Guide to Maintenance Planning and Scheduling -- Tips, tricks and avoiding pitfalls

1. FACING REALITY

Even though Maintenance Planning and Scheduling has not been around that long, it does not take long to make mistakes, and without mistakes, one cannot learn from them. This section has gathered together a smattering of lessons learned, often the hard way, from practioners of the fine arts of Maintenance Planning and Scheduling. Although it is human nature to at least try to avoid making errors, especially in one's chosen vocation, they are bound to make their way into your operation, often at the most inopportune time possible. Do not be discouraged, rather look on it as a necessary part of attaining perfection and above all, learn from what doesn't work. Oh yes, and don't forget to learn from what does work as well, because this section also contains many tips and tricks of the trade garnered from, sometimes unexpected, successes.

2. GAINING TRUST

2.1 Maintenance Planner

For a variety of reasons, some of which will be discussed in the paragraphs that follow, maintenance trades tend to mistrust maintenance planners. Unless planners can overcome this and win the trust of the maintenance trades, theirs will be a long and arduous journey toward having their work plans carried out effectively. There are, in fact, some proven methods to overcome many of the inherent reasons for mistrust and the planner, who applies common sense towards understanding the human condition will be able to win the hearts and minds of most, if not all, of the maintenance trades with whom he or she is involved.

There is less sense of achievement when plans for carrying out day to-day work activities are prepared and assigned by others. When planning for others, it becomes most important to clarify objectives. Plans need to be designed which provide satisfactory signals when those objectives are being reached. A means for providing feedback of success or failure must be built into job plans prepared for others. Performance of individual members working as a group improves the most when they receive constructive information about their individual efforts as well as the group's success as a whole, particularly if the jobs and work are difficult and/or complex.

The job of maintenance planning, even more so than scheduling, must be approached as if its success depended on the success of those executing the plans because in fact it does. One method to build rapport with maintenance groups is for the planner to request, via the supervisor, assistance from one of the group to plan for a particularly broad-in-scope work order.

This may not always be possible due to the overall workload, but if and when the opportunity arises, take advantage of it. This kind of work sharing goes a long way towards recognition of the maintenance planner as part of the team.

Nearly everyone is convinced that their own methods, or plans, are better than someone else's methods and plans. This conviction is to some extent acted out; that is, greater effort is expended to ensure that one's own judgments are validated by the outcomes. It is as if people were saying, "I think this will happen, therefore, I will make it happen." The confidence of planners in the adequacy of their plans can be communicated, while any reservations on the part of the trades need to be brought into the open and discussed with the planners. If the doers believe that the plans are unrealistic, even if the plans are actually sound, the doers may behave in a way that confirms their own beliefs. Planners need to share with the doers the reasons for their optimistic expectations.

Persons not actually involved in the development of plans are less committed to making those plans work. One method for overcoming this is to consult with maintenance trades at various stages in the planning process.

Wherever possible and suitable, the ideas of the trades should be incorporated into the plans, conversely when such ideas are unusable, the reasons should be discussed with trades. Job plans may also allow for some discretion action on the part of the technician to modify noncritical elements of the plans, thus increasing the feeling that the maintenance trades have some control over the fate of the plans, and consequently, a level of responsibility for their successful execution. Provisions should be built into the planning process to obtain periodic feedback and planning evaluation from the trades.

Maintenance Groups report greater difficulty in understanding plans that others have assigned to them than they find with their own plans.

Understanding of the plan can be fostered by ensuring that the plan itself has been created in a way to minimize its ambiguities. Repeating instructions may increase reliability and understanding. Crosschecks and tests of the plan's clarity before it is presented to the maintenance crews may be helpful.

Additionally, the plan's instructions need to be simple enough to be understood by the least capable within the maintenance crew, who usually ends up reading and interpreting the plan's instructions for the others. If he can understand the stages of the plan, all of the others can also understand it.

2.2. Maintenance Scheduler

Due to the fact that schedulers spend more of their time coordinating equipment availability needs with operations and most of their direct contact with maintenance groups is via the group(s) supervisor, the trust factor does not impact the scheduler's job performance nearly as much as it does the planner's performance. However, there is some degree of mistrust for anyone outside of the group who is, in some form or fashion, providing direction of the group's activities.

