Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook potx

What Makes the Difference and Pulls It All Together 107 Proactive versus Reactive Maintenance 108 Extensive versus Minimum Maintenance 112 Communication and Management Support 113 One Pl

Planning and Scheduling Handbook

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook

Doc Palmer

Second Edition

McGraw-Hill New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid

Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul

Singapore Sydney Toronto

tion may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher

0-07-150155-X

The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-145766-6.

All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the bene- fit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark Where such designa- tions appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps

McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales tions, or for use incorporate training programs For more information, please contact George Hoare, Special Sales, at george_hoare@mcgraw-hill.com or (212) 904-4069

promo-TERMS OF USE

This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc (“McGraw-Hill”) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work Use of this work is subject to these terms Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976 and the right to store and retrieve one copy of the work, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, reproduce, modify, create derivative works based upon, transmit, distribute, disseminate, sell, publish or sublicense the work or any part of it without McGraw-Hill’s prior consent You may use the work for your own noncommercial and personal use; any other use of the work is strictly prohibited Your right to use the work may be terminated if you fail to comply with these terms

THE WORK IS PROVIDED “AS IS.” McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO ANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF

GUAR-OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WGUAR-ORK, INCLUDING ANY INFGUAR-ORMA- TION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE, AND EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or that its operation will be uninterrupted or error free Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or any- one else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise

INFORMA-DOI: 10.1036/0071457666

We hope you enjoy this McGraw-Hill eBook! If you’d like more information about this book, its author, or related books and websites,

please click here.

Professional

Want to learn more?

Prologue: A Day in the Life—May 10, 2010 xxxi

Why Improvement Is Needed in Maintenance 3 What Planning Mainly Is and What It Is Mainly Not

The practical result of planning: freed-up technicians 9

The specific benefit of planning calculated 13

Quality and Productivity Effectiveness and Efficiency 19

Overview of the Chapters and Appendices 22

Principle 6: Measure Performance with Work Sampling 64 Illustrations 69

Why Maintenance Does Not Assign Enough Work 73 Advance Scheduling Is an Allocation 77 Principle 1: Plan for Lowest Required Skill Level 79 Illustrations 82 Principle 2: Schedules and Job Priorities Are Important 84 Illustrations 85 Principle 3: Schedule from Forecast of Highest Skills Available 88 Illustrations 91 Principle 4: Schedule for Every Work Hour Available 93 Illustrations 96 Principle 5: Crew Leader Handles Current Day’s Work 97 Illustrations 99 Principle 6: Measure Performance with Schedule Compliance 100 Illustrations 102

Chapter 4 What Makes the Difference and Pulls It All Together 107

Proactive versus Reactive Maintenance 108 Extensive versus Minimum Maintenance 112 Communication and Management Support 113 One Plant’s Performance (Example of Actual Success) 115

A Day in the Life of a Maintenance Planner 121

Using and Making a Component Level File 137

Troubleshooting 139 Performance testing or engineering 141 Illustrations 142 Engineering Assistance or Reassignment 143 Developing Planned Level of Detail,

Attachments 147

Estimating Work Hours and Job Duration 153

Equipment parts list 159 Purchasing 160 Storeroom, reserving, and staging 162

Insulation 172

Closing and Filing Feedback after Job Execution 174

Key concepts in scheduling for outages 229 Quotas, Benchmarks, and Standards Addressed 235

A Day in the Life of a Maintenance Supervisor 241

Coordinating with the Operations Group 254

Resources 266

Equipment History Files (Including system files and minifiles) 269

Lube oil manual 278

A Day in the Life of a Maintenance Planner

Creating versus purchasing a commercial CMMS 291

Information for metrics and reports 294

Chapter 10 Consideration of Preventive Maintenance, Predictive

Preventive Maintenance and Planning 313 Predictive Maintenance and Planning 319

Jack, Planner at Johnson Industries, Inc 349

Appendix A Planning Is Just One Tool; What Are the Other

Leadership, Management, Communication, Teamwork

Rule 1: The planning program is not trying to give away the plant's

Rule 2: Planners cannot plan the perfect job 407 Rule 3: Planning is not designed to take the brains out of

Rule 7: Showing what is not correct is often as important as

Rule 8: Planners do not add value if they help jobs-in-progress 410

Rule 10: Everyone should enjoy their work 412 Rule 11: Everyone should go home at the end of each day knowing if

Rule 12: Wrench time is not strictly under the control

Rule 13: Schedule compliance is not strictly under the control

Rule 14: It is better to train employees and lose them than to not

Rule 15: Modern maintenance needs to do less with less 416

Maintenance Purchaser or Expediter 461

After job execution 462

Appendix G Sample Work Sampling (Wrench Time) Study: “Ministudy” 465

Work Sampling Study of I&C Maintenance, October–December 1993.

