Maintenance Part 1: Building the Foundation for Excellence

We often hear about the Preventive Maintenance (PM) and Autonomous Maintenance (AM) pillars of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and how they will deliver a world class maintenance function. But here’s a tough question: do they truly help us define what a maintenance organisation is meant to deliver—or how to build one from scratch?

Many programs assume that the maintenance team already has a certain level of capability. Yet, often, these teams struggle to unlock their potential, no matter how well-intentioned their efforts. That’s why it’s critical to first build basic maintenance capability—a solid foundation on which future PM and AM efforts can thrive.

This challenge becomes even greater when Maintenance Managers grow inside a single site without ever being exposed to different ways of working and “what good looks like.”

A Conversation That Sparked a Model

Back in 2014, while waiting for a delayed flight, my colleague Jeff Wilkinson and I (both maintenance engineers at Heineken at the time) started reflecting on what a maintenance organisation truly delivers—and what it needs to succeed. Armed with nothing but the back of a placemat, we challenged ourselves to capture our ideas on a single page.

Fast forward to today, and this model has been stress-tested across diverse environments. It has become a practical framework to help maintenance teams succeed.

What is Maintenance Really For?

When we asked a well-regarded maintenance team to articulate their purpose, it took them over an hour—and they still couldn’t align on an answer. No wonder conflict often arises between maintenance teams and their operational colleagues!

Here’s the definition we developed:

“Keeping operational assets fit for purpose in the hands of the user, at best cost.”

This deceptively simple statement raises important considerations:

1. The user is the priority. Only they can define what “fit for purpose” means, as they generate value from the asset.
2. Downtime matters. Assets need to stay in the user’s hands as much as possible. Maintenance must minimise disruption, and that includes minimising the time an asset is out of service for maintenance.
3. Best cost is contextual. What’s “best” depends on the asset’s lifecycle and operational context. For example, a long-life asset justifies proactive maintenance, while a soon-to-be-replaced asset may warrant a run-to-failure approach. Neither are right or wrong of themselves, context is everything.

What Does a Maintenance Team Deliver?

To go beyond reactive fixes, maintenance must deliver on six key fronts:

1. Fix – Restore failed assets to functionality.
2. Solve – Identify the root cause of failures.
3. Develop – Improve tasks or methods to prevent future issues.
4. Schedule – Align skills, tools, and resources for planned work.
5. Execute – Perform tasks flawlessly, every time.
6. Review – Analyse outcomes to continuously improve.

What Enables Maintenance Excellence?

Behind every high-performing maintenance team lies robust systems and processes. Key enablers include:

• Organisational Design: The right roles, structures and capabilities are essential to break free from reactive firefighting. More on this in a future blogg.
• Workflow Management: A well-designed process ensures work is logged, escalated, and executed effectively. That process needs to be enabled by the right technology: industrial data strategy, CMMS, dashboards and, increasingly, Industrial IoT and predictive models.
• Spare Parts Strategy: Balancing stock levels against operational needs ensures availability without tying up capital.
• Contractor Management: Outsourcing must be strategic, with strong oversight to maintain standards.
• Budget and Backlog Management: Maintenance is about managing risk. A prioritised backlog and data-driven risk analysis simplify budget discussions.
• Safety and Compliance: Maintenance involves higher risks. Safety practices, from permits to isolations, must be second nature to every professional.

Building a Strong Foundation

By addressing these enablers, organisations can set their maintenance teams up for success. The result? A maintenance organisation that keeps assets in the hands of users, fit for purpose, at best cost.

Are you building a foundation for maintenance excellence? Let’s start the conversation!