01 / MDG RELIABILITY MATURITY INDEX
An independent benchmark for maintenance and reliability programs — used across 600+ North American plants.
The MDG Reliability Maturity Index is a practitioner-built assessment that scores an industrial site's maintenance, reliability, and asset-care program against six measurable domains. It is not a software product, not an OEM diagnostic, and not a sales tool. It is a measurement instrument — the same one MDG senior principal engineers have used since 2014 to baseline programs for 47 Fortune 1000 manufacturers.
A benchmark engagement is delivered by a senior principal engineer in 6–8 weeks. No junior staff, no offshore analyst handoffs, no reseller markup.
02 / METHODOLOGY
Six measurable domains. One scored index.
Each domain is scored on a 1–5 maturity scale using observable evidence from the plant floor — work orders, PM compliance, failure logs, capital project records, and interviews with the maintenance and operations team. The six domains together produce a single Index score from 0 to 100.
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D1
Work Management & Planning
How work is identified, prioritized, planned, scheduled, and executed. The proportion of corrective work that goes through a planner, PM compliance rate, schedule attainment, and the ratio of planned to unplanned hours.
Weight 22% -
D2
Asset Reliability & Condition Monitoring
How the condition of critical assets is monitored and acted on. Vibration and oil-analysis program coverage, bad-actor lists, MTBF and MTTR tracking, and the discipline of root-cause analysis after major failures.
Weight 20% -
D3
Spare Parts & Materials Strategy
How inventory is set, stocked, and replenished. Critical spare coverage, min/max discipline, storeroom accuracy, vendor-managed agreements, and the cost of carrying stock against the cost of downtime from missing parts.
Weight 14% -
D4
Reliability Engineering & RCFA
Whether the site has a working root-cause failure analysis practice and acts on its findings. RCA volume per critical failure, corrective-action closure rate, and the integration of RCFA output into PM and capital plans.
Weight 16% -
D5
People, Competency & Leadership
The skills, certifications, and supervision of the maintenance craft and planning staff. CMRP/CRL coverage, training records, supervisor-to-craft ratios, and the cadence of maintenance–operations reviews at the leadership table.
Weight 14% -
D6
Maintainability & Capital Project Influence
How reliability and maintainability requirements are embedded into capital projects, equipment specifications, and contractor scope. Maintainability reviews at PID stage, RAM targets in purchase specs, and post-installation verification.
Weight 14%
03 / SCORING
How a site receives its score.
The Index is built to be auditable. Every score is supported by evidence collected on site during the assessment — work-order extracts, PM compliance reports, storeroom cycle counts, RCFA logs, capital project files, and structured interviews with the maintenance, operations, and reliability leads.
Each domain is weighted against its observed impact on OEE and unplanned downtime across the 600+ plants in our reference cohort. Weighting is reviewed annually against the latest cohort data; the 2026.01 revision places Work Management and Asset Reliability as the two heaviest domains at 42% combined.
An index score is the weighted average of the six domain scores, expressed on a 0–100 scale. It is reported alongside a five-band maturity level — Reactive, Emerging, Defined, Managed, or Optimized — so leadership can read the result against a peer cohort without doing their own statistical work.
Maturity levels
- 1ReactiveScore 0–25 · Firefighting dominates; little planning discipline; high unplanned downtime.
- 2EmergingScore 26–45 · Basic PM and storeroom present; planning inconsistent; reliability data not yet trusted.
- 3DefinedScore 46–65 · Documented program; planner in place; PM compliance auditable; RCFA started.
- 4ManagedScore 66–85 · Schedule attainment >80%; bad-actor discipline; KPIs drive monthly reviews.
- 5OptimizedScore 86–100 · Maintainability embedded in capital projects; sustained OEE lift; multi-year retention.
04 / FOOTPRINT
The benchmark is large because the cohort is large.
The Index's credibility rests on the reference set behind it. Every scorecard is anchored against a peer cohort of more than 600 industrial sites, audited annually.
Methodology ownerMDG Reliability Engineering Practice
Annual auditDNV · ISO 55000 alignment
Quality systemISO 9001:2015 since 2014
Practitioners75+ CMRP / CRL / CMSE on staff
05 / COMMISSIONING
From scoping call to scored report in four steps.
A benchmark is a bounded engagement. It does not require software installation, vendor resale, or multi-year commitment. The path below is the path we run for every site.
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05.01
Scoping call
A 30-minute Reliability Diagnostic call with a senior principal engineer. We confirm the site's profile, the asset scope, and the right comparator cohort from the Index reference set.
Day 0 -
05.02
Evidence package
The site provides an evidence package: work-order exports, PM compliance logs, failure records, storeroom data, RCFA files, capital project records, and a list of interviewees. NDA is signed first if required.
Week 1–2 -
05.03
On-site assessment
The senior principal engineer spends three to five days on site validating the evidence package, walking the floor, and conducting structured interviews with maintenance, operations, and reliability leads.
Week 3–5 -
05.04
Scored report & readout
A scored Index report is delivered with per-domain scores, peer-cohort benchmarks, a maturity level band, and a prioritized improvement roadmap. A 90-minute readout session is included for the leadership team.
Week 6–8
Engagements run on a fixed fee. Senior principal engineer on every site. No junior staff, no offshore analyst handoffs.
Book a Reliability Diagnostic
06 / BEFORE YOU COMMISSION
Questions a procurement or reliability team asks before commissioning a benchmark.
The questions below come up on almost every scoping call. If yours isn't here, ask it on the diagnostic call.
Email the engineering team-
Is the Index truly independent?
Yes. MDG does not resell software, OEM service contracts, or maintenance products. We do not earn referral fees from any vendor we recommend in a benchmark report. We have been an independent consulting firm since founding in 2007 and have never been acquired by a vendor or OEM.
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Who actually conducts the assessment?
A senior principal engineer with at least 15 years of plant-floor reliability experience. The same engineer who scopes the engagement delivers the on-site work, scores the report, and presents the readout. We do not hand work to junior analysts or offshore teams.
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How is our data handled?
The evidence package is exchanged under a mutual NDA executed before any data leaves your site. The Index report is delivered only to the named recipients on your side. MDG retains aggregate, anonymized scores for cohort benchmarking; no site-identifiable data is shared with third parties, including other MDG clients.
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What does the deliverable look like?
A scored Index report (PDF + workbook), per-domain scorecards against the peer cohort, a five-band maturity level, and a prioritized improvement roadmap with rough effort estimates. A 90-minute readout for your leadership team is included. We do not deliver raw data dumps in place of analysis.