Why Most Reliability Programs Stall and How to Get Them Moving Again

Most manufacturers know what better reliability can do for their operation. Fewer emergency repairs, more predictable production schedules, longer asset life and better use of maintenance resources all add up to a plant that runs stronger with fewer costly disruptions. That’s why reliability initiatives often start with real momentum and support, as teams identify where performance is falling short and put processes in place to move maintenance from a reactive state to a proactive one.

The harder part is making that progress stick when the pressure is on.

When critical equipment goes down or production needs an asset that was scheduled for maintenance, priorities have to shift quickly. Planners and supervisors get pulled into immediate operational needs, improvement meetings get postponed and action items stay open longer than intended.

When that becomes the norm rather than the exception, even a well-built reliability program can start losing ground.

In Pro’s experience, this is where many reliability programs stall. Most organizations already know what better reliability looks like and may already have many of the right pieces in place, but what separates sustained improvement from initiatives that lose steam is the ability to execute consistently.

That takes clear ownership, accountability, capable people and the discipline to keep doing the work even when (especially when) the operation is under pressure.

Why Do Reliability Programs Lose Momentum?

Reliability improvements take time. There may be early wins, but lasting changes in equipment performance don’t come from a single project, new process or tech investment. They come from executing sound maintenance and reliability practices consistently, day after day, even when production pressures make it difficult to stay the course.

Reliability initiatives also tend to begin when a problem has become too costly or disruptive to ignore. Unplanned downtime is climbing, maintenance costs are moving in the wrong direction, the same assets continue to fail or preventative maintenance isn’t delivering the same results the organization needs.

Those conditions create urgency and get people moving. Bust as performance improves or other operational demands take priority, that urgency can fade and the discipline behind the program can slip.

Some of the warning signs to keep an eye out for:

• Improvement actions repeatedly getting pushed back
• Reliability meetings continuously getting rescheduled or canceled
• Slipping preventative maintenance performance
• Tracking metrics with no discussion or follow-through
• Recurring equipment problems or failures
• Planned work regularly disrupted by emergency repairs
• Reliability increasingly becoming the responsibility of maintenance alone

Any one of these issues can happen in a busy manufacturing environment, but when it becomes routine, the operation risks giving back the progress it worked hard to make.

What Causes Reliability Programs to Stall?

There is rarely just one reason why a reliability program stalls out. More often, it’s several problems working against the organization at the same time. As teams spend most of their time trying to keep equipment running, it pulls away from any time that could have been dedicated to addressing the root cause of the conditions creating the reactive workload in the first place.

In the facilities Pro works with, several issues tend to surface repeatedly.

1. Unclear ownership

Reliability is cross-functional by nature, but that becomes a problem when no one is clearly responsible for driving the work.

Maintenance leaders may support the program while spending much of their time addressing immediate operational needs, engineers may participate in specific projects and operations leaders may become involved primarily when equipment availability affects production — but without someone connecting those efforts and keeping priorities in front of the organization, important work can lose ground quickly.

A reliability program needs an owner, full stop. Someone has to set and keep priorities moving, coordinate across teams, address roadblocks and make sure commitments don’t get pushed to the backburner when the plant gets busy. Depending on the operation, that may be a dedicated reliability leader or a cross-functional team with clearly assigned responsibilities. 

Key takeaway: Structure can vary, but responsibility cannot be vague.

2. Lack of accountability

Identifying key areas of improvement is the easy part. The difficult part is making sure the work actually gets completed.

Whenever any task or project doesn’t have a clear owner or a realistic timeline — whether it be something “small” like a one-off preventative maintenance task or a larger project like fixing a recurring equipment failure — they can sit open while the same problems continue costing the operation time and resources.

Setting accountability in the form of establishing clear task or project ownership, defined timelines and a follow-up evaluation process once the work is complete to cover the full task/project lifecycle.

