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Effective Maintenance Planning and Scheduling will deliver a safer and more cost effective work
environment for asset-intensive businesses.
The benefits of having this function within an organisation can include:
Safer Workplace – Planned work is inherently safer to perform than unplanned tasks
Labour Productivity increases up to 60%
Ability to collect and analyse data for failure analysis/trending
Accurate Budget Forecasting
The ability to measure workload and compliance to process (KP
The Planning/Scheduling process can be visualised as illustrated below.
The prime objective of good maintenance planning and scheduling is to allow maintenance personnel
to prepare and perform the required task in a safe and cost effective manner without encountering
time wasting delays.
Here are five tips that can make you a more effective Planner/Scheduler.
2. Build a culture of
teamwork with your Supply Function
Parts and Materials are one of the most important aspects of successful planning and scheduling. It
is a “cardinal sin” for a planner to plan and schedule a task and either not order the required parts or
misread the expected delivery date. The end result is a task that cannot be performed and rework will
need to be performed.
Given the importance of this a lot of organisations are ensuring that their supply/warehouse
personnel attend the maintenance planning/scheduling meetings that occur each week. In some
cases a Materials Coordinator role has been established to ensure there is supply/warehouse buy-in at
these meetings and that missed items or delayed parts are identified prior to locking in a planned
maintenance schedule. This arrangement can be extremely useful and can complement continuous
improvement initiatives where a Root Cause Analysis investigation is performed whenever materials
issues have caused work to be deferred. Just like planners, these Materials Coordinators have KPI
measures that they will be measured against. For the business it is a win-win situation in reducing
delays and ensuring that work is performed safely.
If it is not already in place, we strongly recommend fostering a great working relationship between
Maintenance and Supply, as both departments will benefit from this, as will your organisation overall.
Conclusion
I hope that this article has given you some useful tips for better Maintenance Planning and
Scheduling. Implementing these can make your job as a planner more productive and satisfying, and
also help your organisation to reduce costs and be more effective. If we can help you be more
effective as a planner, contact us. Or you may want to consider attending our Maintenance Planning
and Scheduling Excellence training course where we give you even more practical tips on how to be a
more effective Maintenance Planner and Scheduler.
Jeff Stone
Consultant