De la Constitución al Absolutismo (1812-1820)

“Poor Planning Leads to Poor Performance”

Author: Unknown, but a wise person

Basics of Planning

Planning defines what work will be accomplished and how.

Scheduling identifies when the work will be completed and who will do it. Planning and scheduling are dependent on one another to be effective.

However, planning is the first step. The ultimate goal of the planning process is to identify and prepare a maintenance craft person with the tools and resources to accomplish this work in a timely and efficient man-ner. In other words, planning provides maintenance craft workers with everything they need to complete the task efficiently.

Many maintenance engineers and managers consider planning to be nothing more than job estimating and work scheduling. This is not true.

Planning is the key enabler in reducing waste and non productive time, thereby improving productivity of the maintenance workforce. Many organizations have started considering planning to be an important func-tion.

However, they realize that proper planning is not an easy task to do.

It takes time to do it right. The time needed to plan a job properly can be considerable, but it has a high rate of return. It has been documented by many studies including Doc Palmer—noted author of Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook—and the author’s own experience document that proper planning can save 1–3 times the resources in job execution. If a maintenance job is repeatable, as most are, then it is essen-tial to plan the work properly because it will have a much higher rate of return.

Consider a maintenance shop AB where most of the work is per-formed on a reactive basis. The shop has no planner or scheduler on the staff. It has:

• 20 maintenance craft personnel

• 0 planner/schedulers

• 1 supervisor

• Estimated wrench time = 30%

The estimated productive work available (or performed) for AB per week

= 20 people X 40 hours/week X 0.30

= 240 man-hours /week

Now, consider another maintenance shop XY that has a proactive cul-ture and has demonstrated a wrench time of 55%. This shop has the

fol-lowing staff:

• 18 maintenance craft personnel

• 2 planners / schedulers

• 1 supervisor

• Estimated wrench time = 55%

The estimated productive work available (or performed) for XY per week

= 18 people X 40 hours/week X 0.55

= 396 man-hours /week

The XY shop has performed 156 hours (396 – 240) of additional work with the same number of personnel as AB shop. This equates to a 65%

increase in resources or 13 more people on the staff.

But as mentioned earlier, planning requires more than just changing personnel from a craft function to a planner/scheduler function. They must have the skills and experience to understand the different types of work and the various details that will need to be organized and assembled for that specific task (skills and resources, steps and procedures, parts and tools).

Understanding Work

The work to be performed needs to be clearly understood. If the scope of the work has not been defined clearly, the maintenance planner must talk to the requester, visit the job site, and identify what steps, procedures, specifications, and tools are required to perform the job correctly. If the job is too large or complicated, it may have to be broken down into small-er sub-tasks for ease of estimating and planning.

Resource Required and Skill Levels

The skill level of the person required to perform the work must be identified with the estimated hours. The job may include one highly-skilled craft person and one or more low-to-mid-level highly-skilled maintenance technicians. Many times, maintenance professionals believe that it is dif-ficult to estimate the time required to perform a specific job, especially if the skills of the maintenance staff range from very low to very high with everyone theoretically at the same pay grade and position.

Therefore, planners must have good knowledge of workforce capabil-ities and the environment. The skill of the maintenance workforce and

basic understanding and knowledge of their trade and plant assets will determine the level of detailed steps and work instructions required in the planning process. Highly-skilled workforces may not need detailed instructions. Job estimating can become easier and potentially more accu-rate when the jobs are broken down into smaller elements. Long and com-plex jobs can be difficult to estimate as a whole.

A job standards database such as Means Standards or other standard benchmarks can be used to estimate jobs. It is a good practice to build a labor standards library for specific jobs, e.g., removing/installing motors, 5-50HP, 100-500 HP, replacing brake shoes on an overhead crane or fork-lift, or aligning a pump–motor unit. Predetermined motion times, time studies, and slotting techniques can be used to develop good estimates if tasks are repetitive in nature. An estimate should include work content, travel time, and personal and fatigue allowances.

The following are essential to good estimating practices:

• Familiarity with jobs and plant assets

• Comparing jobs against benchmarks

• Be cautious when using historical data as they may have built-in delays

• Don’t try to be 100% accurate

It is a good practice for the planner to be a former senior craftsperson or a craft supervisor who has been given training in job estimating.

