Maintenance Planning & Scheduling Workshop

Sets the scene: where planning & scheduling fits in the Road to Reliability™ framework, and why it is the single biggest lever to break out of the reactive cycle.

• The ‘Best of the Best’ research and the Road to Reliability™ framework
• Why planning & scheduling is critical for reliability and cost performance
• The reactive maintenance trap and how organisations get stuck in it
• Wrench time: what it is, what good looks like, and how to measure it
• The eight common forms of waste during maintenance execution
• The business case for planning & scheduling: realistic productivity gains and cost impact

A clear, end-to-end view of the planning & scheduling process: what it is, what it is not, and why each step matters.

• The role of maintenance in modern operations
• What planning & scheduling is, and just as importantly, what it is not
• How waste occurs in maintenance and how planning & scheduling removes it
• The value of planning & scheduling: for the business, for supervisors, for technicians and for operations
• Planning & scheduling as a process: the end-to-end flow from work request to close out
• Key roles and responsibilities across the process

A good planning & scheduling process starts with good inputs: quality work requests, consistent prioritisation, and an effective daily screening and approval process.

• Creating quality work requests: what information is needed and why
• Prioritisation of work requests using a Corrective Maintenance Prioritisation Tool (CMPT) based on RIME / RAM methodology
• Daily screening and approval: who, when and how
• Common pitfalls in work identification and prioritisation
• Metrics for the identify & prioritise step

Planning is where most of the productivity gains are made, and where most organisations go wrong.

• What maintenance planning really is
• Principles of effective maintenance planning
• Planning a work order: step by step, including scope, BOMs, labour, tools, and job steps
• The role of the maintenance planner and a day in the life of a planner
• Common planning mistakes to avoid
• Maintenance planning metrics

How to structure, measure and manage backlog so it becomes a valuable management tool rather than a source of stress.

• The Ready-to-Execute concept and why it matters
• Structuring backlog: Plannable, Planned and Ready-for-Execution backlog
• Healthy backlog levels and what different backlog sizes tell you
• Backlog metrics and how to use them without creating watermelon KPIs

Scheduling is where planning turns into committed work. A good schedule aligns maintenance, operations and support functions around a shared plan for the week.

• Why bother with scheduling: the business case
• Scheduling principles
• Developing the Frozen Weekly Schedule
• Long-term scheduling and the integration with operations
• Scheduling as a continuous process: the weekly cycle
• Scheduling metrics including schedule compliance

Even the best plan and the best schedule are worthless if execution is not managed properly, including emergent work and genuine emergencies.

• Managing execution: the role of the supervisor
• Quality in maintenance: doing the job right the first time
• Emergent maintenance: what it is, what drives it, and how to manage it
• Managing genuine emergency maintenance without destroying the schedule
• Protecting the Frozen Weekly Schedule

Close out is the step most organisations do worst, yet it is the step that enables every kind of continuous improvement.

• The value of close out: why it matters far more than people think
• Capturing good job history: failure codes, as-found / as-left, and useful narrative
• Feedback to the planner: the critical loop that improves job plans over time
• Close out metrics

Planning & scheduling is not a one-off project. Sustaining and improving the process takes regular performance reviews, process audits, and leadership presence in the field.

• The continuous improvement mindset in planning & scheduling
• Reviewing process performance: weekly, monthly and quarterly reviews
• GEMBA walks: what they are, how to run them, and what to look for
• Process audits and how to run them without turning them into a witch hunt
• Reviewing productivity and wrench time over time
• Building a 12-month planning & scheduling improvement roadmap