The Nitty Gritty
- Maintenance planning is essential to consistent workflows
- There are multiple types of maintenance to consider
- Breakdown of the difference between maintenance planning and scheduling
- Benefits of maintenance planning include improved operational efficiency, extended equipment lifespan and cost savings.
To have a successful business, you need to be two or three moves ahead of where you are to ensure that you’ve got the right tools to grow your business and ensure its success. Sound easier said than done?
Maintenance planning keeps your business prepared for any sudden issues while providing a cost-effective way to reduce downtime.
What is maintenance planning?
Maintenance planning is the process of understanding, analyzing and determining the maintenance needs of your business. Identifying the essential components of your operations to prioritize their upkeep means your business can reduce the risks of operational disruptions.
Where to Start With Maintenance Planning?
First, make sure you have a full list of any assets you’re maintaining. Once you’ve got the basic skeleton down, go through which specific maintenance tasks need to be performed and which disruption risks exist.
The maintenance planning stage has several important steps to ensure that each part of the jigsaw is well thought out and structured so that your plan achieves the maximum output for your business.
What are the different types of maintenance planning?
Understanding the various types of maintenance planning is essential to creating an efficient system that meets all of your maintenance needs. Understanding the types and their requirements, costs, tasks, and schedules results in an effective maintenance plan that can be used for any issue.
Preventive
Preventative maintenance is the most common form of maintenance planning. This covers the ‘routine’ maintenance tasks required to check the condition of equipment, machinery and structures and make small repairs/adjustments when needed.
Preventative maintenance addresses minor issues and regular upkeep and is essential to prevent unplanned disruptions/repairs.
Preventative maintenance includes:
- Filter Replacement
- Coil Cleaning
- Refrigerant Check
- Safety Checks
- Electrical Inspection
- Leak Detection
Predictive
Predictive maintenance planning is similar to preventative, but it's based on deeper data instead of routine maintenance with technicians/contractors.
Predictive goes beyond current conditions, using historical data and conditions of previous failures to measure possible failures and maintenance needs accurately.
Predictive maintenance planning relies on sensors and analytics to schedule maintenance using detailed metrics. These sensors and equipment are much more sensitive than human senses and can measure minute changes/shifts indicating possible issues. These systems can then alert managers/supervisors to prompt a swift response.
Increased data collection and technology development means predictive maintenance planning is increasingly accurate and helpful for business.
Some predictive maintenance examples:
- Vibration Analysis
- Thermographic Inspection
- Oil Analysis
- Ultrasonic Testing
- Condition Monitoring
Predictive maintenance is an excellent option for businesses that require 24/7 operation of specific machinery/equipment and need to minimize downtime.
On the other hand, the many benefits of predictive maintenance are weighed by the high cost of implementing the technology required. Budgetary considerations will be part of your maintenance plan and analysis. For the predictive maintenance planning investment, consider the risks versus preventative options.
Reactive
Reactive maintenance planning is for fixing or repairing issues as they occur. This means it’s effective for unplanned disruptions to operations.
How can you plan maintenance that only occurs after something goes wrong? Reactive maintenance planning is essential to reduce the time and monetary costs of equipment breakdowns/failures and ensure clear steps for notification, scheduling and solutions.
Reactive maintenance planning includes:
- Emergency Repairs
- Troubleshooting and Diagnosis
- Component Replacement
- System Reboot or Restart
- Temporary Fixes
With alternate solutions and clear maintenance plans, you can soften the blow of a sudden repair/disruption and provide your team with clarity.
RCM (Reliability-Centered)
This type of maintenance planning is focused on optimizing current processes. It’s a mix of predictive and preventative maintenance in that it identifies the most necessary components of a piece of equipment/machinery/utility and how to manage it.
Reliability-centered maintenance includes:
- Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
- Criticality Analysis
- Optimization of Maintenance Intervals
RCM focuses on the most cost-effective solution. It’s essential to identify what will have the maximum effects of failure and what parts will have the minimal impact, as well as base maintenance/repairs on those determinations.
Routine Inspection Schedule
Maintenance planning includes creating inspection schedules for each necessary component of your business. Each type of maintenance has its own schedule, some consistent and some varied.
The consistent schedules consist of:
- Monthly
- Quarterly
- Annually
Some maintenance planning won’t have a set schedule, as reactive planning, by nature, accounts for variables. However, you can still account for averages and review maintenance needs or raised issues.
Is maintenance planning the same as scheduling?
While maintenance planning and maintenance scheduling sound interchangeable, the two are distinct terms and processes.
Maintenance planning is the analysis and determination process for what maintenance is required in your business and laying out how your maintenance team approaches it.