Approaches similar to those recommended for the maintenance planner will quickly overcome doubts that the trades might have relative to the scheduler's knowledge and abilities. Frequent visits by the scheduler to work sites for validating job duration estimates and obtaining instantaneous feedback will help enormously. The scheduler's objective, just as the planner's, is to become looked at as an integral part of the team.

The inherent mistrust of the "outsider" no longer exists when the scheduler is recognized as a team member who is interested in helping maintenance workers perform more effectively. It is not likely that maintenance trades will volunteer information, unless they have a real "beef" with the scheduler, so the scheduler must actively draw out that information. Ask the maintenance trades about the sufficiency of the time allotted for scheduled work. Find out if operations has met their commitment to make the equipment available as scheduled. Were there any problems encountered moving from one job to the next scheduled job? When querying the maintenance staff, make reference to "we" in maintenance and "they" in operations-"did we have access to the equipment when they promised it?"-to reinforce the maintenance team member image; at the same time exercise moderation to avoid depicting operations as the enemy.

2.3. Attitudes, Practices and Methodologies for Success

2.3.1. Empowerment and Areas of Responsibility

Empowering maintenance groups does not mean that they are completely left to their own devices, free to pursue their own objectives; rather instead, empowerment means, "they are free to make decisions for those matters that are within their areas of responsibility." Mastery of the maintenance process requires a well-planned and coordinated team effort; therefore explicit job planning and work scheduling processes are necessary to improve trade productivity. Superior, effective maintenance requires maintenance trade empowerment and it requires maintenance planning and scheduling.

Lean Maintenance, or any Lean Operation, is about eliminating waste. It is about identifying and eliminating those activities that do not add value to a process. In manufacturing plants that do not utilize a maintenance planner/scheduler, the average tradesperson only spends about 3 hours, or less, working on equipment (wrench time) during an 8-hour shift. The other 5 hours, or more, are spent on activities such as obtaining parts, traveling around the plant site, receiving job instructions or even waiting to be assigned another job. In those environments, maintenance trades must accomplish these nonproductive activities in order to complete maintenance work even though they add no value to the maintenance process.

One part of the problem is that maintenance group supervisors have traditionally been granted a significant degree of freedom in selecting work activities and defining maintenance productivity. Additionally, while maintenance managers have been strongly supportive of the concept of empowerment, they have often allowed the term to define an extreme level of autonomy. As a result, when maintenance planning and scheduling is instituted, the maintenance supervisor clearly sees his autonomy, and authority, being substantially diminished. This attitude can create an insurmountable barrier to acceptance of the persona of the planning and scheduling functions by the maintenance trades. The solution can be recognized by returning to the definition of empowerment as "free to make decisions for those matters that are within their areas of responsibility." Obviously, the areas of responsibility need to be well defined, where previously, they were more than likely undefined.

It is necessary to begin by defining some of the necessary components of the maintenance process, which in turn will help define the proper area of responsibility of a maintenance group and supervisor and thus deal with the concern of empowerment. First, the maintenance process makes considerable use of the WO system. By pointing out that, in actuality, the work order is the vehicle by which requesters of work identify needs; maintenance planners predict parts, tools, skill levels and hours; and the maintenance group executes work. Clearly, the group supervisor does not "lose empowerment" by the work order being processed among various groups. It is the established priority and criticality system that communicates the importance of individual jobs. In fact, the system really drives, to a large degree, which jobs are next scheduled for the maintenance group. Again, it should be pointed out to the group supervisor that he or she should view this system as helping, not hindering, his or her job performance. The similarity that the group supervisor does not feel it necessary to have complete control over hiring, training, tools, spare parts and payroll can also be pointed out to help alleviate any feeling of diminished control.