Attachment B: Work Sampling Calculations 485

Appendix H Sample Work Sampling (Wrench Time) Study:

Work Sampling Study of Mechanical Maintenance, January–March 1993.

Attachment B: Work sampling calculations 557

Wrench Time in Exceptional Crafts and Plants 561

Empowered to do what? 565 Proper empowered responsibility between planning and crew supervision 567

Problem class, problem mode, problem cause, action taken 635

Equipment Tag Creation and Placement 648

Planning Principles versus Using a CMMS 651 Helpful Features for Planning and Scheduling 652

Setting Up a Planning Group in a Traditional Maintenance

Planners 688

Redirecting or Fine-Tuning an Existing Planning Group 696 Considerations 697 Older facilities versus newer facilities 698

Centralized versus area maintenance considerations 698 Traditional versus self-directed work teams 699

Major Areas of Planning Management 703 Organize—establish a planning group 703 Plan—plan enough jobs for one week 706 Schedule—schedule enough jobs for one week 710 Execute—execute scheduled jobs and give feedback 712 Ongoing—keep planning and scheduling ongoing 714

Key Aids and Barriers 717 Management support—sponsor a P&S system 717 Supervisor support—follow a P&S system 719 Technician support—follow a P&S system 721 Right planner—create positions and select the right planners 723 Planner training—have trained planners 725 Urgent breakdowns—utilizing P&S in a reactive environment 727 Technician interruptions—deal with planner distractions 728 Equipment tags—have tags on equipment 730

Purchasing—buy timely nonstock parts 733 Work order system—have an effective foundation 735 CMMS—have a helpful computer system 736

Improve existing planning—turn around an existing group 739 New plants or units—establish effective planning 741 Self-directed teams—use planning and scheduling 743

Maintenance Planning Test Number 1 747 Maintenance Planning Test Number 2 749 Maintenance Planning Test Number 3 751

Appendix P Questions for Managers to Ask to Improve

Problems with Contracting Out Work 764 Alternative Forms of Contracting Out Work 767 Contracting out all of maintenance and operations 767 Contracting out all of maintenance 768 Contracting out all the labor within maintenance 768

Contracting out unusual tasks or other tasks requiring

Contracting out to supplement labor 770 Increasing in-house maintenance management expertise 771 Arbitration Considerations for Contracting Out Work 771

Reasonableness and extent justified by employer 783

Appendix R Concise Text of Missions, Principles, and Guidelines 793

Maintenance Planning Mission Statement 793

Guidelines for Deciding if Work is Proactive or Reactive 795 Guidelines for Deciding if Work is Extensive or Minimum Maintenance 795 Guidelines for Deciding Whether to Stage Parts or Tools 796 Guidelines for Craft Technicians to Provide Adequate Job Feedback 797

Glossary 799

Bibliography 803

Index 805

We are witnessing a major change in maintenance It is moving from anequipment repair service to a business process for increasing equipmentreliability and ensuring plant capacity Its practitioners are trading theirreactive cost center mentality for a proactive equipment asset manage-ment philosophy

As editor of a technical business magazine covering the maintenanceand reliability field, I have had an opportunity to track maintenanceduring its move from craft to profession I have had the pleasure ofwriting about its leaders, the people, and organizations who are con-tinually extending the benchmark for maintenance excellence Many arewell on their way to establishing themselves at a level where mainte-nance performance is measured not by simple efficiency, but by contri-butions to plant productivity and profitability

