The hubris contagion: Why overreliance on tech is hurting plant reliability

Plant managers, maintenance managers, engineers, planners, and supervisors: I’m not here to sugarcoat this. Your operation is likely infected with a silent killer—hubris, an overconfidence in technology that dismisses decades of hard-earned wisdom.

This mindset is driving up costs, tanking reliability, and frustrating your teams. As an equipment reliability expert with more than 38 years as a practitioner and consultant, I’ve seen this before. It’s not new, but it’s worse in 2025, fueled by apps, sensors, and a dangerous gap between virtual data and shop floor reality.

Recognizing this contagion is step one. Fixing it? Good news—it’s free, fast, and proven. The core issue is reliability teams worshipping technology as a godsend, replacing the gritty reality of experience, intense observation, and human collaboration.

It's not that tech is bad; far from it. Sensors, AI-driven analytics, and mobile apps are game-changers when used right. But when they become the sole source of information, they erode the foundations that have kept plants getting better every day for decades. I've walked into too many facilities where downtime is skyrocketing, maintenance costs are ballooning with low morale, all because leaders are managing from an electronic dashboard on a smartphone.

First, newer professionals are often gifted and filled with enthusiasm and confidence; however, many are blind to decades of experience upon which the plant has excelled, failed, learned, and improved. That old-timer might not know the latest artificial intelligence (AI) tools, but they know if PMs are completed with precision and if poor work practices are being accepted as good. They remember how past mistakes and process drift led to a week of downtime seven years ago. Experience is not a dinosaur; excellence happens when it is partnered with tech.

Actions to begin Monday:

• Implement mandatory mentorship programs where new hires shadow veterans for at least two days per quarter. Document the learnings to their supervisors, and make it part of performance expectations.
• Insist on cross-generational problem-solving teams for every major breakdown analysis. Listen to the war stories.
• Create a "lessons learned" database on equipment that blends oral histories from retirees with digital records.

Second, technology like sensors with automated alerts has chained people to their phones and desks, replacing actual time on the shop floor. A vibration sensor pinging your app is handy, but it's worthless if you don't actually see the operator overloading the machine or the subtle leak that's been building for days. I've audited plants where "predictive maintenance" tools flagged issues, but no one bothered to walk the line and confirm root causes. Result? Real problems fester, and reliability tanks. There is no substitute for shop floor time. None.

Actions to begin Monday:

• Begin "floor time mandates:" require engineers, technicians, and managers to spend at least four hours per week observing operations or maintenance activities. Use this time to note process anomalies, identify wastes, and to correlate reality with sensor data. 
• In meetings, do not allow anyone to speak about a problem or potential solution without logging at least two hours of observation time on the shop floor on the specific problem.  This will drive a culture change immediately. I loved this one at my plant: Simple. Free. Impactful. Better Decisions.
• Third, tech has nuked face-to-face discussions, turning healthy conflict into Slack threads. Everyone's siloed behind screens, avoiding the debates that spark innovation. In my maintenance manager days, the best reliability improvements came from spirited discussions on the shop floor where mechanics, engineers, and supervisors challenged each other and added “go and see” to validate assumptions and opinions. Now? It's all emails, conference rooms, and dashboards, breeding misinformation, poor hypotheses, powerlessness, and indifference. Collaboration isn't optional; it must become a core competency.

Actions to begin on Monday:

• Reinstate the morning “yesterday, today, tomorrow” stand-up meetings on the floor: Virtual meetings are not a substitute. Discuss what fell short of the standard yesterday, what help does anyone need to meet the standard today, and what help do you anticipate to need tomorrow to meet the standard. Standards can be: OEE, Quality, Safety, Outage Duration, or whatever is critical to your business. Norm: open disagreement with observational and technical data is not just encouraged but expected. This meeting should lead to group visits to the problem area(s).

Fourth, poor performance is met with excuses instead of accountability. My son-in-law, a U.S. Marine, says, “Excuses don't win battles.” Blaming "unforeseen" breakdowns is unacceptable. People and technology must collaborate to audit and anticipate problems. You must know how equipment and processes can fail and get in front of it. A good excuse only details why you lost.  You still lost.

Actions to begin on Monday:

• Excuses must be challenged with questions like: a.) Were there any early warning signs?  b.) Does the PM eliminate this root cause? Why not? Have you observed the PM being executed? c.) When was the last time you observed the process that failed?  d.) What tech can we apply to prevent reoccurrence? e.) Is production operating the equipment correctly? How do you know? Every time I have implemented this culture, the excuses fade.
• Reward those individuals and teams that are proactive through collaborative foresight. These are the real heroes in a reliability culture.

Finally, procedural drift is the stealth assassin in plants. (Drift: the natural tendency for people to shortcut and deviate from a best practice over time. It is always present.) For example: for preventive maintenance, are you using the right grease, the exact amount, at the precise interval? Did all 22 steps get completed, or did the more difficult steps in the procedure get skipped for convenience or time pressure? I've audited hundreds of PMs where poor execution led to catastrophic failures. Fact: “drift” happens when audits lapse, and trust should erode without factory floor verification. Drift is not visible on a dashboard.

Actions to begin on Monday (and longer term):

• For overall drift, roll out "Process Management.”  This is a system where a process owner is accountable for results, anticipating problems, process procedures, corrective actions, and weekly floor audits to spot drift.
  • Begin with five pilot areas and five process managers to develop your overall system. A small plant may have 20-40 process managers after six months. Most would spend about two hours a week on this task.
  • These process managers have an overall Process Management Manager that coaches, guides and audits the plant-wide system. Examples of processes: lubrication, pump rebuilds, shaft alignment, bearing installation, crane PM compliance. 
• Leadership must conduct random PM audits weekly. Make it a system that is audited.  Verify every step with checklists.
• Error proof actions based on mistakes commonly observed. Example: For lubrication, implement color-coded grease guns to prevent mix-ups and automated dispensers for exact amounts.
• This isn’t theory—it’s battle-tested reality. Assess your plant for these symptoms with your leadership team today. Choose one action to start this week. Lead by example: get on the floor, mentor your team, and audit a PM personally. Ignore this, and your plant will keep hemorrhaging money and talent. Embrace it, and you’ll build a resilient, competitive operation that thrives in 2025 and beyond.