TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter recaps the vision and mission of planning and then presents the principles of effective planning. Each principle identifies an important crossroads. At each crossroad, the company has to make a decision regarding alternative ways to conduct planning. The decision the company makes regarding each situation determines the ultimate success of planning. Each principle presents the recommended solution to the crossroads.
Six principles greatly contribute to the overall success of planning. First, the company organizes planners into a separate department. Second, planners concentrate on future work. Third, planners base their files on the component level of systems. Fourth, planner expertise dictates job estimates. Fifth, planners recognize the skill of the crafts. And sixth, work sampling for direct work time provides the primary measure of planning effectiveness. Figure 2.1 shows the entire text of these principles.
As presented in Chap. 1, the mission of planning revolves around making the right jobs "ready to go." Maintenance management uses planning as a tool to reduce unnecessary job delays through advance preparation. To prepare a job in advance, a planner develops a work plan after receiving a work request. The work plan is nothing more than the assembled information that the planner makes ready for the technician who will later execute the work. Some organizations call the work plan a work package or a planned package. At a minimum, the work plan includes a job scope, identification of...
