Why do so many organizations struggle to achieve

success in this area?

World-class organizations would not—could not—succeed without implementing an efficient and effective planning and scheduling
process. It’s one of those cornerstone processes that can transform your organization into “Best-in-Class.” Here are some of the pitfalls
regarding the deployment of Planners/Schedulers (Planners) that can keep you from getting where you want to be.

Picking the wrong person as know how to use the CMMS properly. They need to know how to
process work requests and plan them to the proper state. They
Planner need to know how to extract data from the CMMS and generate
reports. They need to understand the kitting and staging process.
The Planner position is one of the most critical in the They need to know how to type—it shouldn’t take all day to insert
entire maintenance organization. Placing the right one job plan into the
person in this position with the right skills is paramount to the system.
success of the group. The Planner is responsible for uplifting the
utilization rate of the entire group. How can this be accomplished
Give your personnel
with the wrong person? Your very finest should be considered for
the ability to do their
this position. He or she should have a host of capabilities that
jobs well. The bottom
management should understand before the choice is made.
line? Train, train, train!

Give your Planners the

Inadequately training Planners
Once you’ve selected the best individuals, with the
proper qualities and capabilities for the Planner
position, they still have much to learn. They need to
type of training that
makes them both efficient
and effective in their job.
Remember, they, in turn, are key to making the maintenance
business unit effective and efficient, and increasing the crew’s
utilization. They must be trained to an administrator’s level, short of
security, if they are to be successful. For example, in some plants,
Planners can’t even write work orders! Give your personnel the
ability to do their jobs well. The bottom line? Train, train, train!

For more details and information pertaining to Planning & Scheduling;

contact Nexus Global at info@nexusglobal.com.

Author: Alan Warmack, Operations Manager

a.warmack@nexusglobal.com +1 855.488.0068, www.nexusglobal.com
 Using Planners as relief personnel There will always be things going on at the machine that the
Planner may not remember or be aware of and, consequently,
would not be able to plan for—a safety issue … an access situation
One of the biggest mistakes in industry today is that … whatever. Things change and people sometimes forget.
Planners really aren’t. Instead, they may be Therefore, it is important to remember that planning is NOT a desk
Planners/Supervisors/ Parts job!
Expeditors/etc., etc., etc. Understand that a
Planner cannot—and should not—be considered as
a relief position of any kind, or be tasked with
multiple job responsibilities. Granted, these are Improperly allocating resources
hard times for industry and everyone is doing
more with less. If, however, a Planner is doing all
and material
of the things he/she should be doing, this
individual will not have the time to be multi-tasking In the sequence in which they are needed…
for other positions. This is one of the Planner’s most crucial tasks (and one of the
harder ones). The common theme for good planning and
scheduling is efficiency and effectiveness. How many times do you
see technicians standing around waiting for someone else to finish
Using Planners for a task before they can start their assigned job tasks? For example,
emergency or electricians are unwiring a machine while mechanics stand around
unscheduled work waiting. Job sequencing must be an integral part of a Planner’s job
plan to help drive out waste.
Just as Planners should not be used for relief, they
should not be counted on for emergency or unscheduled work. To allow essential work
Many companies allow their Planners to be manipulated into to be performed in the
handling “fire-fighting.” shortest time at the least
Who better to help in an cost…
emergency? They know Do your Planners prepare
the parts and the tools, jobs so that the maintenance
and can put something teams don’t have to stop for
together quickly to help anything—and, thus, hit your
get us running! Be careful utilization rate? Planners
of this trap. There is an should live to take all of
opportunity to train the these hits away and reduce/
proper personnel on how eliminate wasted time. As a
to be both effective and result, your people will now
efficient in handling be working on the right
emergency work—but your things, at the right time, with the right tools, materials, and
Planners shouldn’t be everything needed to do the job correctly the first time without
doing it. As long as you delay.
keep them pulled into your reactive world, instead of letting them
prepare future work that will be done more efficiently and
effectively, you will never get out of a reactive state.
Providing poor job instructions

How many times have you seen work orders with

Planning work from a desk instructions like “it broke” or “not running”?
Planners must ensure that mechanics have enough
Another trap information to do the job without having to stop for
awaiting the additional information. What’s “enough”? Planners should
Planners is their provide a degree of information so that a new mechanic
sense of “knowing it all.” “I has the same chance of success performing the work as a
know this job. I used to work seasoned mechanic. The new-hire needs the detail; the
on this machine myself. I more experienced person should at least use the
know just what it will take to information as a checklist. Remember this rule: If
make this repair. I can plan everything is prepared properly, maintenance personnel
this job right here at my desk!” should not have to search for anything. This includes
ALWAYS VISIT THE JOBSITE! information.

