Mastering Preventive Maintenance (PM) Scheduling: Boost Efficiency & Minimize Downtime

At a basic level, preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling is simple: 

• Determine a task to be completed.
• Set a time and place.
• Assign someone to perform the work.

Once that time comes, the assignee does the work, and the scheduled event is either completed (one time) or recurs at some specified interval.

Maintenance scheduling is the process of ensuring planned work is carried out. It involves coordinating all the necessary resources to ensure tasks are completed correctly and on time. 

In this article, we will discuss how to perfect your preventive maintenance schedules and how you can use the ultimate tool for PM scheduling success. 

What Is a Preventive Maintenance (PM) Schedule?

A preventive maintenance schedule is a maintenance plan designed to execute PM work.

It relies on organization and planned timelines to ensure routine maintenance tasks are carried out based on a specific time or usage trigger. 

In maintenance scheduling, the scheduler determines who will perform the work and coordinates materials, equipment, and an overall timeframe for the job. This kind of schedule doesn’t just target specific dates — work can also be performed at repeated intervals, like in a preventive maintenance program.

UpKeep’s CMMS provides a comprehensive solution to ordinary PM scheduling. Why spend time manually submitting work orders and setting reminders for your PM schedules when you could have a system that:

• Automates work orders 
• Provides a platform for communicating with technicians
• Allows you to customize your PM schedule dashboard
• Use KPIs and IoT sensors to trigger work orders and PM tasks
• And more

Who Conducts Preventive Maintenance Scheduling?

Typically, maintenance schedules may be completed by:

• Dedicated maintenance schedulers
• Maintenance supervisors
• Maintenance planners

Dedicated schedulers are often necessary for large operations with complex maintenance needs. In smaller operations, individual supervisors or even the planner may perform this role.

Maintenance teams need to consider multiple factors when scheduling maintenance work. Following the steps listed below will ensure that nothing is overlooked:

1. Read the work order and clarify details with the maintenance planner.
2. Secure necessary resources, such as tools, people, supplies, spare parts, and safety equipment.
3. Make sure the asset is available and ready for work.
4. Assign the task to a technician for completion.
5. Follow up and make improvements as needed.

Some tasks may be scheduled on a recurring basis, in which case the scheduler must ensure that each work order is completed on time every time.

3 Types of Different Preventive Maintenance Schedules 

There are three types of PM schedules, which include:

• Fixed: Fixed preventive maintenance scheduling involves planning maintenance for a specific time, regardless of when the last maintenance task was finished.
• Floating: A floating preventive maintenance schedule occurs when PM tasks are based on the last time the asset was serviced.
• Meter-based: Meter-based preventive maintenance schedules focus on triggers that prompt or set off PM work orders once a certain meter threshold is met (e.g., miles driven, number of hours operated, or production cycles).

How To Create a Holistic Preventive Maintenance Schedule in 6 Easy Steps

Step #1: Identify Your Assets That Require a PM Schedule

The first step in establishing a holistic preventive maintenance schedule is inventorying all your assets that require routine maintenance. Since not all of your assets require PM, it may be helpful to determine which assets apply by asking questions like:

• How critical is the asset to daily operations?
• Does it have failure modes that may be prevented with routine maintenance and inspections?
• Are the failure rates of the asset associated with age or use?

If the answer is yes to any of the questions, log the asset into a spreadsheet or CMMS while also including the asset’s:

• Make
• Model 
• Serial number 
• Location 
• Spare parts 
• Previous maintenance history

UpKeep allows you to log every detail of your assets in a centralized place. Instead of storing the information separately, you can add critical asset details, maintenance history, and other valuable documents regarding the asset to each work order. 

Step #2: Prioritize Assets

Creating PM schedules for dozens to hundreds of assets may be time-consuming. Setting service schedules for every relevant piece of equipment can take months, so it’s essential to begin by prioritizing your most essential assets.

You can use a systematic approach to prioritizing by calculating each asset’s risk priority number (RPN). Simply utilize the following equation:

Severity x Occurrence x Detection = Risk Priority Number 

Each variable can be ranked from one to ten and is categorized as follows:

• Severity: Indicates how severe the failure would be to your operations (one being the least severe and ten being the most)
• Occurrence: Indicates the likelihood of an asset failing (one being the least likely and ten being the most likely) 
• Detection: Indicates the likelihood of detecting if an asset will fail (one being the most likely to detect and ten being the least likely)

For example, an asset with a severity of 8, an occurrence of 5, and a detection of 10 would have a risk priority number of 400.

