Can we imagine an orchestra playing without a Maestro? Surely the result will be a song of ecstasy. It’s the same in our maintenance department, the planner act like the maestro to plan, organize, and schedule the job.

Thanks to technology, with computerized maintenance management system the planning job get easier and faster. While receiving a work order (unplanned reactive corrective maintenance work or auto-generated planned maintenance work) the planner starts its journey by going through the following checklist:

•        Is this a duplicated work order, or will it affect any other work orders?
•        Is the equipment tag number correct?
•        Is the work location clearly identified?
•        Is the description accurate and professional?
•        Is the work order coding correct?
•        Is there a standard job plan for this job?
•        Are all materials required for the work included in the work order?
•        Is the location of each item of material clearly identified?
•        Is there a work kit, and does the work order show this?
•        Are all safety issues adequately covered?
•        Are all safety materials included in the materials list?
•        Are any safety permits required?
•        Are there any codes or regulatory permits or documentation required   for the work?
•        Are all environmental issues adequately covered?
•        Is engineering assistance required?
•        Are all trades or skills required to complete the work included on the work order, and have other planners been copied as necessary?
•        Is there any other work which may conflict with this job?
•        Are there other work orders in the backlog which should be done in conjunction with this work order?
• What is the estimated time to execute the job per craft?
• What is total job duration (to be able to tell our operations partners how long we need the equipment)?
• What is the priority of the work order?

Complete all missing data -as much as possible- will positively reduce job execution time and effort, minimize delay and down time, maximize technicians wrench time, which will greatly increase productivity and profitability.

It finally gets a harmonious performance as a great piece of music from this orchestra.