One of my favorite jobs as an editor is the reporting of best practices

to the maintenance community I first met Doc Palmer during such anassignment—a magazine cover story on a plant maintenance improve-ment program Since then, I have published some of his articles andheard his conference presentations, and found that he has a superbunderstanding of the practices leading to maintenance excellence.One belief that the leading organizations hold in common is thatmaintenance is a business process and that formal planning and sched-uling is key to its success Yet, there is a dearth of practical references

on the subject Most articles and conference papers on planning andscheduling stress its strategic importance, but they do not delve intothe practical details because of limitations imposed by article length orconference programming Doc has leaped over this hurdle with his

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook There is now a ready

reference to take the action oriented maintenance practitioner to thelevel of understanding needed to install a planning and schedulingfunction and make it work

The book positions planning in maintenance operations and then ceeds logically to introduce the principles of planning and scheduling and

pro-xix

Copyright © 2006 by Richard D Palmer Click here for terms of use

explain how to make planning work Additional sections cover thenuances of planning preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance,and project work The book concludes with helpful information on how

to get started

Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook is a welcome

addi-tion to the body of knowledge of maintenance excellence and how toachieve it

ROBERTC BALDWIN

Senior Editor EDTRON.com Technical Business Communications

Palatine, Illinois

The welcome demand for the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling

Handbook around the world and repeated printings have encouraged

this second edition The author is profoundly grateful that maintenancepractitioners across a wide spectrum of industries have found the hand-book and its principles universally applicable

The second edition has revised most pages throughout the entirehandbook to clarify and amplify discussions based on the author’s expe-rience of the last seven years and practitioner feedback since the firstedition Perhaps the most fundamental of these revisions is movingthe planning strategy from simply relying on craft skills to more of aprocedures-based organization in terms of job plan detail The secondedition also adds a definitive aids and barriers analysis to virtuallyevery key aspect of planning Furthermore, it adds cause maps to inves-tigate low schedule compliance and priority system problems Two newappendices add much discussion on the soft side of maintenance plan-ning (dealing with people) and the controversial issue of subcontractingmaintenance In addition, the second edition delves much deeper intoimplementing and using a CMMS Finally, readers should welcomeimprovements in overall text format (larger font) and chapter organi-zation that make the handbook easier to use All of these changes makethe handbook even more comprehensive and helpful These changesshould enhance the handbook's usefulness and unique contribution tothis key segment of maintenance

Preface to First Edition

The Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook shows how to

improve dramatically the productivity of maintenance For example, agroup of 25 maintenance technicians should be performing the work of

39 persons when aided by a single maintenance planner This bookclearly and simply sets forth the vision, principles, and techniques ofmaintenance planning to allow achievement of this type of improvement

in any maintenance program

When I began writing articles and publishing papers describing thesuccess we had achieved in maintenance through maintenance planning,

I was not surprised by the requests for information I received We hadrevamped our existing planning organization and the result was a totalclearance of a large backlog of work that had some work orders in it asold as 2 years The clearing took less than 3 months thus freeing upin-house labor and allowing a scheduled major overhaul to commencewithout costly contractor assistance We had been through a learningjourney in the course of our success Before we got planning “working”

we had to unlearn about as many false notions about planning as we had

to learn principles to support what it really was Most of the requests forinformation I received primarily centered on a need just to get a handle

on exactly what maintenance planning was Eventually McGraw-Hillasked that I write this book

I believe that maintenance planning has remained an undevelopedarea of tremendous leverage for maintenance productivity for several rea-sons The planning function is positioned down in the maintenance groupand does not command the plant manager’s attention, so it is “beneaththe plant manager.” The techniques require an increased degree of organ-ization, coordination, and accountability as well as a loss of some control(which some maintenance supervisors might not find appealing), so it is

“unnecessary to the maintenance manager.” Finally, the principles ofplanning are not technical in nature, so it is “uninteresting to the plantengineer.” Nevertheless, a company seeking to be more competitive would

do well to exploit such an area of leverage A common saying states that

xxiii

Copyright © 2006 by Richard D Palmer Click here for terms of use

for any endeavor, 1 hour of planning will save 3 hours of work Maintenance

planning saves more After a work order system, planning is the biggest

improvement one can make to a maintenance program.