On the other hand, maintenance scheduling is the active task of addressing maintenance/issues. Scheduling decides when the plan should be carried out and who will do the maintenance.
| Aspect | Maintenance Planning | Maintenance Scheduling |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | To determine what maintenance resources and tasks are needed to keep your business operating smoothly. | To carry out the maintenance plan and tasks by assigning resources, tasks, and personnel at specific times. |
| Scope | Assessing and determining maintenance requirements, creating maintenance procedures/strategies and contingency plans/solutions for potential maintenance needs. | Communicating and responding to issues by organizing necessary tasks, communicating with technicians/staff, managing supplies/resources and minimizing downtime with swift responses. |
| Time | Long-term planning. Done before maintenance is needed. | Carried out during the year to create daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly schedules. |
| Tasks |
|
|
| Goal | To identify and prepare for all necessary maintenance, including costs, resources, and essential staff/technicians. | Carry out planned maintenance, organize staff/contractors and supplies to complete maintenance, and reduce downtime. |
| Costs | Moderate to very high. Costs are generally consistent. | Small to very high, depending on the issue. Costs vary. |
Benefits of Maintenance Planning for the Trades with Practical Examples
Maintenance planning goes beyond avoiding unplanned issues. We’ll cover some of the concrete benefits that maintenance planning can provide for your business.
Increased Equipment Lifespan
Finances Online reported that the leading cause of unscheduled breakdowns comes from aging machines, with around 34% of unscheduled breakdowns caused by older machines. How great would it be to avoid being a part of that statistic?
With maintenance planning, you can extend your current equipment's lifespan.
- Benefit: Regular maintenance helps prevent wear and tear, extending the equipment's lifespan.
- Example: Implementing a routine inspection schedule
Routine inspection schedules can be organized and tracked with the right field service software. Simpro’s day, week and month view means implementing your maintenance plan is available from any device.
Reduced Downtime and Unplanned Repairs
One of the biggest risks to the health of essential services is sudden downtime and unplanned repairs that disrupt operations. Anticipating these risks includes how your maintenance team responds and what temporary solutions are implemented during repairs.
- Benefit: Preventative and predictive maintenance planning helps prevent issues and equipment breakdowns, helping reduce downtime and unplanned repairs.
- Example: Creating a troubleshooting and diagnosis process for each piece of specific equipment/machinery
Asset maintenance planning is an excellent way to boost equipment returns, reduce downtime and build a long-lasting reputation. Simpro’s asset maintenance solutions can help your business achieve greater asset performance.
Cost Savings
Reduction of time spent replacing equipment and connected downtime constitutes an overall saving to your business.
- Benefit: Consistent review and repairs help prevent more significant, unplanned costs and disruptions to work.
- Example: Regular leak detection (preventative maintenance) means leaks can be repaired with minimal cost and disruption, preventing large leaks that lead to mold and necessary renovations. Utilizing checklists as part of your maintenance planning is an effective method to review essential utilities. HVAC checklists can save your business directly by lowering utility bills and reducing emergency repairs that can seriously disrupt your workflows.
Improved Operational Efficiency
Juggling a trade business's needs and data can be difficult. Multiple workflows are enough to track daily, let alone data from the current maintenance schedule.
- Benefit: It streamlines data, communications and solutions for employees and managers, providing more data for your maintenance plan.
- Example: Reports from field crews can highlight required vehicle upkeep, allowing affected work vehicles to be maintained and repaired on a schedule with minimal interruptions.
Simpro’s operational management software can streamline data collection, documentation and communication to ensure your business gets the best insights into the implementation and effectiveness of your maintenance plan. With this information, your business can review and update your planning as required.
Moving Towards Successful Maintenance Planning
A proper maintenance plan is critical to streamlining your processes and ensuring your business utilizes its resources effectively. The last thing you want is to be hit with a sudden breakdown of an asset or piece of machinery, costing you time and money and disrupting workflows. Maintenance planning allows you to plan ahead of time so it’s clear what maintenance needs your business has and how to resolve issues.
Dedicated job management software will help you implement and review an effective maintenance plan and ensure you can avoid any unexpected surprises.
There are plenty of other ways in which you can grow your field service business, and say goodbye to outdated processes which really grind your gears. With Simpro's maintenance planning software, you can save time and money by implementing new processes in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Frequently asked questions about maintenance planning
How often should maintenance plans be reviewed?
Maintenance plans take a lot of consideration and effort, so it can be tempting to ‘set-and-forget', especially for a business running smoothly. It’s recommended that maintenance plans are reviewed annually at a minimum, and a biannual review can keep a maintenance plan effective while not constantly tweaking or adjusting, saving your business time and confusion.
If there are worrying trends in your maintenance scheduling, such as high values required to complete work orders/scheduling tasks or spikes in maintenance work, this could indicate that the current maintenance plan for your business isn’t working as intended. These numbers could indicate any number of issues, such as delays in schedules, work taking too long due to shortage of personnel or supplies.
These once or twice-a-year reviews mean you keep an eye on trends and downtime.
Can software help with maintenance planning?
Absolutely! Using a cloud-based maintenance planning software has many advantages when compared to a manual process. For example, by running dedicated reports within a set time frame, you can automate the process of having to find out what assets need maintaining and the date that they need to be maintained by. These reports show a comprehensive list of any assets that need to be tested based on their service levels.
You’re also able to see the service history for specific assets, whether they passed or failed and particular notes that the technician left about those assets. The ability to have all of this information stored within one piece of software will save hours of time and provide the necessary insights for effective maintenance planning.
