Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt
One book, placed in its field — what this book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data · maintenanceleader.guide/guides/profile-benchmarking_maintenance_mgmt
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Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt
One book, placed in its field — what this book gets right, where it goes further than the rest, and what the rest of the field adds.
Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data · maintenanceleader.guide/guides/profile-benchmarking_maintenance_mgmt
The problem
Total maintenance cost erodes when it is left to instinct instead of method.
You were taught the moves piecemeal, never the whole model.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
The model
- 01Best-Practice Benchmarking Discipline
- 02Preventive/Predictive Maintenance Program Maturity
- 03Work Order System Discipline
- 04Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Capability
- 05Inventory and Purchasing Control
- 06Technical and Interpersonal Training Investment
- 07CMMS/EAM Data Integration
- 08Management and Workforce Attitude Toward Maintenance
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
Step 1 of 5 · Best-Practice Benchmarking Discipline
A benchmark metric is worthless until you can name the three or four practices that generate it.
Misconception
Benchmarking means collecting industry metrics and comparing your figures against the median.
Reality
The number is only the flag; the value is in reverse-engineering the practices, staffing, and management systems that produced it. A gap without a causal explanation is just anxiety, not a plan.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
Step 2 of 5 · Preventive/Predictive Maintenance Program Maturity
Program maturity is measured by strategy-to-failure-mode fit, not by PM volume or compliance percentage.
Misconception
More preventive maintenance—more inspections, more scheduled replacements—always means fewer failures.
Reality
Most failure modes are random, not age-related, so time-based tasks on them add cost and intrusion without reducing risk. Maturity means matching each failure mode to the right strategy, which often means condition monitoring instead of more PMs.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
Step 3 of 5 · Work Order System Discipline
If it isn't on a work order, it never happened as far as your equipment history is concerned.
Misconception
The work order system is administrative overhead that slows technicians down and mainly serves accounting.
Reality
The work order is the primary sensor for the entire maintenance operation; the failure codes and labor data captured today are what let you distinguish bad-actor assets from noise next quarter. Skipped or padded work orders permanently blind future analysis.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
Step 4 of 5 · Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Capability
Planning readies the job; scheduling commits it—conflating the two is why most programs stall below 80 percent planned.
Misconception
A good supervisor can plan and schedule work on the side without a dedicated planner role.
Reality
Planning and doing are different jobs on different clocks; a supervisor pulled into today's fires cannot prepare next week's work, so the planner function collapses whenever it's a part-time duty. Best-practice organizations staff roughly one planner per 15–20 craftspeople as a permanent, protected role.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
Step 5 of 5 · Inventory and Purchasing Control
Storeroom accuracy above 95 percent is the precondition for trustworthy scheduling.
Misconception
High spare-parts inventory is cheap insurance—when in doubt, stock more.
Reality
Excess inventory hides poor planning and quietly generates obsolescence, shrinkage, and carrying cost that often exceeds the downtime it was meant to prevent. The goal is high service level with lean stock, achieved through data accuracy and criticality-based stocking, not blanket accumulation.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
A framework to use
The Maintenance Management Pyramid (11 Best Practices Framework)
This framework is part of the full guide. See the guide →
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
The cheat sheet
- Best-Practice Benchmarking DisciplineA benchmark metric is worthless until you can name the three or four practices that generate it.
- Preventive/Predictive Maintenance Program MaturityProgram maturity is measured by strategy-to-failure-mode fit, not by PM volume or compliance percentage.
- Work Order System DisciplineIf it isn't on a work order, it never happened as far as your equipment history is concerned.
- Maintenance Planning and Scheduling CapabilityPlanning readies the job; scheduling commits it—conflating the two is why most programs stall below 80 percent planned.
- Inventory and Purchasing ControlStoreroom accuracy above 95 percent is the precondition for trustworthy scheduling.
- Technical and Interpersonal Training InvestmentMatch training to the sophistication of the assets you run today, not the ones you were hired to maintain.
- CMMS/EAM Data IntegrationThe CMMS is only as valuable as the accuracy and integration of the data inside it.
- Management and Workforce Attitude Toward MaintenanceAttitude multiplies your other investments; supportive leadership makes them stick and dismissive leadership erases them.
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data
Sources
- Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt
Benchmarking Maintenance Mgmt · Mike West, Editor · Leading With Data