This book considers “planning” as the preparatory work given to vidual maintenance work orders before assigning them to specific craft-persons for work execution This preparatory work, when properly done,greatly increases maintenance productivity There exist few actual books

indi-in prindi-int for maindi-intenance plannindi-ing and most do not actually address

planning the way the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook

does Each of these other books is excellent, but they portray maintenanceplanning as overall maintenance strategy or preventive maintenanceinstead of as preparatory work before work order execution For exam-ple, one book focuses on planning maintenance management rather thanplanning work orders That book emphasizes having detailed work plansfor routine preventive maintenance, but the actual planning described

in detail primarily shows how to schedule outage time for working on theequipment Another book defines and presents planning as preventivemaintenance or other work decided upon well in advance of execution

In other words, there exist two types of maintenance, planned versusreactive, so by definition there is no planning of reactive work In con-trast, my book presents planned versus unplanned and reactive versusproactive as two separate considerations Planning of reactive work isessential A third book also addresses overall maintenance managementwith little distinction on what type of work is being planned It comparesthe accuracy of different types of planner job time estimates, but withoutmuch comment on how using them affects crew productivity So the fewbooks available define “planning” in varying manners Overall mainte-nance management and preventive maintenance are not the maintenance

planning to which the Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook

speaks Even though these areas are important and my book touches onthem in several ways, they are not “work order planning.” Maintenancemanagement is using the right tools and using them correctly Preventivemaintenance is a tool involving some of the right jobs to do Work order

planning is a tool to get the right jobs “ready to go.” The Maintenance

Planning and Scheduling Handbook, authored by an actual practitioner,

fills the gap in the literature for work order planning

This book is also important because even when considering work order

planning, industry has a significant problem with the concept Most

maintenance organizations do not have a planning function and many that do are frustrated and not getting anywhere near the improvement they should Just like learning the computer, planning has been made

needlessly over-complicated Thomas Sowell (1993) said, “If driving anautomobile were taught the way using a computer is taught, driving les-sons would begin with an elaborate study of the internal combustionengine, then move on to the physics of the transmission system and the

chemistry of rubber tires before finally getting around to explaining how

to put the key in the ignition and start the car.” People have not seen aclear vision of the work order planning function Until now, most of theliterature that targets the work order planning concept has presentedmerely the responsibilities of planning without actually defining plan-ning in a practical, bottom-line manner Because that literature doesnot know the vision, it fails to translate the responsibilities into exactlywhat a planner does The few previous attempts illustrate this lack ofclear vision: their ideas about everything a planner should do lead to ajob description impossibly full, even for Superman The great truth is thatthe Pareto Principle is alive and well 20% of what planners should bedoing contributes to 80% of the impact of planning In actual practice,organizations have crowded this most important 20% out altogetherwith another group of activities imposed upon the planners Some com-panies even mistakenly think of planning as simply a software project.Imagine the computer industry reinforcing this problem where there is

an explosion of software to manage maintenance without a clear standing of what maintenance planning is As a result, the many com-panies who have not implemented a planning function miss a greatopportunity and the companies frustrated with planning need to back up

and relearn what planning should be Because of insufficient

under-standing, maintenance planning remains an undeveloped area of intense leverage for maintenance productivity in industry.

The Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook clearly sets

forth both the vision and the how-to specifics of maintenance planning.The handbook carefully explains what maintenance planning is allabout and then nails down what is expected from a planner and why

It also shows how to measure the success The handbook includes cific directions for planners Readers can grasp the fundamentals ofplanning and make an impact in their organizations

spe-Typically, maintenance managers and plant engineers have called mewith questions after I make a presentation or write an article One main-tenance manager called me saying he had 38 craftpersons and was going

to hire 13 more for a major mill expansion My opinion was that heshould hire no one new (savings of over $500,000 per year) and trans-form two of his existing craftpersons into planners His resulting pro-ductivity would be as if he had hired 20 more persons I have also received

a significant number of queries from computer system personnel andplanners themselves My favorite was from the planner who called fromacross the nation just to say I was “right on target and to keep up thegood work.” The book is primarily intended for maintenance managers(including plant engineers responsible for maintenance) and for plantmanagers It is equally valuable for maintenance planners themselves,

as well as for management information personnel working with a puterized maintenance management system (CMMS) Contractors and

