Know the Score

A new year is a great time to measure the effectiveness of your maintenance department. One way is to do a maintenance planning and scheduling check-up. You can use a score sheet to set a baseline of where you are now and then use it as a tool to improve over the months ahead.

Keep in mind as you read this article that we know there is a lot more planning that needs to be done, weekly, monthly, shutdown, etc. However, at this point we’re just trying to develop the basic building blocks of good planning and scheduling.

Before we get started let’s do a quick review of what planning and scheduling involves. (To read more about planning and scheduling, see the CMMS Solutions column in the November 2006 issue of Machinery & Equipment MRO, or view it online at www.mromagazine.com.)

Planning is the art of what, when, where and how the work will get done: What needs to be done? Where will it be done? How will it be done? When must it be completed?

Scheduling is simply assigning the ‘who’. Who will do the work as well as check on work progress and quality of work. It also includes retrieving and checking the written comments on the completed work orders.

Getting back to the score sheet, it shows 10 key elements for both planning and scheduling.

The scoring is as follows: 0-3 = Not doing any or doing very few of the activities; 4-6 = Doing the activities but not every day; 7-9 = Doing the activities but still needs improvement and commitment to the process; 10 = Faithfully doing the activities every day.

Rate each activity out of 10 points. Remember, there needs to be clear evidence to support your score.

Before you get started, let’s look at the criteria for each key element. In the score sheet shown, we’ve provided the scores (out of 10) of an example company, and left a space for you to insert your own score.

Planning

1. Review work orders. New work orders and requests need to be reviewed at least once per day. Anything less and you will fall behind quickly. It may be necessary to contact the person who has requested the work to clarify their request.

2. Approve and enter basic work order information. The new work order needs to be approved. Depending on your CMMS, some basic work order information will need to be added to the program.

3. Visit the job site — physical constraints. Visit the job site to see the actual work area to determine if there are any physical constraints, such as room to work and delivery of materials.

4. Determine availability of materials, tools, equipment, permits and procedures. These five items are the key ingredients necessary to fully plan the work.

5. Stage work orders. Staging simply means taking the items in step 4 and preparing them for the job. A staging area organizes all the items into a work package ready to be scheduled.

6. Pre-work and pre-delivery. Once the work order has been staged and the date for the work is set, the planner ensures that any pre-work or pre-delivery of tools and materials takes place.

7. Generate PMs. All CMMS software can generate work orders from scheduled PMs. The planner should be doing this at least a week in advance. These work orders follow the same routine, as in steps 3-6.

8. Complete work plan with scheduler. When the planning is complete, the planner and scheduler need to meet to review the plan. Based on the equipment and craft hours available, dates can be set for the work.

9. Create the plan and schedule for communication. The plan needs to be published and posted. Production can see what will be worked on and craft people can prepare themselves for their assigned jobs.

10.Follow-up on the work orders and reschedule the backlog. There will be work orders that don’t get done on schedule and will end up on the backlog list. The planner must take these work orders and carry them forward to the next maintenance opportunity.

Scheduling

(Usually done by the supervisor.)

1. Schedule at least one day in advance for routine work. It’s important to have maintenance people assigned to work to make the most of your manpower availability.

2. Check with craftspeople each morning to clarify assignments. A quick daily meeting with maintenance personnel is an important part of clarifying what is being done today and to learn from the previous day’s jobs (also applies to step 3).

3. Review previous day’s jobs.

4. Create follow-up work orders. When the supervisor reviews the work orders, there will be some that need follow-up. The supervisor creates these work orders, which go to the planner.

5. Meet with the planner each morning to review the work orders. The planner and scheduler work very closely together and must meet every day to review new work orders and review their plan for the next day or next week.

6. Assign last-minute work orders. All maintenance departments experience daily unexpected work that needs to be done the same day. These work orders need to be quickly planned, scheduled and assigned.

7. Post next-day assignments. By at least 12 noon, the next day’s assigned work orders need to be in the craftsperson’s mail slot.

8. Post next-day schedule. This is simply a report from your CMMS that lists the next day’s schedule. It’s necessary to communicate this to maintenance and production.

9. Coach and check on maintenance personnel. The supervisor needs to be out on the floor assisting craftspeople (but not doing the work). He needs to be checking on the work progress and the quality of the work.

10. Retrieve work orders and return them to the planner. The supervisor needs to get the work orders back from craftspeople, review them and pass them on to the planner for closing.

As you can see by the example scores of 72 and 71, this company need some improvements. How did you score? Feel free to e-mail me your results. I may publish an average of them for you.

If you find that you need improvement, my advice is to select one or two activities that need to be improved and develop a two-week plan to increase your score. Measure your success again and then create a new improvement plan.

Continuous improvement is what you’re looking for. The key to success is doing the activities every day without fail. Get into a routine, follow it every day and watch how fast you will improve planning and scheduling.

Peter Phillips of Trailwalk Holdings, a CMMS consulting and training company based in Nova Scotia, can be reached at 902-798-3601 or peter@trailwalk.ca.

Check-Up Score Sheet

The numbers in brackets represent the scores of an example company for reference. Insert your own score (out of 10).

PLANNING

ACTIVITYSCORE

1. Review the work order/request(10) __/10

2. Approve and enter basic work order information(7) __/10

3. Visit the job site – view physical constraints(5) __/10

4. Determine availability of materials, tools &

equipment, permits & procedures(7) __/10

5. Stage work orders(10) __/10

6. Pre-work & pre-delivery(7) __/10

7. Generate PMs(9) __/10

8. Complete work plan with scheduler(5) __/10

9. Create plan and schedule for communication(5) __/10

10. Follow-up on the work orders; reschedule backlog(7) __/10

Total planning score:(Example: 72) Your score __/100

SCHEDULING

ACTIVITYSCORE

1. Schedule at least one day in advance (8) __/10

2. Check with craftspeople each morning to clarify assignments (5) __/10

3. Review previous day’s jobs(10) __/10

4. Create follow-up work orders(9) __/10

5. Meet with planner each morning to review work orders(7) __/10

6. Assign last minute work orders(6) __/10

7. Post next day’s assignments by 12 noon(6) __/10

8. Post next-day schedule (5) __/10

9. Coach and check on maintenance personnel(5)
__/10

10. Retrieve work orders & return to planner (10) __/10

Total scheduling score:(Example: 71) Your score __/100