What is maintenance planning?

Maintenance planning as envisioned by the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook is not preventive maintenance.

Maintenance planning is not planning how to establish and organize a maintenance department.

Maintenance planning is not using a computer.

Maintenance planning is not providing a detailed procedure describing how to perform a maintenance task.

Maintenance planning is not simply identifying spare parts and special tools before a job starts.

Maintenance planning is providing file information to technicians to allow them to learn from past jobs and avoid delays. Planning also helps ensure the availability of anticipated spare parts and special tools.

Maintenance planning is providing crew supervisors with job scopes plus craft and work hour estimates to allow them better to assign daily work.

Maintenance planning is advance scheduling to allow managers to allocate work for crews based on forecasted labor availability.

Why do companies need maintenance planning? They need maintenance planning because it helps increase the amount of time technicians spend on direct work, actual work without delays. Maintenance planning reduces the time technicians spend in gathering parts, in finding tools, in receiving instructions, or in many other delay situations. In industry today, delays commonly cause maintenance crews to spend only 25% to 35% of their time on job sites making job progress. These delays do not even include time lost to vacation, training, or other type of administrative absences. Maintenance planning helps boost the direct work or wrench time of technicians to 55% or more. A good...