Planner has a crucial role

By Arne Oas

In its traditional form, the planner’s function consists of planning and estimating jobs. Job planning determines what must be done and how it will be done. Job estimating determines the resources (craft skill, time and material requirements) to accomplish what needs to be done. It’s often lumped with scheduling, which determines when a job will be done based on manpower, operations or production, and part ordering or availability.

What does planning do for you?

A planning program usually has seven objectives. They are:
1) Provide maintenance with a program that integrates with production schedules to promote the best utilization of maintenance and production personnel and equipment.
2) Obtain optimum maintenance on equipment and facilities at the least cost.
3) Reduce downtime and breakdown time.
4) Maintain accurate records.
5) Provide information for required inspections of equipment and facilities.
6) Eliminate craft conflicts or restrictions through proper identification.
7) Allow for the determination of proper inventory levels on parts, tools and other resources.

The job’s normal workflow is usually something like the following:
• The area supervisor requests and approves work. That supervisor gives a priority to the job. The work is then forwarded to the planner.
• The planner investigates the request and inspects the worksite. That person determines the permits, materials and tools needed, and then estimates the manpower required to perform the work.
• The work moves from a request to a work order. The planning function begins. The area, priority and resource availability determines the scheduling.
• The planner determines the availability of material, initiates stores disbursement or purchase requisitions, and arranges for delivery of parts to the jobsite (staging area).
• The scheduler coordinates work with production or customers to determine an optimum time to perform the work based on their schedules. Estimated manpower is examined for that timeframe and, based on priorities, work is then scheduled for the maintenance team by group, by day, and delivered to that group’s supervisor. (The scheduling piece of planning may involve coordinating contractors and central shop functions.)
• The planner develops a standing job (work orders) around the new job plans.

If this sounds fairly simple, why are so many consultants teaching planning and scheduling? It could be because there are no textbook answers on how to organize a maintenance group or support the planning/scheduler function. Why not? Basically, because no two maintenance organizations are the same. They are different in regard to mission, resources, facilities or equipment to be maintained. What works for one organization may be entirely inappropriate for another.

Because of all the requirements of the planner function, I find that one planner can handle roughly a 35-person maintenance department. This changes based on equipment types, organizational structure, level of planning required and exact position duties. Note, this position is not that of a clerk. While approval of changes to the PM system and other CMMS routine functions may be part of the job, the hands-on performance of those changes is not part of the planner’s responsibilities. If CMMS updates and administration are included, the worker-to-planner ratio drops to 15 to 20 people.

Also, don’t forget: Not all work must be planned. For example, normal daily work, emergencies, and repairs of less than 2 to 4 hours may not require formal planning.

Selection of a planner is difficult. Avoid placing someone from your staff who is coasting to retirement or who can’t find a home anywhere else. The person you select should be familiar with production/operation methods; experienced with your labor, material and equipment; have high expectations of himself/herself; want to continually update skills and work methods; be willing to visit the field and ask questions of the workforce; have excellent communication skills; and, most important, be willing to live with change (work schedules change frequently).

Because of the job’s technical requirements, I recommend that the senior planner be a maintenance supervisor with 10 to 15 years maintenance experience or be a person with prior planning and scheduling knowledge.

If that type of person isn’t available, hire a mechanical engineer or maintenance/plant engineer with 15 to 20 years experience in a plant environment. The selected person, at a minimum, will have managerial skills; maintenance-related experience including supervision; good interpersonal skills; knowledge of maintenance systems; knowledge of general engineering techniques; and operations knowledge.

Whatever methods you employ and however you choose to control your work, require the organization to adhere to the established maintenance and production schedules. If it can’t do that at least 70 percent of the time, revise the entire organization and scheduling system.

Arne Oas is the senior consultant for Computerized Facility Integration. He can be reached at or by e-mailing . 

Back to top

Back to MRO Coach archives