Maintenance Planning and Scheduling: Building Effective Systems and Teams

Maintenance and Engineering October 25, 2025
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Introduction

This specialized course focuses on the pivotal role of maintenance planning and scheduling in driving efficiency and reducing downtime. It provides participants with the skills to effectively transition work from identification to execution, ensuring the right resources, tools, and information are available at the right time. We will delve into proven techniques for job planning, resource leveling, and establishing a rigorous weekly scheduling process. The successful implementation of these systems is crucial for maximizing wrench time and minimizing operational disruption.

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

  • Differentiate between the roles of planning, scheduling, and execution.
  • Develop detailed, high-quality work plans that include all necessary materials and steps.
  • Accurately estimate job duration and labor requirements.
  • Perform resource leveling to balance workload and capacity.
  • Create an achievable and effective weekly maintenance schedule.
  • Measure and analyze planning and scheduling effectiveness using KPIs.
  • Utilize the CMMS to streamline planning and scheduling activities.
  • Establish a successful partnership between the planner and the maintenance supervisor.

Target Audience

  • Maintenance Planners and Schedulers
  • Maintenance Supervisors and Team Leaders
  • CMMS Power Users and Coordinators
  • Reliability Engineers focused on work execution
  • Operations Schedulers who interface with maintenance
  • Anyone responsible for optimizing maintenance wrench time

Methodology

  • Hands-on planning workshop simulating real work packages
  • Group activities focused on resource leveling exercises
  • Review and critique of sample weekly schedules
  • Discussions on best practices for planner-supervisor communication
  • Interactive CMMS demonstration for scheduling functions

Personal Impact

  • Significantly increase personal efficiency in job preparation.
  • Develop the critical skill of balancing capacity with demand.
  • Become a key driver in maximizing team productivity and output.
  • Improve estimation accuracy and confidence.
  • Master the soft skills needed for effective coordination with operations.

Organizational Impact

  • Reduce costly delays due to missing parts or documentation.
  • Increase the average wrench time of maintenance technicians.
  • Improve predictability and reliability of maintenance activities.
  • Lower maintenance costs by reducing reliance on overtime and rushed work.
  • Enhance cross-functional communication between maintenance and production.
  • Improve utilization of maintenance resources and tools.

Course Outline

Unit 1: Foundations of Planning and Scheduling

Defining Roles and Responsibilities
  • The critical difference between planning, scheduling, and supervision.
  • The planner's role in maximizing 'wrench time'.
  • Key attributes and skills required for a successful planner.
  • Establishing effective communication channels between planning and operations.
The Planning Process
  • Developing detailed work instruction packages (WIPs).
  • Identifying and kitting required materials, tools, and special equipment.
  • Incorporating safety, quality, and environmental requirements into the plan.
  • The role of standards and job plan libraries in efficient planning.

Unit 2: Estimating and Capacity Management

Accurate Job Estimating Techniques
  • Methods for estimating labor hours and total job duration.
  • Utilizing historical data and standard times for consistent estimating.
  • Factoring in travel time, preparation time, and clean-up time.
  • Managing variances between estimated and actual work hours.
Capacity and Backlog Management
  • Determining the effective working capacity of the maintenance team.
  • Techniques for resource leveling across different work groups.
  • Prioritizing work to match available resource capacity.
  • Managing the ready-to-schedule backlog effectively.

Unit 3: The Scheduling Process

Developing the Weekly Schedule
  • Criteria for selecting jobs for the weekly schedule.
  • The scheduling meeting: participants, agenda, and outputs.
  • Creating a highly visible, stable, and executable weekly schedule.
  • Managing schedule breaks and incorporating reactive work.
Daily Schedule Execution and Review
  • Assigning jobs to technicians and managing daily tasks.
  • The role of the supervisor in schedule adherence and roadblock removal.
  • Conducting daily and weekly compliance reviews.
  • Gathering accurate feedback for continuous job plan improvement.

Unit 4: Leveraging Technology and Metrics

CMMS/EAM Functionality
  • Using the CMMS for job plan creation and storage.
  • Leveraging CMMS features for material reservation and tracking.
  • Advanced scheduling tools and visualization techniques within the CMMS.
  • Ensuring data quality for reliable planning reports.
KPIs for Planning and Scheduling
  • Measuring Schedule Compliance and Schedule Breakage.
  • Wrench Time and its correlation with planning effectiveness.
  • Measuring Planner Workload and Plan Quality.
  • Using metrics to drive continuous improvement in the P&S process.

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