What’s in it for me

Introduction

Hi there, and welcome to lesson five. In this lesson, we’ll explore some of the non-financial, less tangible benefits of planning and scheduling.

There’s really only one key point that I want you to take away from this lesson. And that is, effective planning and scheduling does not only drive efficiency, it also results in a number of significant non-monetary benefits to the frontline maintenance staff.

Planning & Scheduling = Efficiency

Now, as we saw in the previous lesson, planning and scheduling enables us to reduce waste in our work processes and become more efficient. That means we get more work done with the same resources. And that efficiency gain can be directly translated into monetary gains for your organisation.

What’s in it for me?

But as a frontline technician, you’re probably thinking: “What’s in it for me?” You’re probably less interested in the monetary benefits of planning and scheduling to your organisation. Instead, you’re likely more interested in how Planning & Scheduling directly impacts you and your work. And that’s what we’ll focus on in this lesson.

See, Planning and Scheduling brings other benefits to those that implement it well, especially to the frontline. Let’s have a look at some of these benefits in a bit more detail.

Benefit #1: Quality of Work

First, the improvement in the quality of your work. Now, this is the result of having the time to plan the work properly ahead of having to do the job. That means you can make sure you have the right tools, the right spares, the right access, and the right people with the right skills to do the job. And with an effective planning and scheduling process, you’ll also make sure that you have the right amount of time to do the job.

And even if you exceed that time, with planning and scheduling, you will have a structure in place for dealing with those issues in an orderly manner. And so, you end up doing your maintenance right the first time, which means you’ll have less rework and less failures. And less rework and less failures means less frustration.

Benefit #2: Plant Uptime

The second benefit is plant uptime. Once we have planning and scheduling in place, you will see that your maintenance gets done on time. Your PM plan will no longer suffer. And you will be driving improvements in uptime. And that translates to a more stable working environment with less firefighting, less failures, less time chasing emergencies, and less stress overall.

Benefit #3: Equipment Integrity

The third benefit is better integrity of critical equipment. When we are working in a plant with good equipment integrity, we know that our critical equipment is functional, and it will keep us safe when we need it. It means that our firefighting and emergency systems will work when we need them to work. And if some of the equipment is not fully functional, we’ll know about it because we’ll have a high priority, outstanding corrective maintenance job in the system. And so in that respect, having good planning and scheduling in place means that we will be improving the process safety of our plants and our assets too. You will be working in a safer environment.

Benefit #4: Personal Safety

Planning and scheduling doesn’t just improve process safety — it directly impacts your personal safety too. A planner has time to assess job-specific hazards and identify necessary precautions. Now, don’t get this wrong: Safety remains everyone’s responsibility, especially for the maintenance crew and their supervisor. But good planning ensures hazards are considered in advance, precautions are documented, and execution teams can manage risks effectively.

Benefit #5: Job Satisfaction, Ownership, and Pride

And ultimately, probably the best answer to the question, “What’s in it for me?” is this benefit: Job satisfaction, ownership, and pride. Effective planning and scheduling really does lead to more job satisfaction and greater sense of ownership and pride amongst your teams. People can focus on their job, what they’re good at, and what they have been hired for. No more chasing other people’s emergencies. There is less stress. All in all, your organisation becomes a better place to work at.

Summary

Now, that brings me to the end of this lesson. This was a relatively short, simple one. But understanding these non-monetary benefits that planning and scheduling brings to your organisation is really important, which is the key point of this entire lesson.