You’re Performing at a High Level. Now, Let’s Future-Proof It.
Your results point to a mature maintenance operation with strong capabilities across the areas measured in this assessment. Your next opportunity is to protect that performance as your workforce, assets and operational demands change.
Fix the foundation to break the cycle
Strong Performance Creates a Different Challenge
Your results suggest that your maintenance operation is performing at a high level across the areas measured in this assessment. Rather than addressing a significant weakness, your opportunity is to make sure the performance you’ve built can hold up as conditions change.
For a stable maintenance operation, that can mean asking questions like:
- Would performance remain strong if key employees retired or moved on?
- Are you identifying changes in equipment conditions early enough to act before failures occur?
- Are your maintenance practices prepared for changes in equipment, production and workforce needs?
Keep pushing: High performance gives you room to look further ahead. Focus on the people, assets and systems your operation depends on most and where changes could create vulnerabilities over time.
What the research tells us
Pro Services studied 55 manufacturing leaders to understand why recurring maintenance problems persist and what organizations that consistently improve reliability do differently.
The research showed that even organizations performing well today need to prepare for risks that may not be affecting current performance yet.
Protect the Performance You’ve Worked So Hard to Build
Stress-test succession plans
Identify the roles, skills and institutional knowledge your operation can least afford to lose. Then test whether another employee could realistically step in and keep critical work moving.
Look for risk before it becomes downtime
Evaluate where condition monitoring could give your team earlier visibility into changes in equipment health, particularly for critical assets where unexpected failure would have the greatest operational impact.
Plan for how your operation is changing
Consider how upcoming retirements, new equipment, production changes and technology investments could change what your maintenance organization needs over the next several years.
had critical maintenance knowledge concentrated in employees nearing retirement.
had no meaningful succession plan in place.
of organizations that were not fully ready for technology had already invested in maintenance software systems.
Warning: Don’t change what’s working just to do something new!
Advanced practices and technologies should solve a specific problem or create a clear advantage. Build on the systems that already work rather than adding complexity without a defined purpose.
Get the Full Picture: Read the 2026 State of Maintenance Report
High-performing maintenance organizations face different decisions than teams still working to establish the fundamentals. The challenge becomes knowing how to build on what’s working without adding unnecessary complexity or overlooking risks that could affect future performance.
The State of Maintenance Report examines these connections across 55 manufacturing leaders and identifies seven key decisions that influence long-term maintenance performance, including which areas organizations should address first and which improvements should come later.
Use the report to see how your results compare to the broader research and identify where your organization can protect its strengths while preparing for future workforce and asset needs.
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