.

How do you build reliability into your plant’s culture and work processes?