Written by: Chase Ryan
July 31, 2025
When I think about operational excellence, I think about the workforce on the shop floor grinding day in and day out to deliver the highest outcomes for their companies. Considering all that effort, I sometimes wonder – how or why do we call it “excellence”?
Perhaps it’s because so many elements are bundled together to define – safety, cost, schedule, and discipline. Excellence isn’t a single achievement; it’s the result of a well-orchestrated system.
In 2025, expectations for industrial maintenance teams are higher than ever. Whether in defense, aerospace, energy, or manufacturing, companies are asking:
How can we get more machine reliability, uptime, and performance—without inflating cost or complexity?
Common challenges that undermine machine reliability include:
- Skipped or inconsistent preventive maintenance
- Poor alignment between maintenance and production schedules
- Outdated or missing standard work practices
- Incomplete or underutilized data and predictive analytics
- Skills gaps and lack of ongoing training
- Ineffective communication across teams
The answer to these challenges isn’t found in heroic fixes or isolated wins. Instead, it lies in building smarter systems – integrating preventive maintenance with production planning, re-aligning company goals across departments, tightening communication, and making decisions based on data and standard work. This approach doesn’t just solve problems – it prevents them.
Over the past 18 months, GES partnered with operations across multiple production areas to support a phased maintenance initiative. By aligning maintenance with key operational windows, like material changeovers, our client recovered significant uptime without disrupting production.
Key outcomes included:
- Recovered 1,800 hours of production capacity
- Achieved $400K YOY reduction in maintenance labor costs
- Reached 100% PM compliance in under 2 months
- Implemented standard work practices
- Delivered frontline leadership training
- Embedded sustainable, data-driven results across teams
These results were the success of lean practices, thoughtful planning, and discipline.
Excellence isn’t a buzzword. It’s built through intentional processes and the people empowered to execute them.
At GES, we’re proud to support teams making that shift and ready to help others take the next step.
Let’s build processes that work – so your people can too.
