Setting Reliability Goals: Focus on What You Control

As we kick off the new year, many of us are thinking about setting goals and resolutions, including leaders in asset management and reliability. When setting goals, it’s easy to get caught up in grandiose targets like “improve plant reliability” or “reduce total maintenance costs.” But let’s be honest, these KPIs are complex, multi-faceted goals that aren’t always under your immediate control. I think of these more as company visions or the results set by the C-suite. They are still valuable KPIs but will often lag significantly to your actions.
Let’s think of your reliability goals like a New Year’s resolution to improve your health. An annual crisis for many of us. Rather than aiming for a specific weight on the scale, that doesn’t always have a 1:1 relationship with your effort, it’s better to focus on controllable actions. Examples like exercising 20 minutes every day, Cutting refined sugar from your diet, and improving your sleep schedule. It’s helpful to focus on the how, while still having a solid vision of the why.
In the same vein, managers should set reliability goals that are within their team’s direct control, such as:
✅Completing Criticality Assessments to identify and prioritize your most crucial assets.
✅Optimizing strategies for critical equipment through better maintenance practices and uptime strategies.
✅Completing RCAs on all critical failures to drive continuous improvement and reduce repeat failures.
✅Launching Predictive Maintenance Practices to improve time to plan and reduce risk of collateral damage and plant upset.
Actionable Goals that focus on proven reliability techniques and best practices add up over time and lead to big wins, without feeling overwhelmed by targets that depend on so many factors.
Focus on the process, and the results will follow. A steady, deliberate approach leads to lasting, sustainable improvements. Time for me to jump on the elliptical! Anyone have a great 2025 reliability goal to share?