In this situation, the fundamental dividing line that should be used to define areas of responsibility is time. The planning and scheduling group works in the future, while the maintenance group and the group supervisor work in the present. Planners develop job plans with cost and time estimates and they identify the parts, materials, tools and other requirements that will be needed when the work is performed. Schedulers develop the weekly schedule by looking at the entirety of available backlog and they use resource reports of labor availability without regard to individual names to determine how much work will be performed. The planning and scheduling group executes its portion of the maintenance process for the overall benefit of the maintenance team (the entire Maintenance Department) under the direction of the maintenance manager. This is the proper area of responsibility for the planners and schedulers.

The maintenance group trades execute assigned work, empowered to concentrate on today's work without regard to organizing details for future work. The group supervisor assigns and monitors today's work. The supervisor develops today's schedule using the weekly schedule and production windows of equipment availability while, at the same time, considering any emergent, high-priority work that cannot be put off to the future. The supervisor works with individual technicians. The trades and their supervisor execute their portion of the maintenance process for the overall benefit of the maintenance team (the entire Maintenance Department) under the direction of the maintenance manager. This is the proper area of responsibility for the technicians and their supervisor.

Theory suggests that the role of the technician in the planning process should be minimized. Reality, on the other hand, shows repeatedly that the maintenance technician will become involved and provides real benefit through his or her involvement with and knowledge of the planning process.

Some jobs, either by design or through default, are not covered by the planner. On these jobs, it is significantly preferable for the technician to perform the work following his or her own thought-out planning process.

Rather than charging into a job without benefit of any planning whatsoever, a knowledgeable technician will think through the entire job before he or she proceeds. This kind of forethought is particularly important on short duration and short lead-time jobs. Accordingly, it is extremely beneficial to train maintenance trades in planning basics. With the basics ingrained, even emergency work orders will gain some benefit of planning.

There are also those situations when the unavailable backlog--work still pending planning--becomes out of control. In such cases, the use of selected trades to aid in regaining control is highly recommended. It is certainly much better to use a small portion of the maintenance staff as temporary planners than it is to completely lose control of the backlog and force the entire maintenance workforce to work without benefit of prior planning, which can only lead to an ever-increasing spiral of uncontrolled backlog.

Lastly, there are situations where the knowledge of a given tradesperson simply exceeds that of either the planners or supervisors. It would indeed be foolish not to draw upon the best available knowledge when production downtime is the alternative.

Maintenance trades can be utilized as planning assistants on a temporary, rotating basis. This approach is particularly appropriate when planner support spans are excessive due to budgetary limitations. A number of organizations have used this approach with such outstanding results that they have made it a standard practice. A normal rotation period is from three to six months.

2.3.1 Skill Levels and Training

Although it is not unusual for maintenance personnel to have operating experience, it is not as common for operating personnel to have maintenance experience. Many maintenance technicians began their careers as production line operators and worked their way into the maintenance department.

On the other hand, few, if any, operating personnel began their careers in the maintenance department and worked their way into the operations department. This issue becomes important when scheduling maintenance tasks involving both operating and maintenance personnel.

When operating personnel assist in performing maintenance tasks, what duties are they assigned? Do they merely assist maintenance personnel or are they responsible for performing key elements of the task? Are they expected to use equipment with which they are unfamiliar? In the Lean Maintenance Environment, essential training in the performance of routine, minor maintenance work is provided for the autonomous operators.

Planners and Schedulers often mistakenly assume that since the person has many years of experience and has received maintenance training, he or she knows how to use the tools and equipment to perform the various maintenance tasks assigned to them. Is that assumption a safe one? Has an analysis of their experience and skill level for performing various levels of maintenance work been performed? Analyzing the experience and skill levels of those, both maintenance and operations staff, who will be performing the maintenance work, is a key step in the planning/scheduling process and a step that is often omitted. If three workers are required to perform a task, two may have performed it numerous times and require only a minimal review before starting. However, the third person may not have the same knowledge and skill level and could require extensive additional briefing/training before being assigned to the task. The skill category and level of every labor resource available, maintenance and operations, to the maintenance scheduler, as well as the maintenance group supervisor, must be known for maintenance planning and scheduling to be successful and efficient.

