TRC-2020 Presentation (38 minutes) 37:41 Minutes

by John Reeve, EDI

The weekly maintenance schedule may be the hardest schedule type to create. Aside from the software, the greatest challenge may be the data inside the CMMS as to accuracy and completeness. Organizations have purchased plenty of books on the subject but still fail to create a viable process. Some common restraints are:

• Bad data, e.g., weak prioritization; mostly unplanned backlog; stale/duplicate work; inaccurate statuses
• Lack of knowledge surrounding the subject, or lack of desire to create a schedule; unclear definitions (and also note that different subject experts have different definitions)
• Inadequate staffing as to planners and schedulers
• Lack of software, or knowledge to configure software, to support scheduling process

But in defense of the user community, it is the software vendors themselves who are possibly misleading the public. The top 3 solution providers create a weekly schedule using a 4-quadrant drag-drop solution which forces users into a manual (and subjective) process. Unfortunately, this design is not practical for the small-to-midsize organizations or provide a strategy for improving data. The goal should be to create an automated weekly maintenance schedule which is efficient and accurate – and works for any size organization.