Focus on Reliability

Continuing 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.

In the previous post, I discussed the parallels of the Fish Bone Diagram as related to Maintenance Planning and Scheduling.  Let’s dig a little deeper with respect to the “Man” portion in this article.

As a Maintenance Planner, you need to research the job and determine the type of craft resources required.  Are multiple crafts required, such as an Electrician to disconnect and a Millwright to change out the pump as examples?  Are you writing parent – child work orders to segment the job requirements? Based on your research, how complex is the job? A simple pump change may be accomplished by journeymen but a complex pump rebuild may require a higher skill level.  It is important to note these items on the Maintenance job plan.

A next question will be how many resources are required?  We have to be careful that we assign the correct number of people to the task.  There is always a tendency to plan for two craftspeople to do the work but is that really needed?  Furthermore depending on the organization, if two people are required; can you assign a journeyman and a helper as opposed to 2 journeymen?

When it comes to scheduling the resources, the decision must be made based on the availability and complexity of the work to utilize your internal resources, or contract the work out.  If the task is a higher skill level that your organization may not possess like  vibration analysis, you may be required to outsource the tasks.

Another consideration is the man hour estimate required to accomplish each of the tasks. Recognize that each time we do the work; the times will vary based on the experience of the people doing the work and the complexity of the tasks at the time of the event.

There is so much similarity in all that we do within the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling world that compares to other separate and distinct functions. Let me explain.  Borrowing from Root Cause Analysis process methods, I trust you are familiar with the Ishikawa diagrams (also called fish bone diagrams or cause-and-effect diagrams).  These diagrams are one method that is used  for product design, quality defect avoidance or variation, or to identify factors that lead to some event, hence the use in Root Cause Analysis.

The categories typically include:

• Man (people)
• Methods: How the process is performed and the specific requirements to perform the tasks, including time estimates.
• Machines: Any equipment, tools etc. needed to do the job
• Materials: Consumables, parts required
• Measurements: Data generated from the process

All of these items combine together to create some output or event. In the case of Maintenance Planning and Scheduling, hopefully they combine to maintain or restore the reliability of equipment as an example.  See in all we do, it's important to remember that every product i.e. maintaining equipment is the result of a process.  Let's break them down individually for Maintenance Planning and Scheduling,

• Man - People or staffing, which crafts, skill requirements, number of people, contractors or vendors.
• Methods - The job plan task steps and sequence. Items like permits, manuals, and so forth.
• Machines - What special tools, man lift, ladder, etc.
• Materials - What consumables or parts do I need to restore the equipment
• Measurements - What do we need to know to improve the job plan, or in the case of a condition-based monitoring task, take measurements to find something in act of failing to allow planned restoration?

Interestingly, all of these items roll up to complete a great the Job Plan and Job Package  that should be created by the Maintenance Planner. If I didn't have time to complete all of these items, which three should I focus on first to ensure that I could drive craft effectiveness? From a Maintenance Scheduling perspective, I need the manpower requirements, estimated hours, and the materials.

First, let me take a moment to introduce myself.  I'm Jeff Shiver, a Certified Maintenance and Reliability professional who was a practitioner for many years prior to moving over  to People and Processes, Inc. I really enjoy the people aspect of things as well.