In the world of industrial maintenance, we often find ourselves dazzled by cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated analytics. Yet, much like in sports and personal health, success ultimately hinges on executing the fundamentals with discipline and consistency. As the MLB regular season kicks off and March Madness concludes, we're reminded that champions aren't created through flashy plays alone, but through mastery of the basics.
Back to Basics: The Fundamentals of Effective Industrial Maintenance
The Maintenance Fundamentals Playbook
The foundation of effective industrial maintenance rests on five fundamental principles that, when executed properly, drive reliability and operational excellence:
- Planning the work - Identifying what needs to be done, gathering resources, and creating detailed procedures
- Scheduling the work - Determining when maintenance activities should occur to minimize disruption
- Performing corrective maintenance - Executing the planned work with precision and care
- Verifying outcomes - Confirming that the maintenance achieved the desired results
- Documenting and improving - Recording findings and identifying opportunities for enhancement
These fundamentals remain unchanged despite technological advancements. Proactive maintenance prevents outages, increases safety, maximizes equipment life, and lowers overall costs. Yet many organizations struggle to execute these basics consistently.
Technology: A Tool, Not a Solution
The industrial maintenance landscape has been transformed by predictive maintenance technologies, AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics. These innovations offer tremendous benefits:
- Early fault detection through pattern recognition and anomaly identification
- Predictive analytics that forecast when machinery might fail
- Real-time monitoring dashboards providing live data on equipment performance
- Enhanced precision in maintenance execution
However, these technologies merely provide advanced notice and additional time to address issues. The real value comes from what we do with this information. Without proper processes and skilled teams to execute corrective actions, these investments become mere cost adders rather than value creators.
As one maintenance expert noted, "Predictive maintenance takes the concept further by integrating advanced technologies such as sensors and data analytics. This approach relies on real-time data to pinpoint potential issues before they manifest as actual problems." 1
Sports Analogies: Fundamentals Win Championships
The parallel between industrial maintenance and sports is striking. As baseball season begins, we're reminded that championship teams excel at fundamentals:
Baseball Fundamentals
In baseball, success depends on mastering the basics: proper fielding technique, consistent hitting mechanics, and strategic base running. Teams spend countless hours in spring training, and throughout the long stretch of the regular season, taking ground balls, building muscle memory through repetition, perfecting their swings in the batting cage, etc. This attention to fundamentals creates the conditions for peak performance.
Similarly, in industrial maintenance, regular equipment inspections, proper lubrication, and timely repairs form the foundation of reliability. Without these fundamentals, even the most sophisticated predictive technologies cannot prevent failure.
Basketball Fundamentals
During March Madness, we witness how teams that execute fundamentals under pressure advance furthest in the tournament. The best basketball teams excel at dribbling, passing, shooting, and defensive positioning. When the game is on the line, it's these fundamentals—not flashy dunks—that determine the outcome.
In maintenance, when equipment failures threaten production, organizations with strong fundamental processes respond effectively. They have well-documented procedures, trained technicians, and necessary parts readily available. The advanced notice provided by predictive technologies is only valuable when these fundamentals are in place.
Personal Health: A Mirror to Industrial Maintenance
The parallels extend beyond sports to personal health and wellness. Maintaining good health isn't complicated — it requires consistent execution of basic principles:
- Eating a balanced, nutritious diet
- Engaging in regular physical activity
- Getting adequate sleep
- Managing stress effectively
- Avoiding harmful substances
Despite knowing these fundamentals, many struggle with consistency and discipline. As one health expert notes, "Self-discipline is a practice. It is something that you must demonstrate everyday even if you fail or falter." 2
The same applies to industrial maintenance. Organizations understand the importance of preventive maintenance but often fail to consistently execute the basics. Just as skipping workouts leads to declining fitness, neglecting maintenance fundamentals leads to equipment deterioration and eventual failure.
The Discipline Factor
Discipline bridges the gap between knowing and doing in both personal health and industrial maintenance. As one wellness expert explains, "Discipline is hard. It's rarely anything that we love to do or get super excited about... Breaking into a better emotional and behavioral state is work, hard work." 2
In maintenance, discipline means:
- Adhering to preventive maintenance schedules even when equipment seems to be running fine
- Properly documenting all maintenance activities
- Following established procedures without taking shortcuts
- Continuously training and developing maintenance skills
- Investing time in planning before jumping into repairs
Without this discipline, even the most advanced predictive technologies will fail to deliver their promised benefits.