(2)
Nexus Global Business Solutions, Inc
10777 Westheimer Road • Suite 1100 • Houston, TX 77042
“Connecting Knowledge & Excellence” P: +1.855.488.0068 • F: +1.805-357.5919
info@nexusglobal.com
www.nexusglobal.com
 Not providing feedback Asking mechanics for feedback
and not making the changes
Once the work is complete, proper feedback must
be documented to state the work that was done. The importance of good feedback has already been
The Planner should have prepared the work, established. A common trap for Planners is related
providing estimated tasks to be performed—like the time the job to feedback on PM work orders. It goes like this: The Planner talks
should take, special tools and with the mechanics and convinces them of the need to provide
materials required, etc. Post-job good feedback on work orders when completing their paperwork.
feedback will document what it More specifically, they convince them to make edits, deletions and
actually took to do the job, thus additions to the tasks on the PMs as they perform them in order to
helping the Planner learn and make them more effective in the future. However, when the
prepare for future work. As long mechanic gets the PM back to perform next time, the Planner
as you allow your technicians to hasn’t made the
simply state “complete,” you are suggested
missing a huge opportunity to help changes. It was
the Planner become more effective. You also are cluttering your not easy to
equipment history with poor data. If you allow requestors to say, convince the
“It broke” and mechanics to merely say, “I fixed it,” you have poor mechanics to
data going into your system. Under these circumstances, you can’t help the first
determine opportunities for improvement and identify the bad time—how hard
actors. do you think it
will be to try
and convince
them the
Not kitting and staging second time?
Simply put, planning is work preparation. Planners
should prepare everything needed to allow the job
to be completed—without the mechanics having to Not gaining cooperation and
stop and go get ANYTHING. Part of this “planning package” is parts coordination with operations
and materials. As Planners develop a job’s bill of materials, the pick
list should be processed by the storeroom partners
attendant. However, having given the list to
the clerk doesn’t mean the Planner is A Planner can build the very best job plans and then put a great
finished. Once the kit is put together, it looking schedule together to get the work accomplished. But if this
must be checked for accuracy. Is it what work is performed in a maintenance department vacuum, it will not
was requested? Planners are not parts be successful. The Planner must build the needed partnerships with
attendants. Once kitted, identify where the operations or he/she will continue to struggle and possibly fail.
kit will be staged. Is the staging area
secured? Are procedures in place to ensure
that only authorized personnel can enter Planners should remember that their managers do not have
the staging area and remove kits? If a all day to read a 10-page written report.
Planner makes the mistake of setting up an
unsecured staging area, kits will be Poor timing also is an issue. It can lead to equipment isolation and
cannibalized by everyone—even your own shutdown, resulting in excessive downtime. When a Planner is
people. Secure your staging area! wearing his/her Scheduler’s hat,
everything possible must be done to
If everything is prepared properly, maintenance communicate with your partners in
personnel should not have to search for anything. operations so as to develop a schedule
This includes information. to which everyone agrees. Failure to
do this will result in mechanics
showing up for a job where the
Remember, too, that inadequate coordination of materials machine is not ready to be taken
can result in false starts, delays, or makeshift repairs. down. In turn, your mechanics’
Planners should not put jobs in as “ready for schedule” utilization rate is again being
without having all materials and parts in their possession. drastically reduced.
Nor should they rely on vendor delivery promises—that is
a major trap to avoid.

(3)
Nexus Global Business Solutions, Inc
10777 Westheimer Road • Suite 1100 • Houston, TX 77042
“Connecting Knowledge & Excellence” P: +1.855.488.0068 • F: +1.805-357.5919
info@nexusglobal.com
www.nexusglobal.com
 Poor backlog management
Staying on the road to success
Keep it clean…
Planners must keep the backlog of “ready-to-go”
work clean to stay efficient and prevent mistakes. Don’t allow a Avoiding these pitfalls will greatly improve the effectiveness and
backlog of open work orders to efficiency of your planning and scheduling process. This translates
contain work that has already been into an environment of well-maintained machines that produce
done on a breakdown. The work optimum levels of high-quality product in a safe manner.
was completed, but the paperwork Ultimately, this is what allows an organization to be more
was not turned in, etc. Allowing competitive in the global marketplace.
these unneeded work orders to
clutter your backlog will cause
many issues when trying to look for
the right work to be done during
the scheduling process.

Proper format…
Despite being kept clean, backlog
reports can still cause pain if they
are not formatted for easy review.
Planners should always group work
by equipment, then sort by priority.
Sorting by priority first can lead to
trouble—you will be looking at a
high priority job at the top of the
report and miss lower-priority jobs
on the same equipment. Had they
been seen, those lower-priority items could possibly have been
scheduled in conjunction with the high-priority repair in order to
minimize the machine going down multiple times.

Metrics

Not too many…

You can measure yourself to death! Metrics should
be used to analyze your current state and assist in finding
opportunities for improvement. Too many metrics only “muddy the
waters.” Be careful to pick those that guide your decision-making
process on how to properly run your business unit.

Easily understood…
Planners should remember that their managers do not have all day
to read a 10-page written report. Information should be put in
graphic format. (Important Note:
there are good graphs and “ugly”
graphs.) A manager should be able
to look at the information and
understand it in 20 seconds or less.

(4)
Nexus Global Business Solutions, Inc
10777 Westheimer Road • Suite 1100 • Houston, TX 77042
“Connecting Knowledge & Excellence” P: +1.855.488.0068 • F: +1.805-357.5919
info@nexusglobal.com
www.nexusglobal.com