After calculating the RPN for each of your assets, you can rank each asset from the highest RPN to the lowest RPN to find your key critical assets.

Step #3: Determine PM Intervals

Each asset will require different maintenance intervals based on its PM needs. Some of your assets may work better on a floating meter-based schedule, whereas others will work better on a time-based schedule. 

A significant risk associated with PM is wasting valuable resources and time by over-inspecting and over-maintaining assets. 

Setting PM intervals based on priority and PM needs can eliminate this issue. You may even need to modify intervals based on what works and what doesn't. An easy way to do this would be using a CMMS to gain key insights into the effectiveness of your preventive maintenance schedule. 

UpKeep allows users to track KPIs and maintenance trends with our intuitive and customizable maintenance dashboard. 

Step #4: Schedule Recurring Tasks

Once the PM is created in your CMMS software, a work order will be created for each instance. 

Most CMMS platforms allow users to create recurring work orders for equipment-specific work orders. Facilities can create work orders using checklists that automatically include the relevant procedural documentation for maintenance personnel.

While most CMMS software automates work orders, UpKeep is one of the few that will set recurring work orders when KPI sensors hit a certain threshold. Why leave any details out when you can keep up with each and every one with the superior power of UpKeep?

Step #5: Record Maintenance Activities in a Log or Database

After successfully finishing the work, the technician closes out the work order, signaling that the PM should reoccur either at its specified interval (fixed) or from the moment the work is completed (floating). 

The work order will be generated automatically upon the next interval being reached, forming a preventive maintenance schedule per asset, area, or facility.

UpKeep allows technicians and maintenance managers to log notes in work orders and tag previous work orders into the asset’s profile. By centralizing the maintenance history and asset logs of each item, technicians can quickly follow previous trends to resolve issues and decrease downtime. 

Step #6: Monitor the Effectiveness of Your PM Schedule and Continue To Make Improvements

Even after you've established your PM schedules, it's crucial to track your progress to maintain efficacy. You can do this by checking to see if each asset receives maintenance as scheduled. 

You can also take a look at the failure frequency before and after implementing the PM schedule. If you're still experiencing frequent failures, you may want to adjust the type and frequency of the PM tasks. Additionally, you may discover that you’re overperforming PM tasks and will need to scale back the frequency to avoid waste. 

Consider monitoring these metrics:

• Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF): MTBF shows the average time between asset breakdowns. This number should increase when an effective PM schedule is applied. 
• Scheduled Maintenance Critical Percentage (SMPC): This metric indicates whether a preventive maintenance task is late and how much. By tracking the tardiness of PM activities, you can understand whether or not you have enough resources (parts, labor, time, etc.) and how to help identify these deficiencies. 
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): OEE tracks how effective your equipment is during operations. This metric tracks efficiency by monitoring the availability, performance, and quality of the equipment.

To improve your maintenance scheduling practices, consider the following pointers:

• Use a CMMS to log data from work orders and assets.
• Don’t account for potential emergency workload schedules to 100%.
• To find inefficiencies, perform a root cause analysis (RCA) on your workflows.

The ultimate goal is to ensure proper equipment maintenance, so keep that in mind when scheduling maintenance work.

Common Preventive Maintenance Scheduling Challenges 

While the scheduling process seems fairly cut and dried, it’s often riddled with challenges that can disrupt workflows and decrease schedule compliance. Some of these challenges include:

• Lack of communication with operations crews
• Inefficient MRO inventory management
• Challenges with suppliers
• Lack of proper in-house training for specialized tasks
• Misunderstandings with contractors

These challenges often stem from the difficulty of working with multiple parties at once. Because of this, schedulers need strong communication skills — and, in some cases, a will of iron — to ensure that tasks happen on time.

Optimize Your Preventive Maintenance Schedule and Operations With UpKeep’s Innovative CMMS Software

Your preventive maintenance schedule may require some fine-tuning before it's perfected. And what better way to refine your PM routine than with a comprehensive tool? UpKeep strives to help businesses and production facilities enhance their PM schedules and practices. Our software is the key to unlocking the potential of your preventive maintenance schedules. 

With our CMMS, you’ll be able to complete tasks that support your PM activities, such as:

• Scheduling equipment maintenance easily
• Monitoring asset performance and maintenance efficiency
• Gaining visibility into maintenance costs
• Making any work order repeat based on a set day, week, or month duration
• Creating automated PMs based on machine cycles, vehicle mileage, or any other unit of measure

With the power of UpKeep, you can keep up with every aspect of each PM schedule. Start your free demo today.