The Ideal Scheduling Solution

If Asked, Most Leadership Teams Want a Product They Can Grow Into

Some organizations request a requirements analysis before they purchase any software. Having led this type of analysis I can say that most leadership teams are disheartened to discover that no single vendor today provides a comprehensive scheduling solution. But if you only desire to perform a drag-drop process to create 5 daily plans, then yes, this is the only product you will ever need. But is that really likely?

A Single, All Encompassing Design, Would Provide Greater Flexibility

Most organizations require weekly maintenance schedules, daily plans and outage/shutdown scheduling. These outputs can be created with the use of work breakdown structures (WBS), maintenance work orders (CMMS), and activity schedules. The WBS defines the project scope and creates a clear definition of deliverables. The WBS also contains the budget which can be stored at the lowest level – called cost account (CA).

The CMMS provides a link from the work order to the WBS-CA. The CMMS issues chunks of work and captures committed plus actual costs. The committed costs may apply when materials/services have been received but not yet invoiced. Lastly, the schedule activities provide the necessary details for progress tracking. Summary activities in the schedule can then be rolled up to the WBS-CA. It is this WBS which enables project cost reporting using rolled up values providing essential management oversight.

Different Types of Schedules

When leadership discusses scheduling there are many possible scenarios to address the life of an asset. Major projects involve engineering, procurement and construction. And once the plant/facility is operational, there can still be modifications as well as scheduled shutdowns. The major challenge for an operational plant however is weekly maintenance scheduling.

Why Can’t Schedule Generation be inside the CMMS?

All of the data is there – or at least it should be. Craft availability and work order estimates are the two primary inputs. The only other requirement is a program (i.e. automation script) to perform deductions. When craft availability reaches zero, then the program stops scheduling any work for that craft. If this technology existed, then every size organization could benefit. Imagine the impact to industries around the world.

Maybe there are other reasons why a comprehensive solution has never been created. One limitation is that there are so few asset management professionals that also have this background. Another is the data may not be good enough for automation of any type. So, the question becomes, “How can we improve the data?”

The WBS [blue] is recommended for large projects [grey] and is linked to the CMMS work order [green] where committed and actual costs are captured. Multiple work orders can be linked to this WBS-CA.

The CMMS [green] can be configured to have an automated solution for generating a resource-leveled, weekly schedule. By injecting this functionality into the base product, it is also upgradable and requires no licensing. The main purpose of this program is to generate a “set of work” for the week, per the Doc Palmer definition.

Major Projects Require Serious Progress Collection

Large projects should also have formal scheduling software enabling a critical path management [black background]. The grey rectangle shows example projects which benefit from detailed scheduling. And, in order to see activity logic, you would need a graphical output either as Gantt or Network Diagram. A formal scheduling tool also permits precise activity progressing as compared against a data date.

Again, the formal scheduling tool provides another level of detail. Additional schedule features include task/activity durations, activity calendars, constraints, logic ties (with lags), and the ability to capture progress (actual starts, projected starts or finishes, ETC, restart, and percent complete). A summary percent complete multiplied the WBS-CA budget generates an earned value measurement.

CMMS Drag-Drop Tool

The CMMS drag-drop add-on is useful for manually leveling resources, as done for the daily plan creation. The maintenance supervisor would use the set of work created by the resource-leveled weekly schedule. Since the daily plan includes emergent work this would incorporate changes from the last 24 hours. This is not full-service scheduling tool. The primary purpose is to select-place-assign work to the day of the week. The scheduler is required to sit with a maintenance supervisor to identify the work, the worker, and the day of the week. Although there is a graphical user interface, only the scheduler is skilled to perform this time-consuming process.

Other Specialty Tools Which Add Value

1. Critical Path Walker -- a valuable tool for the Outage Manager
2. Planner Diagram Sequencing -- a tool to empower the planner
3. Calendar Style Schedule Format -- a frequently requested schedule format

Here's a Novel Idea: Leveling Precedes Planning

By performing the automatic leveling first, we can narrow the pool of work for formal planning, and therein make the planners more productive.

A comprehensive scheduling product will allow for creation of a WBS, drag-drop tool, a formal scheduling package for major projects, and an automated weekly schedule -- generated from within the CMMS. Automation adds efficiency and creates opportunity.

Are we afraid of automation?