Key takeaway: If an improvement is important enough to identify, it’s important enough to see through completion.

‍3. Inconsistent execution

A reliability strategy is only as strong as its execution on the plant floor. A facility can have well-designed preventative maintenance programs, planning processes and clear maintenance procedures, but none of them will produce consistent results if they’re followed only when time allows.

Preventative maintenance performed differently from one technician to another creates variability. A weekly schedule that is routinely abandoned for noncritical work stops functioning as a schedule. Corrective actions or procedural changes implemented on one shift but never communicated to another leave the job only half done.

Over hundreds or thousands of maintenance activities, those inconsistencies will be exposed in equipment performance sooner or later.

Key takeaway: Reliability is built through consistent execution of the fundamentals. There are no shortcuts around the work

4. Workforce capability gaps

In most organizations, the problem isn’t a lack of effort. More times than not, an operation simply doesn’t have the capability or capacity needed to execute the reliability strategy consistently.

The manufacturing skills gap is a known major issue facing organizations nationwide, and it’s a common root cause of stalling reliability programs. Any combination of folks lacking the correct skillsets, experience, time or bandwidth to follow through with their responsibilities is bound to cause frustrating roadblocks to making progress.

These issues become even more prevalent as the most experienced and knowledgeable employees retire and their institutional knowledge leaves with them. At that point, the question isn’t just what the strategy requires, but whether or not the organization has the people, skills, time and technical resources to deliver it.

Key takeaway: A reliability plan can’t outperform an organization’s ability to execute it.

5. Reliability keeps losing to daily operations

Reliability work often gets pushed for anything seen as being more urgent. Sometimes, that’s the right call in the moment. The issue is when the decision to push the work to the back burner becomes the easy default.

Equipment will fail. Schedules will shift. Staffing will tighten. Customer demands won’t wait. We get why those things often take priority. But that’s the blunt reality of manufacturing — and it’s not something that will change.

When reliability is consistently moved to “later,” organizations drift back into reactive mode… and “later” never really comes.

If reliability is going to be more than a stated priority, then it has to be protected like one. That means making it nonnegotiable even when days get busy. And when internal capacity isn’t enough to hold the line, that might require bringing in external support to keep critical work on track.

Key takeaway: Reliability improvement has to happen while the plant keeps running if it’s a serious priority. There’s no way around it.

How to Get a Stalled Maintenance Program Moving Again

When your reliability program loses steam, adding another initiative, process or piece of tech usually isn’t the answer. Start by identifying where your operation stands today and build a focused plan from there.

1. Assess the current state
   Look at how maintenance work is planned, scheduled and executed, where reactive work is coming from and which assets or processes are consuming the most resources.
   
   
2. Identify the biggest priorities
   Focus first on the issues creating the greatest operational risk or impact rather than trying to tackle everything at once.
   
   
3. Build the roadmap in the right order
   Determine what needs to happen first and what should follow. Fix the fundamentals before adding more advanced processes or technology.
   
   
4. Put the right resources in place
   Make sure the people responsible for the improvements have the capacity and technical expertise to execute it, and be realistic about if specialized or outside support is needed when internal resources won’t cut it.
   
   
5. Measure progress and retool as needed
   Establish a baseline, track whether changes are producing results and use what you learn to determine how to continue moving forward.

Pro Services Can Help Turn Reliability Plans Into Sustainable Improvement

Many manufacturers already know where reliability performance needs to improve. The harder work is building the structure, technical capability and accountability required to make those improvements hold up in the real world.

Through Pro’s Maintenance Improvement Programs, we work alongside manufacturers to assess their current performance, establish reliability priorities and put the processes and technical resources in place to drive sustainable improvements. When workforce capacity or capability is part of the problem, our Workforce Solutions division can help you close gaps in manpower, upskill your workforce and drive strategic program engagements that drive results on the plant floor.

Reach out now to talk about what’s holding your reliability program back and what it will take to get moving again.