Maintenance Planners
Develop maintenance planning strategies for, and schedule, coordinate and monitor the maintenance of, plant equipment, infrastructure and machinery.
A Tuesday of competing priorities
You are a maintenance planner at a busy factory. Your job is to decide what gets fixed, when and by whom. It is 7am on a Tuesday. A pump has failed overnight, the week's planned work is already full, and the production supervisor is on her way to your desk.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
The pump on line 2 is down and I have orders to get out. I need it fixed first, before anything else on your list. Everything else can wait. You can reshuffle, can you not?
Agree, and put the pump at the front of the whole schedule without looking at what it displaces
The pump gets fixed fast. But a safety inspection on another machine was pushed off the list and you only notice on Thursday. Reshuffling is part of the job, as long as you see the whole board.
Check what is already booked, tell Carla how long the pump will take, and agree what moves
You find the pump can start within the hour if one lower-risk job slides a day. Carla gets a clear time, and the inspection stays put. Planning is knowing what gives, and what must not.
Tell Carla the schedule is full and the pump goes on next week's list
You protected the plan, but line 2 sits idle and orders are missed. A plan that cannot bend for a real breakdown is not helping the business it is meant to serve.
I opened up that pump and the shaft seal is not the only problem. The housing is cracked as well. The job card says two hours, but this is more like a day. Do I keep going or stop?
Tell Dale to patch it up as best he can and finish in two hours
The patch holds for a day, then lets go during a night shift. A repair that matches the job card but not the pump leaves you with a second breakdown and a lost weekend.
Ask Dale to stop, write up what he found, and look at whether a spare housing is in the store
Stopping is sensible and Dale's notes are useful. But the pump sits half apart while you check, and Carla asks why nobody is working. A quick call to the store could have run alongside the repair.
Ask Dale to keep going, check the spare parts store, and ring Carla with a new time
A matching housing is on the shelf. The job takes most of the day, Carla knows when to expect it, and Dale's report goes into the job history for the next planner to read.
A supplier can send the same part tomorrow, but they have changed the brand and it is a bit cheaper. I can order it now if you say yes. Is it a like-for-like swap, do you think?
Say yes, because it is cheaper and the supplier says it fits
The part arrives a little different and does not fit the existing mount. The cost saved is lost in rework. A supplier saying it fits is not the same as someone checking the specifications.
Say you will check the specifications against the old part and answer within the hour
The specs match on size but not on the pressure rating. You ask for the correct version, and Jun gets a revised order. A short pause saved a replacement part from being fitted that should not have been.
Say no, and stick to the original brand every time to be safe
It is a safe answer, but the original brand takes a week. Playing it safe was reasonable, though it can cost the business time. Sometimes the right answer is to check, not to refuse.
How it went
Line 2 is back and the week's other work is still on track. Maintenance planners spend their days balancing machines, people, parts and production, and the best ones are calm when the plan breaks. Does that kind of juggling sound satisfying or stressful to you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The shutdown that nearly ran out of bearings
A fictional case set in the maintenance planning office of a fictional food-packaging factory that runs day and night.
The situation
Tamsin was the maintenance planner at Hartley Packaging. A big weekend shutdown was booked to service the main conveyor, with eight tradespeople rostered and production halted from Friday night. On Thursday afternoon she checked the parts list and found the supplier had not confirmed delivery of a set of bearings. The factory manager had already told customers the line would be running again on Monday morning.
What they did
Tamsin rang the supplier, who said the bearings were delayed by a few days. She then checked the store for alternatives, and asked a nearby plant whether they held a matching set. She also reworked the job list so that work not needing the bearings was done first. She told the factory manager the facts and gave two options, with what each would cost the schedule.
How it turned out
The neighbouring plant lent a set, and the shutdown went ahead with the bearings fitted on Sunday. The line restarted a few hours late on Monday, and the factory manager accepted that. Tamsin added a rule that parts were confirmed one week out for every shutdown after that.
What would you do?
- What would you have told the factory manager on Thursday afternoon?
- Why might it be useful to have a plan B ready before a problem appears?
- Would you enjoy being the person who has to organise many people and parts?