I would like to hear from how other companies are estimating their maintenance repair hours on jobs. We currently don't use any software, but are interested if there is any available in the industry. It is very important to us to estimate the hours to repair so that scheduling can be accomplished more accurately.

1) How do you estimate (software or historical)?
2) How do you improve future estimates?

Hi Dwain,
I am assuming that you mean estimating how long it takes to do each job? This is a common question to which there is no easy answer. I doubt that you would find software that would do this for you. I would recommend breaking each job down into its components parts, the duration of which are easier to guesstimate.

Let's say that someone is carrying out a filter change on an A/C unit. This could be broken down as follows:

1 Go to stock room to pick up filter.
2 Go to fan location.
3 Shut down the A/C unit if running.
4 Remove covers.
5 Remove old filter.
6 Install new filter.
7 Replace covers.
8 Start equipment
9 Check to ensure that everything is OK.
10 Input data to CMMS system.

This is not very scientific but it should give you a fairly accurate estimate. Clearly the person setting the times must be familiar with the work that is taking place. Over time, when you have gathered some history, you can analyse the estimated versus actual times and adjust as required.

I agree it's a common question to maint planners in general. We discussed this topic recently and somebody mentioned that there is a book by John VERGE containing all the figures to start with. TQ

Correction: The author's name is John S PAGE, not VERGE. TQ

I have my own CMMS I developed in MS Access. I developed a simple "Totals Query" to that will give me the Hi, Lo, Avg, Log Hours for every archived Work Order with that Scope Of Work (SOW) code. This does not give me any industry standards just what past history of Work Orders hours for my organization.