The Maintenance Mindset

  I have spent a lot of my career around manufacturing equipment. I have worked in Lean, engineering, maintenance, process improvement, and reliability. Of course, we have to repair equipment, and we need good preventive maintenance. But I think there is another question we should be asking. How can I make this machine better? For many years, most of my improvement work was focused on traditional Lean manufacturing. Around 2016, I became much more involved in maintenance and manufacturing engineering. I started experimenting with sensors, cameras, equipment data, monitoring systems, and other technologies. I began to see how much opportunity there was when I combined engineering with maintenance. I remember working with heavy industrial equipment where we had machines taking some pretty significant impacts during production. The frustrating part was that maintenance didn't always know an impact had occurred. The machine might continue running and then fail hours or even days late...

The Maintenance Manager Development Program is a 10-week, 50-hour development program designed for current and future maintenance managers who want to strengthen both their leadership and maintenance management capabilities. Through live online training, coaching, and mentoring, participants work on practical areas including preventive maintenance development, planning and scheduling, performance metrics, budgeting, team development, problem solving and decision making, communication, and annual maintenance planning. Program Website. Click Here Program Details Developing a Preventive Maintenance Program Maintenance Planning, Scheduling & Work Management Metrics, Reporting & Performance Management Budgeting, Cost Control & Resource Management Team Development & Leadership Problem Solving & Decision Making Communication, Influence & Stakeholder Management Annual Maintenance Plan Development Live Online Sup...

  Making Better Decisions How to Avoid Common Traps, Eliminate Distractions, and Drive Impactful Outcomes Routledge/Taylor Francis. Click Here

  Leadership is supposed to drive progress but too often, it becomes the very thing holding companies back. Many leaders unintentionally create bottlenecks, micromanage, or operate in constant crisis mode. The result? Teams stuck in the same cycle of problems, year after year. The first step to fixing this is awareness. Once you can recognize unproductive patterns in yourself or others, you can start to change them. The Leadership DEFCON Scale Think of leadership like a DEFCON readiness level. Some leaders live at DEFCON 1. Everything is a crisis, all the time. Others operate at DEFCON 5, too hands-off until it is too late. The best leaders know when to step in (DEFCON 3) and when to trust their teams to handle things. Balance is key. 5 Traits That Derail Leaders Here are five common patterns that show up across industries and teams: 1.      The Overcomplicator : Adds layers of meetings, steps, and processes instead of focusing on simple, clear solutio...

  One of the most common barriers to progress in the workplace isn’t resources, time, or skill. It’s the gap between perception and reality. We tell ourselves stories about what might happen, and those stories quietly derail projects, delay decisions, and create unnecessary stress. Most of the time, the gap is bigger in our heads than in real life. Why We Create the Gap As humans, we’re wired to protect ourselves from risk. That instinct, while useful for survival, often works against us at work. Instead of testing reality, we rely on assumptions fueled by: Fear of rejection or failure Biases from past experiences Overthinking possible outcomes This creates hesitation and stalls progress, even when the actual obstacle is minor or nonexistent. Common Workplace Examples Here are a few scenarios where perception and reality often drift apart: Requesting resources Perception : “Leadership will say no; budgets are too tight.” Reality : A well-framed...

  We’ve all been there.   Staring at the ceiling at 2 a.m. asking, “Should I stay or should I go?” The decision to leave a job is one of the most personal and high-stakes calls you can make. And it’s also one of the most overcomplicated. That’s why the Paint It Red philosophy is the perfect framework for moments like this. Let’s walk through how the pillars help you cut through the noise and decide with purpose. Mindset-Money Mastery Channel. Click Here. 1. Why We Overcomplicate This kind of decision is ripe for overthinking: “What if I regret it?” “What will people think?” “What if the next job isn’t better?” We turn it into a mental chess match. But the truth is, staying in the wrong role just because the next one isn’t guaranteed? That’s not logic, that’s fear wearing a suit. Ask: What facts am I using, and what stories am I telling myself? 2. The Rake Theory Sometimes, staying put is just stepping on the same rake again and again: To...