Category: Training & Development
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What Should a Maintenance Planner Actually Be Measured On?
Ask most maintenance managers how they measure their planner’s performance, and you’ll get one of two answers. Either a vague reference to schedule compliance (a metric that belongs to the whole team, not the planner alone) or a blank look, followed by something along the lines of “we just know when it’s working.” Neither is… Read more
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Maintenance Planner Job Descriptions That Attract the Right Candidates
Finding great maintenance planners is difficult, but writing a job description that attracts them can be even harder. The best planners are organised, analytical, and quietly influential. They thrive on structure, process, and communication. Yet many job descriptions fail to reflect that. Too often, maintenance planner job adverts read like lists of administrative duties rather… Read more
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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
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How to Hire a Great Maintenance Planner
Hiring a great maintenance planner can transform how your organisation manages assets, downtime, and reliability. A skilled planner brings structure and foresight to maintenance, turning reactive chaos into planned precision. Yet, for many engineering and facilities teams, finding and hiring the right person is harder than it sounds. The role of the maintenance planner is… Read more
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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
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What Is a CMMS? A Planner’s Guide to the Essentials
CMMS. Four letters that get thrown around in every maintenance meeting, yet often misunderstood. Some companies think of it as just another piece of software. Others assume that once it’s installed, their maintenance problems will magically disappear. And then there are those who still don’t use one at all. For a maintenance planner, the CMMS… Read more
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How Do Planners Fit into the Wider Organisational Structure?
Ask any maintenance planner where they fit in the organisation, and you’ll often get a pause before the answer. Some report directly to a maintenance supervisor. Others sit under engineering. In some companies, planners are shifted into operations or even treated as part-time admin staff. This variety says a lot about how misunderstood the role… Read more