Category: Resources
-
Functional Agreements in Organizations
Guest Article Part of our Planner HQ Contributor Series, where we feature voices from the global maintenance and reliability community. Within the body of knowledge, methodologies, processes, and best practices for asset management in many organizations, some topics stand out because they relate to how we communicate and behave as human beings, ultimately impacting business… Read more
-
A Day In The Life of a Maintenance Planner
The maintenance planner role is one of the most talked about yet least understood positions in modern maintenance organisations. Ask ten people what a planner does and you’ll likely get ten different answers. Some will say they “build job plans.” Others will describe them as schedulers, administrators, or even data analysts. In reality, the role… Read more
-
Digital Transformation – Are Maintenance Planners More Important Than Ever?
Digital transformation, in maintenance is accelerating faster than ever. New technologies appear every year promising smarter inspections, automated scheduling, AI-driven planning recommendations, advanced asset analytics, and predictive failure modelling. Industry 4.0 get thrown around all the time now. For many organisations, the shift toward digital maintenance seems to suggest that traditional roles, especially the maintenance… Read more
-
A Guide to Equipment Numbering – Creating Intuitive Asset Hierarchies
Guest Article Part of our Planner HQ Contributor Series, where we feature voices from the global maintenance and reliability community. “Effective maintenance management does not happen by chance—it happens by design.” Have you ever wondered why some companies excel in maintenance while others constantly struggle with inefficiencies? The answer often lies in their foundation. A well‑structured… Read more
-
Maintenance KPIs and Performance Metrics: The Complete Guide
Maintenance planning and scheduling are built on structure, data, and continuous improvement. But without meaningful metrics, even the most disciplined maintenance programme struggles to prove its value. That’s where maintenance KPIs— key performance indicators — come in. KPIs give maintenance leaders visibility, help planners measure progress, and allow technicians and managers to align around common goals.… Read more
-
Asset Management: Connecting Maintenance to the Bigger Picture
Asset management is often spoken about in boardrooms and strategy meetings, while maintenance planning happens on the shop floor. But in a mature organisation, the two are inseparable. Every maintenance planner and CMMS specialist contributes directly to the principles defined in ISO 55001, the international standard for asset management. They may not sit in the strategy… Read more
-
The Business Case for Investing in Maintenance Planning
Maintenance planning is one of the most misunderstood functions in asset management. It rarely has a clear cost centre, it doesn’t directly fix equipment, and it often competes for attention with more visible priorities like production uptime or project work. As a result, many organisations underinvest in it; assuming it’s an administrative layer rather than… Read more
-
Planning vs Scheduling: What is the Difference and Why It Matters
In the world of maintenance and reliability, few topics cause more confusion than the difference between planning and scheduling. The two terms are often used interchangeably, yet they represent very different functions. Understanding where each fits — and why both are essential — can be the difference between a maintenance process that flows and one… Read more
-
How to Build a Weekly Planning Rhythm That Actually Sticks
Every maintenance team starts the week with good intentions. There’s a plan, a schedule, and a hope that things will run smoothly. But by midweek, reality hits, reactive jobs take over, priorities shift, and the carefully built schedule unravels. The truth is, most teams don’t struggle because they don’t have a weekly process. They struggle because they… Read more
-
7 Signs it is Time to Upgrade Your CMMS
If you’re like most maintenance planners, you spend more time in your CMMS than in any other system. It’s the heartbeat of your role; where you scope jobs, manage backlogs, track spare parts, and analyse performance. At its best, a CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management System) is the digital foundation of proactive maintenance. It brings structure,… Read more
-
Top 10 Maintenance Planner Skills for Reliability and Efficiency
A great maintenance planner is the backbone of any effective reliability and maintenance program. Their role bridges the gap between strategy and execution, ensuring that work is planned properly, resources are allocated effectively, and assets receive the care they need to operate at peak performance. But what truly sets apart an exceptional planner from a… Read more
-
What a Good Job Plan Actually Looks Like
Job planning is one of the planner’s core responsibilities — and one of the most overlooked opportunities for improving maintenance performance. Too often, job plans are vague, inconsistent, or skipped altogether. And when that happens, everything downstream suffers: technicians waste time, work is incomplete, delays pile up, and reliability takes a hit. But what exactly… Read more