Chapter Aims and Outcomes

To explain the principles of operation of a short-term work planning, scheduling and work control system.

On completion of this chapter you should be able to:

• appreciate the differences between the short-term planning procedure used for first and second-line maintenance work and the turnaround planning procedure used for major overhauls (third-line work);

• understand the work planning function and objectives;

• draw a schematic work planning model based around the operation of a maintenance resource structure;

• understand the principles of work planning and work control;

• appreciate the linkage between work planning and the safety of plant and personnel.

Chapter Route Map

Key Words

• Work planning

• Work scheduling

• Work control

• Work planning systems

• Work order

• Work request

• Job priority

• Job method

• Job list

5.1 Introduction

Perhaps the key maintenance information system is the system for work planning which, for the purposes of this book, we shall take also to encompass work scheduling and controlling. It is this that provides much of the information for the other maintenance management control systems.

Chapter 1 depicted a work planning system as an information and decision-making structure. The accompanying text stressing the need to design the system around the resource structure. The text also emphasized the need to visualize the work planning system as an integral part of the overall organization.

5.2 The Fundamentals of Work Planning

The work planning system defines the...