Reliability Engineering should perform a skills assessment of all maintenance trades as well as those operations operators who will be available assets for executing planned work packages. It is important that the reliability engineering staff work closely with planners and schedulers to define skill classification level and categories. The planner, when developing the work package should indicate both the category (mechanical, electrical, etc.) and skill level of labor resources required to execute the work package. The scheduler, when working with the maintenance group supervisor to assign specific resources, must identify recurring shortfalls as well as excesses by category and level, to maintenance engineering so that any additionally required training can be provided.

In today's rapidly expanding production technology, training for multi-skilled resources is almost a mandatory requirement. Multi-skilling is the process of training maintenance trades in specific skills that cross traditional trade lines. The advantage of multi-skilling is that particular jobs that have historically required more than one trade, but not necessarily more than one individual, can now be performed by just one person, and scheduling with multi-skilled resources provides a flexibility factor that can render the scheduler's job at least ten-fold less complex.

A typical example is the change out of a small motor. Traditionally, a change-out could require an electrician to disconnect the motor leads and a millwright or mechanic to disconnect the coupling, physically replace the motor and perform the alignment. The electrician would then return to the job, reconnect the motor leads, check and possibly change rotation. The mechanic or millwright would, at this point, be able to connect the coupling halves to complete the job.

In fact, no more than one individual should be required on this job at any time, but trade distinctions often require the close scheduling of multiple trades. If the loss of this motor created downtime, both individuals would remain at the job site, performing only their particular job functions as needed. In multi-skilling, individuals would receive additional training, beyond the normal skills required for their trade. The mechanic or millwright would be trained in the proper disconnecting and reconnecting of the motor leads, as well as how to change motor rotation. The electrician, in turn, would be trained in coupling disassembly and reassembly, as well as alignment methods. After this training, either individual would be qualified to perform the entire job alone. The advantage to the company in multi-skilling comes with the ease of scheduling work that, in the past, required two or more trades or skill distinctions. The advantage to the worker is usually an incremental increase in pay for the additional skills learned and used.

2.4. Tips and Tricks of Successful Planners and Schedulers

2.4.1. Maintenance Planner

Contained here are practices that can enhance the work planning function and additional general considerations to keep in mind when setting up your plant's planning function as well as when executing the planning function.

1. Develop a standard form/format to use for work instructions; it can also serve as a checklist to ensure applicable elements have all been considered.

2. Utilize a small digital camera on work site walk-through so that any important or unusual conditions can be documented and added to the work instruction.

3. When identifying skill levels required to perform the work, identify the lowest level capable. This requires a solid communications link with Maintenance Group Supervisors.

4. On jobs of more than two hours duration, break the work into sequential activities wherever possible, so that specific trade/skill level requirements can be designated by activity, thus freeing up a resource for other, near-by work when not required to be on the first job. Note that when P & S are performed by different people, a method of coding or highlighting the "activity only" requirement must be developed so that the scheduler can provide for "near-by work."

5. It is a common problem for planners to become bogged down in the details of job planning to the point that many of their responsibilities are neglected due to attempts at perfecting the work instruction. The maintenance planner should define some sort of schedule for allocating his time to all of the activities necessary to perform the job. The following is representative of how much time should be devoted to the various activities and is typical of a planner's daily schedule:

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Planner's Daily Activities Schedule

Planner Activity %of Day

1. Job Screening 5

2. Job Requirements 10

3. Job Research 5

4. Detailed Job Planning 20

5. Job Preparation 5

6. Procurement 20

7. Job Scheduling 15

8. Daily Schedule Adjustments 5

9. Job Close Out 5

10. Personal and Miscellaneous 10

Total 100

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Bear in mind that each and every day will not break down to these proportions, but over the course of each work week, the planner's actual daily time/activity numbers should be close to the schedule's time/activity values shown above. Analysis of imbalances could indicate a need for additional training, improved Planner Libraries, additional planners or expanded/improved use of computer databases.

