Proper maintenance and scheduling, when done right, can greatly increase productivity. Below we discuss how to implement maintenance planning and scheduling and more. Show
Breaking Down Maintenance Planning and SchedulingThe 34th president of the United States and an American army general, Dwight D. Eisenhower is famous for making the paradoxical statement, "In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable." He essentially was saying that plans often don't work out the way you lay them out once an actual emergency arises; however, the planning process makes you thoroughly explore all possible options and possibilities. The knowledge you gain from planning is vital when it comes to choosing appropriate actions. In the modern world of manufacturing, higher productivity that produces quality products at the lowest cost possible is what companies strive for to stay ahead of the competition. Maintenance planning and scheduling are two different functions that, when used together, form a maintenance program. Maintenance planning can be defined as an end-to-end process that identifies and addresses any possible issues ahead of time. This involves identifying the parts and tools necessary for jobs and making sure they're available and laid out in the appropriate areas, having a planner write out instructions on how to complete a job, and even determining and gathering the necessary parts and/or tools before a job is assigned. Maintenance planning also includes tasks related to parts like:
Maintenance planning should define the "what," "why" and "how." This means specifying what work needs to be done with what materials, tools and equipment; why a particular action was chosen (why a valve is being replaced instead of a seat); and how the work should be completed. Maintenance scheduling refers to the timing of planned work, when the work should be done and who should perform it. It offers details of "when" and "who." Scheduling is meant to:
When implemented together, maintenance planning and scheduling should have a significant benefit in multiple areas of your organization. These can include:
Maintenance Planning and Scheduling PrinciplesAs discussed earlier, the purpose of maintenance planning is to determine the correct maintenance jobs and get them ready for scheduling. To do this, a designated planner develops a work plan (sometimes called a job plan) for each work request. These work plans detail everything a technician must do and use to accomplish the task. There are six maintenance planning principles to guide planning in the appropriate direction. Maintenance Planning Principles
Maintenance Scheduling PrinciplesYou can have a great planning department working hard to outline planning procedures and work plans, but that doesn't mean more work will get done. That's because planning makes it easier to complete individual jobs. If one job that previously took four hours to complete, now only takes two, you've still only completed one job. This is where scheduling comes in. Scheduling helps increase productivity based around six principles:
How to Implement Maintenance Planning and SchedulingNow that you understand the guiding principles of maintenance planning and scheduling, let's take a look at how to implement them. Start-to-finish implementation can be viewed in six phases:
Maintenance Planning and Scheduling ToolsMany people consider planning to be a maintenance tool. While not solving all maintenance issues by itself, planning integrates with other elements and helps synchronize all aspects of maintenance. Let's take a look at some other tools that work together with maintenance planning and scheduling.
Maintenance Planning and Scheduling TipsEffective maintenance planning and scheduling revolves around prioritizing and organizing tasks so they are completed as efficiently as possible. To do this, consider the following:
Q&A with Simmons Feed IngredientsTo get a look at how an organization implements maintenance planning and scheduling, we reached out to Tim Newman, maintenance manager at Simmons Feed Ingredients, for a short Q&A session. Can you provide a snapshot of Simmons' current maintenance planning and scheduling process from start to finish? "All work except breakdowns and filler work is planned out seven days in advance with engineering, the senior director of operations, maintenance, millwrights and electricians. We have a daily YTT (yesterday, today, tomorrow) meeting with the same group of people, except we add the shift production manager and the director. At the beginning of the week, we have meetings with operations to make sure our schedule is on point or if a production need has changed." How does your team handle work order backlog? "Most of our backlog is filler work. However, the team is not allowed to let work orders go more than four months." What is the best practice for developing your own maintenance planning schedule? "This highly depends on your CMMS system. For us, it is simple using the priority code generated by our CMMS. It tells us the assets at the most risk for failure, and we make those a priority. Then we take fill-in work from the backlog and fill in the other hours." For those looking to start maintenance planning and scheduling, what tips do you have? "Work with your production team. Get them highly involved in the process, because you cannot plan properly without their help. It takes a while to get written job plans for everything. Get your planner extra help until he has a good library of job plans." What noticeable benefits/improvements have you seen from implementing a maintenance planning and scheduling process? "We went from a six-month backlog of work to running out of jobs for the craftsmen to do, and from 10 percent planned work to 88 percent planned work. Additionally, the techs' morale has been higher, and they are striving to meet all the schedules. It helps for them to know what they are doing each day without any surprises." Which type of maintenance adds enhancements to an operational system?Adaptive maintenance adds enhancements to an operational system, so it will make easier to use the system.
What are the four major activities that occur within maintenance?2. Four major activities occur within maintenance: obtaining maintenance requests, transforming requests into changes, designing changes, and implementing changes.
Is a process that monitors current activity and performance levels anticipates future activity and forecasts the resources needed to provide desired levels of service?Reorganizing ANSWER: b RATIONALE: Capacity planning is a process that monitors current activity and performance levels, anticipates future activity, and forecasts the resources needed to provide desired levels of service.
Is the main line of defense between a local network or intranet and the Internet?A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. You can implement a firewall in either hardware or software form, or in a combination of both. Firewalls prevent unauthorized internet users from accessing private networks connected to the internet, especially intranets.
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