com-consultants helping others will benefit as well as risk management fessionals interested in the care of physical assets Corporate executives,

pro-of course, would benefit in learning what a difference planning can make

as they play a role in getting the interest of these other persons.The maintenance manager really determines whether planning will besuccessful, although to support planning, the plant manager must knowwhat improvement can be expected, what impact will be made on pro-duction personnel, and what the maintenance manager must do Themaintenance manager will use this book to understand and believe thevision and to apply the principles to obtain the dramatic improvement.This maintenance manager is usually one of two persons: one is thedegreed person, typically with an engineering background, who has beenplaced in charge The other is the craftperson who worked up into thislatest promotion This latter manager is many times the only nondegreedmanager on site (A third possibility, especially internationally where thedistinction between engineering and maintenance is blurred, is the craft-person who earns a technical degree while working The resulting main-tenance manager or plant engineer has much hands-on experience.) All

of these persons need the concepts of maintenance planning very clearlyexpressed so that they can easily grasp them, apply them, and commu-nicate them to others

Maintenance managers and plant managers are not the only oneswho will appreciate this book The actual planners themselves will ben-efit from better understanding their mission and duties Planners aretypically maintenance personnel directly from the crafts or craft super-vision, but sometimes they are engineers or construction technologists

In addition, computer system administrators and management mation persons will better understand planning and be more able to helpmaintenance with a computerized maintenance management system.Companies that do maintenance for others and consultants that helpimprove programs will also use this book to establish superior mainte-nance performance Finally, there is the risk management professional.Those persons in industrial insurance companies are taking a moreactive role spreading good ideas and asking pertinent questions Theyhave a vested interest in clients adequately protecting their assets; that

infor-is what maintenance infor-is all about

The Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook is valuable to

any person who wants to pick up a few good maintenance ideas.Nevertheless, the book is a handbook in its completeness of coverage andall readers will be able to use it to make their maintenance program dra-matically more effective and productive The readers will finally under-stand the simple truths about maintenance planning Managers will beable to implement a new planning group or decisively redirect an exist-ing one Planners and supervisors will use this book as a training andreference tool Because formalized planning can help any organization

with more than ten maintenance persons, the resulting maintenanceprogram can be a competitive edge for the company for utilization oflabor and equipment assets.

Just after this Preface and the Acknowledgments, the Prologue narratesseveral typical scenarios of maintenance, some with and some withoutplanning These scenarios all have significant problems which many read-ers will recognize in their own organizations See if you recognize your ownorganization After the book develops the planning function, the Epiloguedescribes these accounts again, but as the events should have transpired,flourishing with a properly executed maintenance planning effort, a toolleading to superior maintenance

DOCPALMER

Neptune Beach, Florida palmerplanning@bellsouth.net

I gratefully wish to acknowledge several persons who made this bookpossible My loving wife, Nancy, who generously gave me time, encour-agement, and support to write apart from my full time maintenance job

Dr and Mrs Richard C Palmer (Dad and Mom), who raised me with awork ethic including a sense of responsibility that things should work.The late Ralph McCallum (Atlanta lawyer) and Dr Gary Poehlein(Georgia Institute of Technology) for patiently explaining the concept of

“bringing something to the table.” Richard Johns, whom I consider theutility father of planning Bill Jenkins (utility vice-president, retired)for empowering me to make planning work Les Villeneuve and DavidClemons, the planning supervisor and one of the planners who sup-ported the changes and did the working David was the model planner.Hicks and Associates, who helped us format and conduct the first worksampling studies Bob Anderson, who gave me valuable advice for outageand overhaul scheduling Bob Kertis of Fluor Daniel who taught me theweekly scheduling routine using a worksheet such as in Figure 6.5.Pastor Tom Drury for his prayers and encouragement David Stephensand my parents-in-law, Mr and Mrs Paul F Peek Jr., who allowed me tospend several weeks of my vacation time in their vacation cabins not vaca-tioning, but writing Finally, one never learns maintenance in a vacuum

