Maintenance work lives at the crossroads of productivity and risk. From servicing energized equipment to troubleshooting breakdowns under pressure, maintenance teams routinely face hazards that production teams may never encounter. That reality was at the heart of a recent IMEC webinar I hosted, Safety in Maintenance: Protecting Workers and Ensuring Reliability, where we explored why maintenance activities remain some of the most dangerous in manufacturing, and what organizations can do to reduce risk while improving operational performance.
Why Maintenance Work Carries Higher Risk
Unlike routine production tasks, maintenance work is rarely predictable. It often involves non-routine jobs, abnormal equipment conditions, and time pressure to restore operations quickly. Add in incomplete procedures or legacy equipment that was never designed with safe maintenance in mind, and the risk escalates fast.
It is no coincidence that many serious injuries and fatalities occur during maintenance, troubleshooting, or startup after repair, not during normal production. One of the key takeaways from the webinar was clear: safety in maintenance cannot rely on general safety rules alone. It requires systems, planning, and training designed specifically for how maintenance work actually happens.
The Connection Between Safety and Reliability
Maintenance safety and equipment reliability are tightly linked. When maintenance becomes reactive: rushed, understaffed, or poorly planned, both people and equipment pay the price. On the other hand, organizations that prioritize safe maintenance practices often experience fewer unplanned outages, higher equipment availability, better repair quality, and stronger trust between maintenance and operations.
Safe work supports reliable equipment. Reliable systems, in turn, make safe work possible.
Plan the Work Before Doing the Work
One of the most impactful strategies we discussed was maintenance job planning. Effective planning allows teams to identify hazards before work begins and ensure the right controls are in place.
Strong maintenance planning includes clearly defining the scope of work, identifying energy sources and isolation requirements, verifying lockout/tagout steps, confirming that the right tools, parts, and PPE are available, and assigning clear roles and responsibilities. When work is planned instead of improvised, teams are far less likely to take shortcuts that put them at risk.
Lockout/Tagout Is a System, Not a Checkbox
Lockout/tagout (LOTO) came up repeatedly during the webinar, not as a compliance exercise, but as a critical life-saving system. Many LOTO failures stem from inconsistent application across shifts, equipment that lacks clear isolation points, or over-reliance on individual knowledge rather than standardized processes.
Organizations see better results when they treat LOTO as a design and training challenge. Clear energy control procedures, visual aids, and hands-on practice help ensure maintenance workers can safely control hazardous energy every time.
Train for the Work That Actually Happens
Maintenance safety training is most effective when it reflects real conditions on the shop floor. That means training tied to actual equipment, standardized methods for teaching maintenance tasks, and reinforcement through coaching and supervision.
Rather than assuming experienced technicians already know the safest way to do the job, leading manufacturers create consistent training approaches that support both new and seasoned workers while reducing variation in how work gets done.
Culture Makes the Difference
At the end of the day, maintenance safety is shaped by culture. When production pressure overrides safety expectations, risk increases. When maintenance teams are empowered to stop work, ask questions, and follow procedures, both safety and performance improve.
Leaders set the tone by making safety a clear priority, supporting planned maintenance over reactive firefighting, and investing in systems that make the safe way the easy way.
Moving Forward
Protecting maintenance workers is more than a moral responsibility, it is a business imperative. By improving planning, strengthening training, and aligning safety efforts with reliability goals, manufacturers can reduce risk while building more resilient operations.
IMEC works alongside Illinois manufacturers to assess maintenance systems, strengthen safety practices, and improve reliability using proven continuous improvement approaches.
Ready to take the next step? Connect with IMEC to explore how focused improvements in maintenance safety can help protect people, reduce downtime, and strengthen long-term operational performance.
