Check Out This Detailed Guide On Planned Maintenance Workflow and Its Benefits

By | September 1, 2023

Planned maintenance is used by modern organizations to take care of business operations and ensure that there are no hiccups to the overall customer experience. Besides providing better revenue outcomes, cutting costs, and getting happy customers, maintenance planning plays a major role in shaping businesses and optimizing their workflow.

Reactive maintenance takes a last-minute approach to carry out repairs but planned maintenance gives managers enough time to plan ahead and prepare for uncertain situations.

What Is Planned Maintenance?

Planned maintenance involves planning out maintenance activities by preparing materials, tools, and resources beforehand. It covers the planning part of maintenance and aims to reduce downtime by scheduling work orders and adding priority levels to them.

Scheduled maintenance is a type of planned maintenance and a seperate maintenance scheduler may be used instead of a dedicated facility for handling maintenance tasks. Generally speaking, planning maintenance, preventive and corrective maintenance, and scheduled maintenance are done together from a single facility.

The Workflow Of Planned Maintenance

According to the planned maintenance definition, businesses that carry out maintenance planning effectively do not have to suffer from outages or halts in their existing operations. Other processes don’t get affected during planned maintenance activities since there’s plenty of time to prepare. The following is a brief workflow and an overview of how planned maintenance occurs.

 

1. Find Out The Problem & Create A Work Order

Identifying the scope of the project and laying down its requirements is the first step involved in planned maintenance. Details about the problem, assets used in the process, and other information regarding maintenance planning are included with this scope documentation.

2. Carry Out Asset Inspections

Conducting an inspection of current business assets and collecting all the information necessary to make an accurate assessment is the next phase. A thorough analysis of assets is done and the maintenance planner will outline the materials and resources needed after that.

3. Order Parts & Replacements

Once the inspection is done and assessments are made, it’s time to order the parts. Any replacements and spares are included with these orders and the inventory is updated.

4. Add Priority Levels

After work orders have been made, tasks are assigned a priority level. Maintenance tasks with a high priority level are worked on first while the rest take precedence later.

Low-level tasks don’t have to be carried out immediately and the maintenance planner categorizes time-sensitive and urgent tasks as high-priority. Medium-level tasks mostly involve preventive maintenance and critical equipment isn’t needed for performing the low-level maintenance tasks.

Benefits Of Planned Maintenance

Benefits Of Planned Maintenance

 

1. Lower Maintenance Costs

By scheduling maintenance work at regular intervals, the upkeep of equipment becomes easier. Planned maintenance improves the lifespan of machinery equipment and tools, requiring businesses to invest in newer equipment less. In most cases, the majority of orders involve buying spare parts and replacements for doing the maintenance work.

2. Co ImprovedWoekplace Safety

Workplace injuries are a common cause of concern for organizations. Big hospital bills can make it difficult for businesses to make upgrades to their operations or run efficiently. Proper and functional work equipment at the workplace translates to improved safety, better health outcomes, and fewer cases of workplace hazards. It reduces the stress levels in managers since they don’t have to worry about what could go wrong.

3. Reduces Unplanned Downtime & Delays

By improving overall equipment performance, managers and technicians are able to reduce unplanned downtimes thanks to planned maintenance. There are no delays in the work schedule and even during downtimes, other business functions do not get affected. Planned maintenance reduces overall equipment costs and makes more efficient use of manpower for doing repairs and maintenance work. As such, the financial expenses for running the business get spread out evenly throughout the year.

4. Satisfies Legal and Compliance Regulations

Governments and state officials are strict about equipment and safety standards. Regular inspections are a part of business evaluations by these authorities. Planned maintenance by using CMMS systems helps in satisfying legal and compliance regulations within the organization.

The software checks the status of the inventory and makes sure it’s kept up-to-date. Any failed or faulty equipment gets replaced and new work orders get generated automatically. Maintenance resources are evaluated to make sure that they meet the required industry benchmarks.

5. Improved Incident Reporting

Reports are automatically created by CMMS systems and kept as up-to-date as possible. Quicker response times and faster incident reporting are perks of using CMMS systems.

Work orders can be created anonymously, ensuring that there is no bias and people can give feedback about these reports.

6. Transparent Communication

Maintenance teams can communicate with operations crew members on the platform and sync up with other departments in the organization. Mobile CMMS solutions not only help in scheduling planned maintenance tasks but users can view updates and reports at their fingertips.

Seamless communication between departments is key to ensuring that the business runs successfully. In most cases, unplanned maintenance problems crop up when there are no smooth communications.  The timeframe for maintenance work is not kept tight since everybody stays on the same page and the planning becomes easier. Materials and supplies can be arranged on short notice as well due to transparent communications through CMMS platforms.

What About Free-Effort Maintenance & Unplanned Maintenance Tasks?

CMMS systems are designed to carry out planned maintenance but free-effort maintenance tasks can be scheduled as reminders. These tasks can be done at any time and they don’t have specific priority levels to them.

Unplanned maintenance tasks are emergency maintenance tasks that pop up without a warning. HVAC technicians can handle emergency maintenance tasks a lot easier when most of the planned maintenance tasks are taken care of.

The important advantage of using CMMS workflows is that technicians have a bird’s-eye view of what’s going on in the pipeline. All the maintenance activities are outlined and scheduled on the system, leaving very little room for error or mishaps. By taking a preventive approach to solving problems, technicians end up freeing up schedules and save time down the line.

Conclusion

Making sure business operations are streamlined and running smooth is the core objective of maintenance planning. Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) ensure that all assets are tracked, monitored, and given feedback in real-time, thus letting managers decide when to act and take key decisions. In most cases, planned maintenance teams collaborate with other departments and use predictive analytics to focus on key maintenance tasks.

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