Expert Q&A: Smart Strategies for Scaling Maintenance Operations

Creating a maintenance strategy and scaling operations is no easy feat, especially if you’re expected to do it quickly. That’s why Coast recently tapped the mind of Sanya Mathura, the founder and CEO of Strategic Reliability Solutions, which helps businesses optimize their asset reliability and maintenance practices. Mathura is also the first female in the world to achieve the International Council for Machinery Lubrication (ICML) Varnish badges (VIM & VPR) and again the first female globally to attain the Mobius Institute’s Field Lubrication Category I certification (as per their public records). 

Needless to say, her expertise in engineering and machine reliability made her an excellent choice to interview about smart scaling strategies, preventive and reactive maintenance approaches, mistakes to avoid and much more. Here’s what she had to say.

When to Scale Maintenance Operations

Coast: What are some key indicators that signal it’s time to scale maintenance operations?

Mathura: Some of the key indicators are increased breakdowns, high MTTR, low availability of equipment, and operators or technicians not having enough time to fix the breakdowns before another one appears. Usually, in these times, the team may be operating in firefighting mode or just trying to keep their head above water and keep the plant running. When our resources are stretched to the capacity and our technicians are in constant reactive mode, then we need to scale the maintenance operations to allow the plant to adequately perform to meet targets. 

Coast: How do you balance preventive maintenance with reactive maintenance as the operation grows?

Mathura: A fully reliable plant is a dream that everyone has! However, it is not often a reality for most people. By assigning reactive maintenance to those non-critical pieces of equipment, we can ensure that there is less firefighting or rather that the reactive maintenance is not as disruptive as it would be if it were being applied to a critical piece of equipment. This is similar to a risk-based maintenance approach. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) can work here as well where the focus is on optimal resource utilization without compromising system reliability. 

It requires the teams to determine which items should fall under critical versus non-critical as it pertains to the operation of the facility. By scheduling the preventive maintenance (PM) effectively on critical pieces of equipment, then the reactive maintenance task may not be as challenging to handle.  

Using Maintenance Software

Coast: What role does maintenance software play in scaling efficiently?

Mathura: Maintenance software (when used properly) can help the operators get a broader overview of all the tasks that are currently being executed and the resources associated with each of these tasks. This can help the team to determine where efforts need to be assigned and can also assist in effectively scheduling these tasks. This helps with strategic planning, allowing the teams to identify the failure modes or trends and allocate resources accordingly. As such, it can allow for an easier scaling of these tasks compared to not using any software. 

Coast: What key things should you look for when choosing a maintenance software in order to help a business scale?

Mathura: Before looking to maintenance software, we need to assess whether the customer actually has the need for that software and if there is data available to input into the software. Without either of these two things, then the new software has no value to the operations of the customer. The system must support asset hierarchy, criticality ranking, failure codes and integration with condition-monitoring tools. When trying to scale the business, one must be aware of what areas are being scaled and how it impacts the operations and maintenance processes of the business. It should have the key essentials of being able to manage work orders, handle larger amounts of data processing and deliver the reports needed for that operation.

Without clean data and operational alignment, scaling software yields limited value. 

Strategies for Success

Coast: What strategies have been most effective for optimizing maintenance budgets as operations scale?

Mathura: Understanding where the real ROI lies can definitely help in optimizing maintenance budgets. The teams can work toward achieving those smaller successes, which can pour into the larger ones to help management understand and recognize the value of their contributions. By aligning maintenance spend with asset risk and lifecycle cost, they can demonstrate ROI through reductions in downtime, failure frequency and parts usage. Small, measurable improvements — such as optimizing PM intervals or eliminating repeat failures — build the case for scaling investment responsibly.

With these results it makes it easier to scale the operations alongside the maintenance budgets, as management already knows that the teams will be performing and creating some positive ROI. Hence, it is easier to get management buy-in. 

Coast: What are the biggest financial risks when scaling maintenance operations?

Mathura: One of the biggest risks is scaling without a plan of how it will impact the rest of the operation. Scaling without linking activities to asset performance or business KPIs (like OEE or throughput) leads to misallocated resources. Will it affect production or profit levels? We can’t have this scale on operations outweigh the actual profit of the company; then it would not make sense. Hence, evaluating the ROI for these maintenance tasks before scaling operations can help. 

Coast: How do you measure and improve efficiency as maintenance demands increase?

Mathura: By analyzing the current tasks and the resources required, one can establish whether more or less resources are required for the same task. Over time, these tasks may get easier or less resource intensive; hence, a review of the tasks annually would be worthwhile especially when maintenance demands increase. Track reliability KPIs — MTBF, MTTR and PM compliance—to assess efficiency. Conduct RCM or FMEA reviews periodically to adjust strategies. As demand increases, there would be a higher focus on additional areas that require more resources. Hence, when scaling, it is important to always review the tasks to ensure that these are being optimized as much as possible. 

Coast: What common mistakes should organizations avoid when scaling?

Mathura: Scaling without a plan for additional resources should always be avoided; avoid scaling without a structured reliability strategy. If an organization is scaling, one should understand that the resources required will also be increased; these do not occur in silos. Failing to assess asset criticality, over-relying on reactive maintenance or not standardizing failure reporting will limit scalability. However, they should also keep a close eye on what costs to scale as it relates to the profitability of the company.