Business Basics for Maintenance and Operations

This course empowers maintenance and operations professionals to think and act like business leaders. Participants will learn how to build ROI-driven business cases, understand key financial metrics, and align maintenance strategies with organizational goals. Through real-world examples and practical tools, attendees will be equipped to lead cultural change, justify investments, and drive measurable value across their organizations.

• Maintenance and asset managers seeking to elevate their strategic and financial influence.
• Operations and reliability leaders aiming to align technical functions with business outcomes.
• Executives and engineers responsible for budgeting, planning, and driving performance across maintenance and operations.

This course is part of the Maintenance and Reliability Management Certificate. Enhance your maintenance skills while earning a recognized credential.

Understanding the Big Picture of the Business

• Why are you in business?
• Who normally gets the blame?
• Understanding Financial Metrics

What is Return on Assets and why is it important?

• What is Return on Equity?
• What is Return on Net Assets?
• What is Return on Investment Capital?
• What is EBIT(DA)?
• What is Replacement Asset Value?

Understanding Costs Associated with the Business

• What is Direct Labor?
• What is Indirect Labor?
• What Are Fixed Costs?
• What are Variable Costs?
• What are Overhead Costs?
• What is Depreciation?

Understanding Plant Losses

What are the 30 Major Losses in Manufacturing?

• Equipment Related Losses Overview
  • Scheduled Downtime Losses
  • Availability Losses
  • Performance Losses
  • Quality Losses
• Human Efficiency Related Losses Overview
  • Worker Loading Hours
  • Worker Utilization Hours
  • Worker Effective Hours
  • Worker Value Hours
• Production Resource Losses Overview

Understand Capacity Analysis & Utilization

• Overall Equipment Effectiveness
• Total Effective Equipment Performance
• Understanding Production Capacity
• Understanding Capacity Utilization

Understand Demand Fulfillment vs Demand Creation

• What is Demand Fulfillment?
• Holistic Reliability Model
• How Does it tie into Maintenance, Reliability and Operations?
• What is Demand Creation?
• Realizing True Value of Initiatives
• What is a Return on Investment
• What is cost savings?
• What is cost avoidance?
• What is an opportunity cost?
• How to calculate savings
• How to get Buy-in
• Sharing Your Successes
• Operations Areas of Opportunity- Solving Common Problems
• Maintenance Areas of opportunity to capture savings

Business Plan Development & Execution

• Why a Plan?
• Understanding Organizational Objectives
• 4 Strategies/Plans to Familiarize with and Develop
• Understanding the Overall Business Strategy
• Organizational Alignment
• Plant Plan Development
• Developing a Plant Strategy
• Developing an Operations Plan
• Developing a Maintenance Plan
• Maintenance Budgeting

Nurturing a Cultural Evolution

• ABC’s of Culture
• Understand the Maintenance System
• Understand how to error proof your processes.

Joe Anderson

Joe Anderson is the COO for ReliabilityX. He began his maintenance career, while in high school, working for Tyson (formally IBP). He possesses over 20 years of leadership experience improving maintenance departments processes for Fortune 500 companies in the food and beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. Joe is the author of a column in Plant Services magazine and is a recognized leader in reliability. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business from Strayer University. He is a CMRP, CRL, CARO, MLT2, MLA1, LSSGB, IAM-55k, CRL Black Belt and was recognized as one of the top 50 leaders in the country by the United States Congress, being awarded the National Leadership Award.