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Why Your Maintenance Team Isn’t Broken—Your System Might Be
“Good people struggle in broken systems. The issue might not be your team—it might be the structure around them.”
albien leyco
July 20, 2025
Welcome to The Reliable Edge
We guide leaders in transforming maintenance into a competitive edge—one proven idea at a time.
This week, we take a closer look at something many leaders struggle with but rarely say out loud: “Why is my team always busy—but performance still lags?”
Field Insight: Blaming People for Systemic Problems
“The team’s putting in the hours, but we’re still seeing the same breakdowns, the same backlog, the same chaos.”
This is the usual dialogue from a maintenance manager of a reactive plant. At first glance, it looked like a people issue. But if you will step back, you will see a different picture:
PMs were scheduled in bulk, with no prioritization based on asset risk.
RCA was inconsistently applied—if at all.
Operators had no voice in early warning signs.
KPIs were focused on response time, not reliability outcomes.
The problem wasn’t the people—it was the system they were operating in.
The team was reacting exactly how the environment trained them to.
Sound familiar?