I recently facilitated a Planning and Scheduling course for a large group of Planners, Supervisors, and Production personnel. Via the work management process, Planners are typically given lots of problems and expected to provide the right solutions. For each Planner in this group, every day brought 40-50 different problems looking for solutions. While not always exactly the same, you can rest assured that a large portion of the work is repetitive; i.e. same type equipment and problem in a different functional location.

So, how do you deal with the volume of problems? Create standard work libraries, and initially, focus on getting as many done with the basics over completely planning just one or two in great detail. For the basics, identify the crafts, estimate the hours, and determine the materials required which will allow you to schedule the work and drive efficiency improvement. To improve the basics, ask the craftspeople and supervisors to provide the details back to you when the work is complete so you can update the plan for the next time. Click here to learn more with this tutorial.

Tip provided by Jeff Shiver, CMRP, CPMM of People and Processes