6. In long established plants, be alert for possible "aging work force" problems. If system/equipment "experts" are nearing retirement, the planner must do everything possible to capture their knowledge. Well-seasoned maintenance veterans are intimate with their equipment and can quickly repair equipment to avoid downtime. Their knowledge includes key equipment condition indicators, inspection techniques and criteria and general know-how pertaining to the maintenance of the plant's production assets. This critical knowledge is often just stored in the employee's memory or sometimes written down in "quick reference" notebooks. The ideal repository to capture this knowledge are the CMMS/EAM databases and/or Reliability software, but the planner must actively pursue capturing this knowledge, perhaps even to the extent of convincing the Maintenance Manager to assign the "experts" to the planner for some period each week.

2.5. Maintenance Scheduler

Contained here are methods for performing scheduling and general considerations to keep in mind when setting up your scheduling function as well as when executing the scheduling function.

1. Invest in Project Management software. The cost of US$200 to US$500 will be returned in time-saved on the scheduling of just three or four complex jobs. It also provides a repository for skill profiles and similar resource data. Additionally, it will allow the Maintenance Administrative Clerk to perform some of the preliminary scheduling work.

2. Carefully select the most logical schedule week (e.g., Friday through Thursday).

3. Communicate, collaborate and coordinate with the customer. Relate the maintenance schedule to the operating schedule. They should be mutually linked and supportive.

4. Plan strategy on weekly basis; finalize tactics on daily basis.

a. Operations and maintenance to communicate priorities and changes in priorities constantly.

b. List jobs in descending order of importance until all available labor-hours are committed.

i. PMs listed first ii. Determine most logical time of day to schedule Planned Jobs, e.g., longer jobs scheduled early in the week and early in the day.

c. Keep majority of trades scheduled to important work that should be started and completed without interruption.

d. Assign jobs that can be interrupted, delayed, etc. to "a few good men" who are flexible. This means they can stop and resume jobs, be reinstructed and reassigned to "mini-emergencies" with minimal loss of efficiency and without morale drop.

5. Align personnel with jobs on the basis of knowledge and aptitude, while also considering individual training needs.

a. Experience shows who is skillful in certain job types and who needs more exposure to them.

b. Balance equipment specialization with broad facility knowledge.

c. Utilize individual skills to the greatest extent possible. Provide tradespersons with a challenging environment and the opportunity to grow.

6. Schedule what can be done, not necessarily what needs to be done.

7. Distinguish between duration and labor-hours. Indicate both to make the schedule perfectly clear. It can be extremely beneficial as well as a significant time saver to make use of a versatile project management software system. Software capable of generating both Gantt Charts

and CPM Diagrams can usually be obtained for US$1000 or less. The investment can pay for itself within the first few months of use.

8. Note on schedule when shutdowns and support functions are scheduled/required.

9. Schedule multi-person/multitrade jobs as the first job in the morning whenever possible. This assures everyone is available to start the job at the same time. When scheduling multi-person/multitrade jobs later in the day, consider their previous assignment.

10. Do not assign one tradesperson to a one-hour job and the helper to a two-hour job. No way will they both be available to start the two-person job concurrently.

11. Think about crew balancing delays and plant location on multi-person jobs. Often another small job in the same area can be worked concurrently by the same crew using multi-person balancing delays. Seldom are all three members of a crew required continuously throughout the job duration. (Refer to Tip No. 4 under Maintenance Planner.)

12. Avoid duplicate shutdowns by assembling all work requiring common equipment access.

13. Save minor indoor jobs for extreme temperatures and inclement weather.

14. Eliminate unnecessary trips by sequencing work by location.

15. Follow schedule progress and make adjustments as dictated by "real" operating needs and changing resource constraints. Valid considerations are:

a. Schedule adherence/protection is an effective use of overtime.

b. Give daily schedule priority to work orders scheduled for the previous day but not completed.

c. Sometimes the schedule should be sacrificed to take advantage of downtime windows of opportunity for higher priority work orders.

16. Always be sure the job site or machine is available to the scheduled crew by checking with operations just prior to scheduled availability.

Additionally, check with the scheduled crew to verify timely arrival at the work site.

17. Ensure that schedule is studied and approved by everyone concerned.

Approval means that a contract has been reached between operations and maintenance to comply with "their joint schedule" for the deployment of maintenance resources in support of operations plans. Point out any unusual requirements that might be overlooked--e.g., equipment requires shutdown one hour prior to work commencing for cool down.

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