The importance of planning
Labor is one of the largest resource areas and expenses in the maintenance department. If this resource is not being utilized effectively and efficiently, a great deal of money is being wasted.

Ricky Smith, president of the Technical Training Division of Life Cycle Engineering, a Charlotte, NC-based training and consulting company, states that most North American maintenance departments operate at between 10 percent and 40 percent efficiency. He also reports that some maintenance craftspeople spend up to 75 percent of their time searching for repair parts and traveling to jobs.

Why is the importance of maintenance planning and scheduling often overlooked? When a plant is operating in a reactive mode, it is very difficult to see the value of placing a potential "firefighter" behind a desk with a computer. Neil Juhnke, corporate maintenance manager at American Crystal Sugar, Moorhead, MN, states, "It's the tyranny of the urgent. Today's issues overshadow longer term priorities."

Implementing a maintenance planning and scheduling function is also a major paradigm shift. Gross inefficiencies are identified and procedures will be changed as a result.

What is the standard ratio for maintenance planners to craftspeople?
There is no hard and fast rule; however, we found that an average figure of 20 maintenance craftspeople to one planner is standard. This figure should be adjusted depending upon issues such as highly regulated environments where procedures require extensive documentation, the age of the plant, or the maintenance program itself.

What other tasks should an effective maintenance planner and scheduler be responsible for?
None. The maintenance planner and scheduler should be dedicated to two functions-planning and scheduling of maintenance tasks.

Strawn adds, "Good planning requires that the planner go to the shop floor to examine and plan future jobs. Some supervisors load their planners up with additional responsibilities that make the planner desk-bound or unable to go to the shop floor to plan. An example would be a supervisor or manager who makes the planner a relief foreman in the absence of the regular foreman or volunteers the planner to attend different departmental meetings because he is conveniently available."

The maintenance planner who will produce the best results is allowed to focus on planning and scheduling. The planner will look ahead to maximize the utilization of people, which will produce the biggest gains.

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