Steps and Procedures

Steps and procedures must be developed with specifications identified to ensure high work quality. The work instructions to disassemble or assemble a complex component should be clear with sketches and draw-ing as needed. They should include steps at which data such as beardraw-ing clearances or temperature readings should be recorded. Human error caus-es more failurcaus-es of assets than any other type of error in an organization.

Parts and Tools

Materials, including parts and kit lists, must be identified in order to have the parts available on-site before the job is scheduled. Special tools need to be identified in order to insure the work is completed without delays. For example, does the maintenance person need a torque wrench

1 — FMEA is a tool to identify failure modes; it is discussed in more details in Chapter 11.

to tighten a bolt instead of a box end wrench? Furthermore, the torque wrench is of no value if the torque value is not known. Inadequate infor-mation may lead to a number of self-induced failures. The objective is to reduce the likelihood that an error could occur by using the wrong part or the potential for a maintenance person to stop work to locate the right tools required for the job. A planned job template is shown in Figure 4.7.

It is a good practice to have a planning check list to ensure that all the steps and documentation have been prepared or arranged. Figure 4.8 shows an example of a planner’s checklist.

Symptoms of Ineffective Planning

The following are some symptoms of ineffective planning:

• Maintenance people standing around waiting on parts

• High rework

• Poor work performance

• High stockout in the storeroom

• Planners being used to expedite parts

• Maintenance personnel arriving at the job site and waiting for the asset / system to be shut down (wait is over 15min.)

• Frequent trips to storeroom by maintenance personnel

• Production downtime always more than estimated Enhancing Planning Capabilities

Planning capabilities can be enhanced by ensuring the following:

• Employee involvement and roles. Educate all maintenance stake-holders from plant manager to the maintenance technician in P&S process to ensure all players understand their role.

• Planners may require additional assistance in developing effec-tive work plans. It is recommended that a senior maintenance technician may be assigned to the maintenance planners for a few hours each day. This will help in developing better work plans.

Rotating other personnel such as craft supervisors and senior craft personnel in planning support jobs is a good practice. It helps them to understand why planning is important and how it func-tions.

• Maintenance planners must have a library of information includ-ing equipment manuals, drawinclud-ings, specifications, and specific equipment manufacturer manuals and other documentation.

• Planners shouldn’t perform additional duties such as a temporary

Work Order Requirement: Replace Electric Motor (10 HP)

Job Time Standard: 2 hours - duration 4 Man-hours (2

craft person x 2 hour)

Multi-craft technician or Electrician Craft Type:

Parts Required: Part# 11111 Motor, Electric; Location: 22-11-XX

Optional Parts:

(These parts are not required but could be needed if they are worn out) Part# 2222 Coupling, Flex; Location: 11-00-YY

Part# 3311 Bolts, Coupling (9-16 x 3); Location: Free Bin, Shop

Special Tools: None Procedure:

Step 1: Lock out / tag out (see attached procedure for details).

Step 2: Disconnect motor, mark/label wires.

Step 3: Unbolt coupling, inspect coupling and remove motor bolts.

Step 4: Remove motor using jib crane available.

Step 5: Install new motor (check motor is rotating freely).

Step 6: Bolt motor and check for soft foot. – record and correct any soft foot findings.

Step 7: Install coupling, bolt motor (torque bolts to xx ft. lbs) and align them using dial gauge or laser within acceptable range +/- 0.xxx (organiza-tion standard).

Step 8: Remove lock out / tag out.

Step 9: Connect the motor and check for right rotation.

Step 10: Test run.

Step 11: Clean up and return asset to service.

Step 12: Close out the work order in CMMS detailing what was done.

Typical Job Template forPlanning a Maintenance Work (Example)

Figure 4.7 A Planned Job Template

Chapter4

Figure 4.8 A Planner’s Check List

or relief supervisor or a safety or environmental representative.

The planner is not a secretary or clerk.

Additionally, planners shouldn’t expedite parts for breakdowns or problems. Their responsibility is to insure that future work is planned properly so it can be executed effectively. This also insures that they do not get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations and maintenance issues.

• Planners should have technical and hands-on experience as a maintenance technician or craftsman.

• Planned work package, should be reviewed by a craft supervisor to validate that the work package is doable as planned before scheduling.

4.6 Scheduling Process