What is the purpose of maintenance planning?

I will answer this question from the perspective of work management:

First of all, planning is not the same as Scheduling. This is one of the most misunderstood parts of the work management process.

You see, Planning refers to preparing a job so you can do that job without unnecessary delays. This requires identifying and preparing:

• the scope of work;
• the procedures you’d need to do that work safely and properly;
• the materials you’d need;
• any external (specialist) services;
• any specials tools etc.

Planning maintenance is normally done by a Maintenance Planner. Someone with a trade background, someone with extensive experience and sound technical knowledge.

Scheduling on the other hand focuses on what work gets done when and by whom. Scheduling also looks at how you group work to minimise waste. Waste like equipment down time, travel time etc. Scheduling also balances the workload against available resources.

In simple terms, planning maintenance is about the “WHAT and “HOW” of a maintenance job. And scheduling refers to the “WHO” and “WHEN”.

Another way to look at this is that maintenance planning reduces delays during jobs, whilst scheduling reduces delays between jobs.

To succeed in improving your productivity you need both Planning and Scheduling. Planning alone or scheduling alone just won’t cut it.

If you want to read more about work management, or maintenance planning & scheduling, then have a look at this article: Without Planning and Maintenance Scheduling You Will Fail