The Competitive Advantage of Fundamentals
In both sports and business, mastering fundamentals creates competitive advantage. As noted in one analysis of sporting metaphors and capitalism, "Sports pose a competitive challenge to their players in several ways. They often pose physical challenges of skill, athleticism, stamina, or endurance. Sports always pose mental challenges by requiring quick and effective decisions." 3
Similarly, industrial maintenance requires both technical skill and strategic decision-making. Organizations that excel at maintenance fundamentals gain several competitive advantages:
- Increased system uptime - Predictive maintenance significantly reduces unplanned downtime by identifying and repairing components likely to fail
- Cost efficiency - Optimal scheduling of maintenance activities reduce procurement costs, labor costs, and minimizes spare parts usage
- Enhanced safety - Early detection prevents issues from escalating into serious problems that could threaten worker safety
- Improved asset lifespan - Understanding equipment wear patterns allows for interventions that extend operational life
- Environmental sustainability - Efficient resource use aligns with sustainability goals and regulatory compliance
Building a Maintenance Culture of Excellence
Creating a culture that values maintenance fundamentals requires leadership commitment and organizational alignment. Here are key strategies:
1. Invest in Planning and Scheduling
Effective maintenance begins with thorough planning. This includes:
- Evaluating asset criticality
- Developing detailed maintenance procedures
- Managing resources (labor, parts, tools)
- Minimizing maintenance costs while maximizing asset availability
2. Develop a Comprehensive Maintenance Schedule
A well-structured maintenance schedule ensures all aspects of equipment care are addressed through:
- Daily inspections and minor adjustments
- Weekly preventive tasks
- Monthly deep-cleaning and component checks
- Seasonal overhauls and major repairs
3. Balance Maintenance Approaches
Different maintenance strategies offer unique benefits:
| Approach | Benefits | Challenges |
|---|---|---|
| Reactive | Maximum asset utilization | Unplanned downtime, higher costs, circle of insanity driven by constant chaos |
| Preventive | Lower maintenance costs, less equipment malfunction | Increased planned downtime, maintenance on seemingly perfect assets |
| Predictive | Holistic view of asset health, improved analytics | Specialize skillset for implementation, data management needs, increased backlog |
Your key will be finding the right balance for your specific operation.
4. Leverage Technology Appropriately
Technology should enhance, not replace, fundamental maintenance practices:
- Use sensors and monitoring systems to extend human capabilities
- Apply analytics to prioritize maintenance activities
- Implement digital tools to streamline documentation, knowledge transfer, and consistency of executed work
- Employ remote monitoring to optimize resource allocation
Conclusion: Excellence Through Fundamentals
In industrial maintenance, as in sports and personal health, excellence comes from mastering and consistently executing fundamentals. Advanced technologies provide valuable insights and early warnings, but their true value is realized only when organizations have the discipline to act on this information effectively.
As we watch baseball players perfect their swings and basketball teams execute precise plays, we're reminded that greatness in any field comes from doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. The same principle applies to industrial maintenance—the organizations that excel are those that plan thoroughly, schedule strategically, execute precisely, verify diligently, and improve continuously.
Like maintaining personal health, effective industrial maintenance isn't complicated—it just requires focus, commitment, and discipline to execute the fundamentals day after day. In the end, the most sophisticated predictive technologies are only as valuable as our ability to respond to their insights with effective maintenance action.
Sources:
- John Glenski: Digital infrastructure: the role of technology in predictive maintenance. https://salasobrien.com/news/digital-infrastructure-predictive-maintenance/
- Kristina Tracy: Discipline – The Necessary Evil of Wellness! https://lindnercenterofhope.or...
- Ann E. Cudd: Sporting Metaphors: Competition and the Ethos of Capitalism. https://www.anncudd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Sporting-Metaphors.pdf
About the Author
Chris Colson
In his current role with Allied Reliability, Chris is responsible for building successful relationships and engagements between Allied and its clients. He supports client teams’ execution strategies and is instrumental in helping Allied’s teams deliver world-class service and value. Chris focuses on business improvement elements that yield a measurable return on investment through sustainable change.
Chris has over 24 years of experience in the industry with a focus on engineering, reliability, design, maintainability, and energy management. Prior to joining Allied, Chris worked for a large electrical and mechanical contractor. Additionally, Chris has experience in a wide range of industries, including oil & gas, primary metals, mining, food & beverage, power generation, automotive, and pharmaceutical.
Chris graduated from the University of Louisville with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering and has been an IEEE member for 23 years. He is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) through the Association of Energy Engineers and a Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professional (CMRP) through the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (SMRP). He is the co-author of the book Clean, Green, & Reliable – How equipment reliability delivers low-cost, energy-efficient assets to plants around the world. He has taught numerous seminars and written multiple articles to help educate engineers and maintenance personnel worldwide on maintenance and reliability and energy management best practices.
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn.
ABOUT ALLIED RELIABILITY
Allied Reliability provides asset management consulting and predictive maintenance solutions across the lifecycle of your production assets to deliver required throughput at lowest operating cost while managing asset risk. We do this by partnering with our clients, applying our proven asset management methodology, and leveraging decades of practitioner experience across more verticals than any other provider. Our asset management solutions include Consulting & Training, Condition-based Maintenance, Industrial Staffing, Electrical Services, and Machine Reliability.
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