I wish to thank all the other persons who taught me along the way ing those members of the Society for Maintenance and ReliabilityProfessionals (SMRP) I am especially appreciative of SMRP members, BobBaldwin and Keith Mobley, for recommending that such a book as mine

includ-be published to help others

For the second edition, I would also like to acknowledge six additionalmen Jack Nicholas of Maintenance Quality Systems for his excellentmethod of identifying and displaying barriers and aids and for his encour-agement about becoming a “procedures based organization.” Mark Galley

of ThinkReliability.com for his excellent method of cause mapping ToddSeitz of Shell who encouraged me to address the people side of mainte-

nance And finally, Edward Yourdon (author of Death March), Kevin

Tyler, and Fred Kerber who made surviving a CMMS project bearable

xxix

Copyright © 2006 by Richard D Palmer Click here for terms of use

inad-Bill, Mechanic at Delta Ray, Inc., No Planning

Bill reported to work on time and went straight up to the crew break area.There the supervisor gave out the assignments for the day Bill received twojobs: one was to take care of a leaking valve on the southwest corner of themezzanine floor and the other was to check on a reported leaking flange

on the demineralizer The supervisor did not think they would take all dayand told him to come back for something else to do when they were finished.Leaking stuff Sounded pretty messy, so Bill walked by his locker toput on his older boots Aaron was at his locker and the two chatted for

a moment while they got ready The first thing Bill did was swing by thejobs This was always a good idea in case the job needed special tools orsomething Maybe the job would not require him to lug his whole toolbox there As he went by the first job, he easily found the deficiency tagmatching the tag number on his work order Bill had the work permitand there were hold cards everywhere so he knew it was safe to work.The valve was at chest level so there would not be any scaffolding or alift truck needed The valve was a 4-inch, high pressure globe valve Billdecided to look over the other job, then go obtain a valve rebuild kit

At the demineralizer, the area was also cleared and Bill had the rightwork permit But Bill was uneasy The deficiency tag was hung near a

xxxi

Copyright © 2006 by Richard D Palmer Click here for terms of use

pipe flange, but Bill wondered if the line was an acid line or a water line.

In either case, Bill knew the operators would have drained the line, but

it would not hurt to put on some acid-resistant gear just in case therewere drops or anything

Bill headed for the storeroom for a valve rebuild kit and the tool roomfor some acid gear There was a line at the storeroom so Bill changeddirection and went toward the tool room first On the way, Bill had anidea He knew Aaron was an experienced technician and had worked onthe demineralizer many times Maybe he would know if the flange was

on an acid or water line After asking around, Bill caught up with Aaron

at the pump shop After a few minutes Aaron came to a good time for abreak and walked over to the demineralizer with Bill Aaron was con-fident that the line was only for water so Bill decided to skip the acidgear It was now break time so Aaron and Bill headed for the break room.After break, Bill got in line at the storeroom The storeroom hap-pened to have a rebuild kit for the 4-inch valve Bill took the valve kitand his tool box up to the mezzanine floor and got to work This was aninteresting type of valve Bill was hoping that it could be rebuilt inplace After unbolting several screws on the top of the valve, Bill wasable to remove the internals Bad news Although Bill had the right kit

to replace the valve internals, it was obvious that the valve body wasshot The whole valve would have to be replaced The only problem wasthat Bill was not a certified welder and this high pressure valve hadwelded connections Bill went straight to his supervisor and explainedthe situation The supervisor wanted to complete this job today andcalled the crew’s certified welder on the radio The welder could comeover in about an hour and start the valve job The supervisor asked Bill

to return the valve kit to the storeroom and check out a replacementvalve for the welder Bill waited again at the storeroom to make theexchange, then took the new valve to where the welder was andexplained how far he had gotten along Then Bill took his tool box over

to the demineralizer to be ready to go after lunch

After lunch, Bill took the flanged connection apart at the izer In order to obtain access to the leaking flange, Bill had to dissembletwo other connections as well All three flanges looked like they had Teflongaskets, so Bill went to the tool room for material to cut gaskets Since

demineral-he was waiting in line at tdemineral-he tool room, it was a good time to call tdemineral-he tist to make an appointment for next month With the gasket material inhand, Bill went to his work bench and cut three gaskets using one of theold gaskets as a template Bill realized that with these gaskets, he couldfinish up this job in no time He wondered what the next job would be if

den-he went back to his supervisor It would probably be cleaning under tden-heauxiliary boiler He hated that job Why couldn’t he be given a pump job

or something important? Well, there was no sense worrying about it Billgathered up his gaskets and started toward the job On the way he passed

