Focus on Reliability

Methods within Maintenance Planning and Scheduling

Maintenance PlannerContinuing on with the Fish Bone Diagram concept with respect to Maintenance Planning and Scheduling, let’s take a moment to review the Methods component. We already defined it Methods as how the process is performed and the specific requirements to perform the tasks, including time estimates.

Ideally, the Maintenance Planner should spend one third of the day in researching jobs that need Maintenance planning. While visiting the job site, they should be determining the methods required perform the job, or the tasks. For example, you may need to remove a pump that is coupled to a gearbox which is coupled to a motor. Space may be limited.

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As a Maintenance Planner, you need to define the specific tasks required to execute the change out of the pump. Maybe you need to slide the motor and gearbox back to access the pump due to space constraints.

One of the first steps would be Lock Out, Tag Out, followed by possibly disconnecting the motor. The next step might be removal of the motor from the base, followed by the removal of the gearbox. You would continue this process to complete all of the task steps for the removal and reinstallation of the pump and associated equipment.

From an analytical estimating standpoint, you might want to put down a time estimate for each step. After defining each task step, you can add up the estimated times to get a total estimate for the job.

What are your thoughts?

Speak soon, Jeff

Topics: Planning and Scheduling