Real World Frontline Experience from My Maintenance and Reliability Career

If jumping to conclusions were an Olympic sport, I’ve worked with some serious gold medal contenders.

One plant manager I worked with was absolutely convinced that the site’s unscheduled downtime was caused by weak preventive maintenance routes.  “It’s just common sense,” he told me.  “We need better PMs – more thorough checks, tighter intervals.  That’s where the problems are.”

And at first glance, it made perfect sense.  PMs are a frequent culprit, and it’s comforting to think we can solve a reliability issue with a better checklist and a few more trips out to the field.

But a few interviews and a quick look at the data told a different story.

Yes, PMs could use some improvement. But the real issue?  Nobody had a consistent way to report problems in the first place.

Operators were catching early signs of failure – they just weren’t getting acted on.  Why?  Because the site had no standard way to communicate or prioritize work.

• Some folks jotted things on a whiteboard on the production floor.
• Others used a whiteboard in the maintenance shop.
• Some entered notes in the CMMS or production tracking software.
• Others just told a mechanic directly – if they could find one.

When nothing is standardized, everything becomes reactive.  Mechanics responded to whoever complained the loudest.  Planners gave up trying to schedule work that shifted by the hour.  Supervisors couldn’t trust the backlog.

The whole system turned into an exercise of triage.  The manager wanted better PMs. But the plant really needed better work identification and communication.

Jumping to solutions without a clear understanding of the problem turns every improvement effort into guesswork.

Your gut might be smart – but it’s no substitute for structured thinking, a shared problem statement, and alignment on the drivers that really matter.

If your team is reacting to noise instead of solving the right problem, it may be time to slow down – and step back.

A focused problem statement and decision-tree approach can give you the clarity to lead with confidence.