Gino cutting out some gaskets at his work bench After stopping to pare notes for a few minutes, they both noticed it was almost break time,

com-so they decided just to stay in the shop and talk

After break Bill started reassembling the flanges Most of the boltslooked in good shape, but a couple looked a little ragged Bill thought thatthe plant had a good handle on completing most of the maintenance work

It would probably be a wise use of time to go to the tool room and replacethose bolts The tool room had an open crib for bolts so he did not have towaste any time in line acquiring new bolts Soon Bill finished the job and

he wiped down and cleaned up the area He then reported to his visor so the work permit could be signed off and taken to the controlroom By then, there was about an hour and a half left in the work day

super-It was customary that the crew could use the last 20 or 30 minutes of theday filling out time sheets and showering Therefore, instead of starting

a new job, the supervisor decided to have Bill go assist Jan who was ishing up a job on a control valve Bill helped Jan complete her job Then

fin-he filled out a time sfin-heet and fin-headed to his car at tfin-he end of tfin-he day

On the way out to his car, Bill reflected how you had to keep busy allday long just to finish one or two jobs He wondered if he did enough work

Sue, Supervisor at Zebra, Inc., No Planning

Sue considered herself a capable supervisor She knew that to keep theoperations group satisfied, the maintenance crew had to respond tourgent maintenance requests She worked the crew hard and kept ontop of high priority work Whenever a priority-one work order came in,she assigned it immediately even if it meant reassigning someone from

a lower priority job The crew knew the importance she placed on pleting high priority work and was always willing to work overtimewhen required In return for their cooperation, Sue did not push the crewwhen there were few high priority jobs She was sure that the crewwould eventually complete the lower priority jobs, but the operationsgroup really needed the higher priority jobs completed or productionwould suffer

com-Her normal method of job assignment was to assign one job at a time

to each technician, putting persons on what they did best Sometimesthis required the art of deciding who would receive which jobs Since allshe had to go on was the work request from the operations group, it wassometimes difficult to tell what craft skill was required and for howlong Her experience came to her aid frequently, but she still preferred

to assign one job at a time and trust the individuals to work tiously She knew the crew worked hard because they rarely loungedeither on the job or in the breakroom When they finished the jobs theywere on, they would come to her for other assignments Earlier in theday, Jim came in for another job After looking through the backlog in

expedi-the file cabinet, she assigned a pump repair Jim was great working withpumps She noticed a higher priority, air compressor job in the file, butDonna knew the most about air compressors and she was on leave forthe week A few moments later, another technician came into the office.This particular technician had not earned Sue’s confidence so sheassigned that technician to go help Jim.

Lately it seemed that all the work was high priority and productionwas suffering She used to feel that sometimes the operations crewswould exaggerate the priority of minor jobs just to make sure they weredone However, from looking at the recent work orders, there reallywere many urgent jobs, some bordering on near emergencies She knewthe crew was beginning to tire of working in a near panic mode and itseemed some of the crew was slowing down Hopefully, after they com-pleted this recent batch of jobs, things would calm down In order to keepthe crew moving along, Sue decided always to make sure that each tech-nician had a personal backlog of at least two or three jobs to do NextSue began to monitor starting and quitting times closely in addition tobreak time Nevertheless, things did not seem to be improving

Juan, Welder at Alpha X, Inc., Has Planning

Juan received two jobs for the day Planning had planned one, but notthe other one Both were jobs to replace valves that were leakingthrough Eli in the predictive maintenance group had used thermogra-phy to find the problems Juan hoped he could finish both jobs beforequitting time

Juan got to the site of the planned job and looked at the work orderagain The west economizer drain root valve was leaking through Thework plan called for replacing the valve and gave a detailed plan Theplan gave the following steps

■ Obtain valve from storeroom, 15 minutes

■ Obtain welding machine, welding materials, and chainfall from toolroom, 20 minutes

■ Make sure the work area is cleared by the operations group, 3 minutes

■ Clear the immediate area of combustible material since welding isinvolved, 15 minutes

■ Unwire and set aside equipment tag, 1 minute

■ Support the old valve to be removed with a chainfall from the toolroom, 5 minutes

■ Use a cutting torch to cut out the old valve, 30 minutes

■ Prepare both pipe ends, 25 minutes

■ Check new valve for obvious defects and move into place with chainfall,

10 minutes

■ Make root pass, 10 minutes

■ Finish welding, 45 minutes

■ Grind to smooth edge of weld if necessary, 10 minutes

■ Heat treat weld areas for 5 hours or as directed by supervisor, 4 hours

■ (During heat treating, clean up area, 20 minutes.)

