What Is Scheduled Maintenance? A Guide for Maintenance Managers

Maintenance planning and maintenance scheduling are not the same thing. On the one hand, you can plan to carry out your maintenance schedule and then postpone actually scheduling it. Scheduled maintenance involves deciding on a certain task to be performed, determining the time or date the maintenance will occur, and then assigning maintenance to the right technician.

Understanding and properly implementing scheduled maintenance can improve equipment uptime and performance, efficiency, and lower costs. This article will explain what scheduled maintenance is, how it works, how to calculate it, and how to improve it.

What is Scheduled Maintenance?

As previously mentioned, scheduled maintenance is the process of carrying out your planned maintenance tasks; it involves specifying a task and a deadline and assigning the task to a qualified technician. Scheduling maintenance is the backbone behind your overall maintenance strategy. 

While maintenance strategies differ (reactive, preventive, or predictive), scheduling maintenance will either attempt to mitigate damage from an ongoing mechanical issue (reactive) or align with the regular maintenance plan that occurs before any faults occur (proactive). Scheduled maintenance tasks will range from simple checks to complex overhauls that are triggered by time intervals, usage, or condition triggers.

How Scheduled Maintenance Works

Scheduled maintenance revolves around your maintenance plan, which will include identifying the maintenance needs of your equipment and scheduling regular maintenance tasks based on manufacturer recommendations, historical data, or real-time equipment performance. 

We’ve included some examples of scheduled maintenance tasks below for your convenience.

What is Scheduled Maintenance Critical Percent (SMCP)?

In maintenance management, the best-laid plans can fall by the wayside. Not all tasks will be completed on schedule. The deviation from your plan will raise the question of the importance and prioritization of overdue maintenance tasks. 

To properly address this situation, the Scheduled Maintenance Critical Percent (SMCP) formula can be used to organize and prioritize maintenance tasks (also known as Preventive Maintenance or PM). 

Understanding SMCP

The SMCP formula provides a methodical and measured approach to determining the urgency of your overdue maintenance tasks. This formula determines how late your PM tasks are compared to their regular scheduled frequency. The higher the SMCP value, the more important it is to prioritize that specific task.

Calculating SMCP

The formula for SMCP is:

Example Calculations

Consider two overdue maintenance tasks on identical systems:

• PM #1: Scheduled every 45 days but is seven days late.
  • SMCP: (7 + 45) ÷ 45 × 100 = 115.56%
• PM #2: Scheduled every 60 days and is ten days late.
  • SMCP: (10 + 60) ÷ 60 × 100 = 116.67%

In this example, PM #2 has a slightly higher critical percentage of 116.67% than PM #1, which is ten days late. As a result, PM #2 should be prioritized for completion ahead of PM #1.

Using SMCP in Maintenance Management

Overdue maintenance can have unintended consequences, including increased costs and unexpected downtime. Use SMCP to avoid problems by categorizing overdue tasks based on their potential impact. This formula can aid in systematically eliminating potential inefficiencies and losses in production schedules. Tasks with the highest priority will have the highest SMCP values, and vice versa. 

Scheduled Maintenance With LLumin’s CMMS+

Scheduled maintenance is required to keep equipment operational, reduce unplanned downtime, and avoid the high costs associated with unexpected breakdowns. Your technicians and managers will play critical roles in this process, and tools like LLumin’s CMMS+ can help you achieve your desired improvement goals. 

Consider LLumin’s CMMS+ as a powerful tool that can be used to enhance and support your ongoing maintenance practices, resulting in more effective maintenance management. With the right tools and processes, improvement that once seemed out of reach can become possible.