Just Do It: Why action beats perfection in reliability transformation

Let’s be real. From my decades in manufacturing plants, the most intelligent person in the room isn't always the one who drives the most change. No doubt, intelligence matters. But I've watched average performers consistently outpace brilliant engineers for one simple reason. They take action while others are still thinking about it.

Nike’s tagline is “Just Do It!” There's profound wisdom in those three words for all of us. Sometimes the gap between where you are and where you want to be isn't knowledge. Nine times out of ten, it’s not knowledge. It's courage. Courage to overcome your fear and take action. One of my coaches says, “Fear is false evidence appearing real.”

Break free of the knowledge trap

Most maintenance managers I work with already know many of the maintenance and reliability best practices. The problem isn't knowledge, it's paralysis. They don't know where to start, so they don't start at all.

Others have a clear concept in their heads but never take the first step because of self-limiting beliefs. Listen to the voices that echo through plant floors everywhere: "Production will never make the equipment available for planned work." "I don't know if I'm the right person to lead this change." "I'm not sure about how to go about this." 

These beliefs feel like the truth, but they're often excuses. Book author, Vernon Brundage Jr., is credited with "excuses are tools of incompetence used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness."

The irony? While you're doubting yourself, your equipment is degrading, your team is fighting fires, and your budget is bleeding. Inaction has a cost too—it's just harder to see on a spreadsheet.

Taking the first step – action, not perfection

I've personally led a transformation in a large manufacturing plant, driving the shift to proactive maintenance. When we started, a veteran technician approached me with a weary smile. "We did this 15 years ago," he said. His words stung because they revealed a complex reality. Someone had tried before, and the gains had drifted away like the morning fog.

In our implementation, we faced real risks. Borrowing from budgets without knowing that we would get guaranteed results within the year felt like walking a tightrope without a net. But we moved forward anyway. The results? Critical root cause analysis events on one production line dropped from 14 per month to just two. Within 18 months, our team added $20 million in capacity, reduced waste by $10 million, and reduced the maintenance budget by $2 million.

As a guide, I've coached a mill from 22% planned work to 78%. These aren't unicorn stories; they're what happens when we stop waiting for perfect conditions and start building.

Building a maintenance foundation: RCA, planning & scheduling, and asset care

So where do you start? Build a solid foundation with these four pillars. Asset care strategies rooted in RCM2 or PMO, work execution through planning and scheduling, a robust storeroom, and an RCA program that prevents problems from repeating.

Start small. Where are you bleeding with excessive downtime or costs? Pilot one area. Make it doable. You don't need to transform the entire plant today. You need one small win to start and build momentum.

When you hit the proverbial wall

The hard part comes when you hit your first roadblock, resistance to change. Budget constraints. Time pressures. Resource limitations. This is where most transformation efforts die, not because they fail, but because you stop pushing.

Just keep going. Repeat that! Just keep going.

Involve your team in the process. People buy into what they help create. Paint the vision of the future state together. If you feel stuck, look for smaller wins that are still possible. What is that one piece of equipment you can bring under control? What is that single work order process that can be improved? Who is that one operator you can partner with?

Work through your self-limiting beliefs with a mentor or coach. Everyone who's successfully driven change has felt inadequate at some point. The difference is that they didn't let that feeling make their decisions. I’ll share that winners fail more than losers. Again, keep going.

It’s your move to lead reliability improvement

The maintenance professionals who transform their cultures aren't the ones with all the answers. They're the ones who start anyway. They stumble, adjust, and keep moving forward. You can take the first imperfect step toward something better.

So, here's my challenge: Stop waiting for perfect conditions, complete buy-in, or absolute certainty. Pick one thing, one piece of equipment, one process, one slight improvement, and just do it. Your team is waiting for someone to lead. That someone is you.

The only difference between where you are and where you want to be is action. What will yours be?