Creating an industrial maintenance schedule can be a challenging task for many professionals. That’s because there are numerous processes involved, and they may be different in nature based on the industry.
That said, most work execution processes are essential for any industry. These can include:
- Predictive and preventive programs,
- Maintenance planning and scheduling,
- Planning coordination,
- Production, and
- Storeroom partnerships.
If these foundations are poorly dealt with, they can cause several issues. For instance, advanced processes may give sub-standard outputs. In a nutshell, the lack of an industrial maintenance schedule is a cheap ticket to frustration and chaos.
To develop an industrial maintenance schedule, you must focus on several factors. Let’s find out a way to address these challenges.
6 Steps to Develop an Industrial Maintenance Schedule
You must follow six basic steps for planning and scheduling to create an industrial maintenance schedule.
Here, have a look:
- Estimate the Maintenance Backlog
A backlog list determines the number of maintenance jobs yet to be done. These include:
- Corrective actions
- Overdue Preventive Maintenance (PM) tasks,
- Safety items, etc.
Backlogs containing overdue PM tasks highlight various work process issues. You can use it to find out if the work is done or still in process.
So, if the frequencies and tasks are valid yet incomplete, you must brace yourself for failures. Not only that, but you can also encounter an equipment availability reactive state.
Moreover, if a task is on your list all year, it may not be as significant as others. It must be removed from the list. Similarly, you need to remove unnecessary work processes from the backlog.
To clear the backlog, you need to note down the work labor estimates. It’ll help you find out the hours to be spent on clearing the backlogs. This way, you can easily determine the number of crew weeks.
Now, place labor estimates on the work in the backlog. You need these hours to determine how many crew weeks of backlog exist. Additionally, you must trend the backlog metrics once a month on an hourly basis instead of work order quantity.
- Check Your Ability to Finish Maintenance Work
Your main goal at work should be to schedule as many tasks as you can. But you need to know the exact crew size per week.
For this purpose, ask advice from your planning and scheduling expert to devise an effective plan that prioritizes the most important tasks first. Such experts hold practical knowledge and experience with plant maintenance. They can assess your situation and follow the numbers to lead your maintenance work.
Get the estimated available hours at least two weeks in advance. Why do you need an estimate so early? That’s because multiple things happen while scheduling.
- Someone might take a vacation
- Someone might fall sick
- Someone may not be available because of family issues
To avoid the shortage of labor due to these issues, you need to take action and start working on the schedule. And if you don’t do it ahead of time, you may end up under-utilizing the labor, hence delays in jobs.
One of the best ways to prevent it is by working with 60% resources only, and progressing as you go.
- Search Windows for Maintenance Work
The maintenance consultant must have all information about the maintenance backlog. People in this position must search for and negotiate work windows for maintenance.
You may need to coordinate planning, operations, or production. You can also take assistance from a production gatekeeper who ensures that things progress smoothly.
Go through the planner scheduler and figure out work windows that are being overlooked.
- Create a Draft for the Maintenance Schedule
So far, we have established an understanding of the following:
- PMs can trigger each week around two weeks out
- You have done some maintenance planning for future work
- You have quantified the maintenance backlog
- You know the available work hours
- You’ve identified work windows
So, what’s next? It’s time to draft your next week’s schedule.
Let’s assume you need to develop a schedule from Sunday to Saturday. Your schedule must be ready by Tuesday, a week prior.
Although you may want to plan around two weeks ahead, you’re good to go if you’ve started building your schedule. After all, you’re making steady progress.
After finding out the available windows for equipment, place your work on those windows or days. Once your schedule is ready, you should email your draft to all stakeholders, including supervisors and production managers.
In addition, you must ask people to share their opinions and suggest changes before the meeting for weekly schedules. This way, you’ll have sufficient time to integrate suggested changes.
- Nail Your Presentation
The weekly maintenance meeting should be scheduled for late Thursday or Friday, perhaps. That’s because the scheduled period is close to the meeting time. This will result in fewer changes to your schedule.
Remember that it’s a scheduling meeting, not a meeting for planning maintenance. So, the aim should be to confirm the following week’s work and determine any specific requirements for coordination.
The planning part should be completed before the meetings to ensure you have enough time for planning. In this meeting, you must focus on two goals:
- Scheduling for the following week
- Reviewing the metrics of the past week
A fraction of the metrics review should also include the breaks that created hindrances to accomplishing your goals.
- Make a Progressive Plan
Discussing the previous week’s metrics can be a long discussion. However, you should use measures for continuous improvement and draft a progressive plan.
Tips for Building an Industrial Maintenance Schedule
Follow these tips to create a schedule for industrial maintenance:
- Have a Dedicated Person for the Job
For an efficient schedule, you must have a separate person handling maintenance management and planning and scheduling. He should be accountable for all the progress and stay focused on improvement.
That’s because assigning the job to the delivery or fleet manager will do nothing but overburden them. This is the reason why you may not get the results as per your expectations.
While you can use a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) to track maintenance and keep you updated, the software alone won’t be enough. To get the desired results, you need a dedicated consultant and a system that is highly specific to your industry type.
- Estimate Time Using Previous Data
You can track your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and maintenance metrics to estimate the time needed for maintenance effectively. It’s very useful for backlog management, especially when you want to complete the job on time.
Final Thoughts
Building a schedule for maintenance on equipment can be very daunting. But once you know the basics, you can finish the job easily.
Estimate your backlogs and find out ways to minimize them. Optimize your workflow and work on productivity. You should also try to stay ahead of time and plan at least two weeks before.
Lastly, to develop an effective industrial maintenance schedule, hold several meetings and stay open to suggestions.