Recommendations for more effective maintenance scheduling, part 2
Good scheduling is at the center of any well-functioning maintenance organization. When done effectively, technicians will be productive, the shop will keep busy and vehicle downtime will be reduced.
Part 1, which appeared in the January/February issue, provided guidance on setting up and organizing a system for scheduling maintenance. Topics covered were:
- Naming/coding the areas where work takes place.
- Designing a priority system for work orders.
- Systematic assignment of labor standards.
- Creating scheduling boards.
- Reviewing ready-to-go jobs.
- Loading scheduling boards.
- Schedule updating.
- Planning ahead.
- Regular schedule checks.
In this column, the recommendations for effectively scheduling maintenance continue with suggestions for how to ensure that maintenance work gets done according to what has been scheduled and what to do when deadlines are not met.
Reports
- Assign numbers based on completion statistics. A complete job earns 100 percent. A milestone met also earns 100 percent.
- Jobs not completed on time are evaluated as to their status. If an uncompleted job is halfway to the milestone, it earns 50 percent.
- All of the percentages should be weighted and added.
- Generate reports for each supervisor. A supervisor fills out a schedule miss report every time attainment falls below 85 percent.
Action
- Line supervisor action is expected if the schedule attainment is less than a preset percentage, such as 90 percent or 80 percent. Frequently, the supervisor can correct these schedule miss conditions.
- Correction within the next period will bring the schedule back on track, but the workload may still be behind.
- Management can decide to change the schedule or one of the floaters (emergency workers) can be used to bring it back in sync.
Framework
- Your organization's structure dictates the next step. The fleet maintenance manager is expected to intercede only if the daily schedule attainment falls below 80 percent.
- The fleet manager reviews all of the schedule miss reports. Usually, discussions are advisable with the supervisor, technicians and anyone else involved.
- If the schedule miss continues for two days or more, a more senior manager needs to get involved.
- Standard reports with less and less detail ought to be routinely fed up to the higher levels in the organization.
Joel Levitt is director of international projects for Life Cycle Engineering (www.lce.com), an organization that provides consulting, engineering, applied technology and education solutions that deliver lasting results. Previously, he was president of Springfield Resources (www.maintenancetraining.com), a management consulting firm.