■ Replace equipment tag with wire, 1 minute

■ Take old valve to scrap and return equipment to tool room, 15 minutes

■ Turn in work permit and fill out paperwork, 10 minutes

■ Total time: 3 hours 15 minutes plus 4 hours for heat treating.Juan thought the plan was ridiculous He did not mind having the valveidentified and reserved Nonetheless, Juan felt that the planner mustthink he was an idiot not knowing how to weld Juan was a certifiedwelder for which the plan called, after all Juan also figured that theplanner being an apprentice explained why the heat treatment infor-mation was all wrong This type job required preheating with a torchand temperature stick for about 5 minutes A simple wrapping with anelectrical treatment blanket at the end of the job kept the valve fromcooling too quickly Juan could go on to another job and come back in 2

or 3 hours to retrieve the blanket Juan also seemed to remember ing on this valve last year Did he have to drain the water through theroot valve before he could cut out the valve? It just seemed that plan-ning was not all it was cracked up to be

work-Jack, Planner at Johnson Industries, Inc.

Jack came in ready to go As a planner for 20 technicians, he knew thateach day he needed to plan about 150 hours worth of work orders.Standard preventive maintenance work orders that needed no plan-ning would add about 50 hours That would keep 20 technicians busyfor a 10-hour shift He could not afford to become bogged down.Reviewing the work requests from the previous day, Jack got to work

He decided first to make a field inspection for eight of the most ing work orders He hoped to have them planned before lunch and start

press-on another group He gathered the eight work orders press-on his clipboardand headed for the door At the door he met George and Phil They hadjust started a pump job and wanted the pump manual Jack agreed tohelp them look through the planning files for the book After some min-utes they found a copy in the technical file section with the other OEMmanuals

Jack had no problem finding and scoping most of the jobs, but one jobwas hard to find Jack made a trip to the control room and waited a fewminutes for an operator to be able to take a look with him While he waited,

he received a radio call from the Unit 1, mechanical crew supervisor Jack’splan had indentified the wrong valve for a job and the supervisor wantedhim to help the technicians at the storeroom pick out the right one Tellingthe operator he would have to come back, Jack headed for the storeroom.Once there, Jack agreed that the application called for a globe valve It wasnow about 10 A.M and Jack decided to meet with the operator after break.After break, Jack and the operator found the elusive job site Jackmade a mental scope of the job and headed for the planner office Oncethere, another technician, Jim, caught his attention and pleaded forhelp He was replacing some bearings on an unplanned job and neededsize information Together, they searched, but did not find a manual norany information in the equipment files This required a call to the man-ufacturer who was glad to help Then two more technicians workingunplanned jobs came in and asked his help finding parts information.Since their jobs were underway, it was logical that he should stop andhelp them After all, he was very adept at finding information and hisjob existed to support the field technicians

So it was after lunch that Jack finally sat down to write detailed workplans for the jobs he had scoped The equipment files had parts infor-mation for two of the eight jobs Jack went ahead and wrote those workplans for about 12 hours of technician work Looking through the store-room catalog yielded parts information for three jobs One job needed

no parts and the last two jobs required parts not carried in stock Jackrequested the purchaser to order them Technicians twice more inter-rupted as Jack wrote out plans for the six jobs Near the end of the day,

he completed the six job plans totaling about 50 hours Jack realized hehad only completed plans for 62 hours of technician work that day Hehad hoped to complete some of the other work orders Maintenanceseemed to be in a cycle where crews would have to work unplanned jobsbecause there were few planned jobs available Then crews would needparts help for the jobs already underway, which kept him from planningnew jobs Something was not right

Planning and Scheduling Handbook