Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Best Practices
Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT, CRL
![Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT, CRL]()
Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT, CRL
VP World Class Maintenance Maintenance and Reliability Advisor/ Educator, Book Author
The Role of a Maintenance Planner
Maintenance Planners are one of the most misused resources in the maintenance organization. We must always remember that the Maintenance planner represents that single resource in the organization who is strictly dedicated on preparing for the future. Without this focus, we fall victim to the typical maintenance wastes associated with a reactive organization and wrench-time will be at unacceptable levels.
"Wrench-Time" is a measure of crafts personnel at work, using tools, in front of jobs. Wrench time does not include obtaining parts, tools or instructions, or the travel associated with those tasks. It does not include traveling to or from jobs. It does not include time spent obtaining work assignments.
Typical Wrench-Time is 8-15%, World Class Wrench-Time is 55-65%.
Sources of Maintenance Wastes
Rules to Follow
>Planners Remain Focused on FUTURE WORK
>Planners Do Not Chase Parts for Jobs in Progress
>Supervisors and Crew Leads Handle the Current Day’s Work Problems
>Maintenance Supervisor must handle Today’s Problems, not the planner
>Several Jobs Can Be Planned and Scheduled more effectively
Planners Must Add Value
>Maintenance Planners must be formally trained in Maintenance Planning and Scheduling
>Maintenance Planners require a fully functional CMMS in to achieve optimal wrench-time
>Roles and Responsibilities should be clearly defined for Maintenance Planning and Scheduling to enhance optimal performance and results.
If you want to learn more about Planning and Scheduling these are my recommendations depending on the level of maturity.
Level 1 (Crawl) - No Planning and Scheduling or it is not effective
(Crawl): Awareness you have a problem
1. Purchase "Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Made Simple" on Amazon (awareness) - Click on icon below or search on Amazon
2. Use ideas and simple concepts from this book to take first step toward success.
3. You may want to use one chapter per week to educate your maintenance team so they buy into this concept making their life easier as you move forward to increase wrench-time resulting in less equipment problems.
4. I have seen organizations purchase a number of these books use them to educate technicians by putting a couple of the maintenance shop, one on the production manager's desk, etc. - Just my thoughts
Level 2 (Walk) - Time to Walk the Walk
Time to begin this step in this process (walk), action is required from crawling to walking, seeing small successes.
1. If you do not have a Maintenance Planner then identify your best Maintenance Tech who has good computer skills and write a work order assigning them as a temporary planner.
2. If you have a planner or temporary one send this person to a formal Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Training with the Maintenance Manager (yes, both, understand "if a step in a process is skipped or performed at a substandard level it creates defects known as failures"
>Define Maintenance Planning and Maintenance Scheduling Processes
>Create a Play Book with process maps and definitions.
>Measure what you manage
- % of Planned Work (use SMRP's Definition)
- % of Work Orders with step by step instructions
>The Maintenance Planner and Maintenance Manager attends a formal training class (not seminar) in Maintenance Planning and Scheduling.
>After the second day of class take the instructor to dinner and create a simple "first step" action plan"
Purchase the book shown below. You can click on the icon which will take you to Amazon. I would purchase one for the Maintenance Planner and one for the Maintenance Manager.
Level 3 - Run Phase (Sustainment and Continuous Improvement)
Organizational Effectiveness Resource & Certified RCFA Principal Investigator - Retired yet seeking opportunities to teach & mentor investigators
5 年Could you clarify why the work delays are tagged to scheduling when most of the gaps are relevant to planning not scheduling? 1) parts 2) drawings 3) instructions 4) support crews Are all part of the plan. The fact they didn’t occur can be scheduling or execution. We included a work gap card with each work order to document the issues. We found eight dominant issues. 1) equipment not prepared for work 2) energy isolation not complete 3) permits not signed 4) wrong parts / missing parts 5) support crews not available 6) conflicting work 7) scope change 8) other (must be specific)
Senior Berater
5 年Ich halte es für sehr wichtig, sich damit konkret und situationsbezogen zu befassen. Leider wird der Instandhalter mit anderen Themen überflutet, die in der Regel als allein entscheidend für die Qualit?t der? Instandhaltung dargestellt werden. Die Instandhaltung wird immer noch vom Instandhalter gemacht und dessen Arbeit muss effektiv organisiert werden!
Looking forward to serving our customers needs.
5 年Excellent work
Making Outbound Fun | Sales Leader at Skydio | BDR Operations & Coaching
5 年Great article, Ricky! 100% agree that maintenance planners should be future focused ONLY to maximize their value. The crawl-walk-run approach is critical for change management.
Asset Management Expert at SERCO - Abu Dhabi (ISO55001 Lead Implementer)
5 年Ricky Smith CMRP, CMRT, CRL Great Article! Planner is one of the misunderstood job roles in the maintenance process, usually mistaken to be merely a clerk! Important point is that the planner focus is future work, for that he should take executed work FEEDBACK to enhance job plans; For example if the planned work faced some difficulties, it could be taken in consideration in future work by documenting lessons learnt and updating job plans and time and labor estimates. this type of feedback makes the engineer - or his colleagues- ready for future similar jobs, and the organisation have more Wrench Time executing real work.