Changing the way we measure performance - Planning and Scheduling (Pt1)

Planning and scheduling is the most common set of metrics within the maintenance department, yet like many other we find ourselves stuck in the same cycle of measuring things that either provide us low value, or are easily manipulated. 

As with every other type of indicator, the goal is not to produce outstanding measures every time. This is how scheduling metrics generally end up figuring in company dashboards. 

The real goal is to be able to highlight areas of poor performance that we can improve, or to measure parts of our process to see how we are managing our workload. Unfortunately, nobody has informed the army of SAP consultants circling the globe forcing un-workable systems on companies... but that's another story. 

The metrics included in this post are not the run of the mill, and are designed to produce a specific result. 

How well are we planning?

The standard answer to this is to produce schedule compliance metrics. metrics that show we had two hundred work orders issued, and we signed off two hundred work orders. 

Aside from the the the the that this is a measure of execution, not of planning or scheduling, there are also a range of additional common problems, including;

• Never any importance given the date of execution

• No reliance on hours worked or actual duration, just numbers

• No importance given (At all) to the whether the work is valid or not

• No importance given to how the work was undertaken

• Takes away from the possibility of opportune work, and many, many more issues. 

Even if it were a valuable metric, measured correctly, it only shows us that we have signed of work in the schedule. Nothing more and nothing less.

I have seen so many issues with this metric that I tend to glaze over when I see it being used. 

Age versus Priority

The real measure of how well we are able to planning and scheduling work is captured in the age versus priority work order reports. 

The Age versus priority Graph

Age vs Priority is a leading metric. it tell you not only how you are performing  but also gives you an insight into the current levels of risk the organisation is faced with. 

The underlying concepts are a) all priorities are interlinked with time, and b) all decisions are taken based on priority. This includes which tasks to put into the schedule, which tasks are allowed to break in to the work schedule, and how to decide what to do when an opportunity to do maintenance arises. (E.g.. do we stick to the schedule or do we switch to higher priory planned work?)

With those two concepts understood, the graph suddenly springs to life. 

It shows us how many weeks past their due dates are work orders with different priorities. 

This tells us:

• If a work order has not been done by its perform by date then we are running the risk of something more serious occurring. (Risk)

• We are not currently able to keep up with our high priority work due to either too little labour or too much break-in work. (Efficiency)

In short, it tells us just how well we are managing our planning, scheduling and execution of high priority tasks; thus reducing the risk of unplanned failure to the organization. 

Next post: More planning metrics and a focus on detailed schedule compliance.