Greetings,

I am using a CMMS that supports work schedules. I wish to set it up so that the planner can start using them. I have done some research on schedule hierarchys but I am currious on what the community uses:

5 year/ 1 year/ 6 month/ 1 month/ 1 week (7 days)?

Is the above typical? Useful? Are there better or more flexible schedules? We have a 12 hour and 10 shift. Should I create a schedule for both or just use the 12 hour?

Anyway, as you can see I am decidedundecided. Any information would be appriciated.

Thanks

It sounds like you are referring to maintenance strategies in CMMS. Otherwise, not so sure about what you want.

You have 12 hour and 10 hour shifts? How are these possible?

We hve Mtce personnel that work 10hr shifts Mon-Thurs and some that work Tue-Fri. Then we have some that work 10hr shifts but are on a staggered 8-6-4-3 rotation. Then we have operator shifts which I wish to include on the schedules that work 12hr shifts. The 12 hr shifts are 24/7.

As you can see it is a hogpog of schedules. The question is how to incorporate these in a scheduling structure that can be used for day-to-day and long term/shut down planning.

I am hoping to see examples of what other facitlities are using to help me put some sort of frame work together for my own situation.

Glen F

What is 8-6-4-3 rotation?

Why do you need to stagger the mtce personnel in that rotation?

Why do you need to stagger the mtce personnel in that rotation?

Good question: First of, the rotation is 8 days on, 6 days off, 4 days on and 3 days off. Our instrumentation staff work this schedule.

Why do they work it? The facility I work at is ~100km from the nearest major urban center. (The town of Swan Hills is ~1500 redsidence. During this booming economy up here, we have ~1000 additional non resident workers here.) To attract workers to work here, it is believed that schedules such as this will better accomidate quality of life issues.

Glen F

Hi Glen, we have 4x4 shifts in operation and find having annual,6mnth,quarterly works well. Maybe a few monthly where necessary but if you go into weekly you will find the paperwork almost unmanageable.
Better to initiate another system for frequent weekly tasks (esp. if they are operator inspections etc.) try looking at some form of line inspection sheet.

Remember its making sure your PMs are done within a certain time frame that is important (PM compliance) and I believe up to 10% is an acceptable variance eg + or - 3 days on a monthly PM or 9 days on a quarterly. This is the hard bit.
You have to make a realistic assessment according to your maintenance staff, their workload etc and balance this with the needs of the equipment.


Mike.

Oh dear, such a complicated rotation. Normally I heard of 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off (just nice for men offshore I guess) and 28 days on x 28 days off. Must be hectic for those who schedule the manpower schedule. Can the company rethink of this? What industry is it?

I think a proper handover procedure must be established (before anything else) with this kind complicated rotation.

Now I start to see your problem as a planner.
I think you want to prepare your work master schedule for the whole year. You can add 3 months as well to your schedule hierarchy.

How about if some of the work is based on running hours?

I think you have to schedule an amount of work to fit the length of shift, which means a lot of variation but necessary.

You may want to refer to Doc Palmer's book for scheduling principles.

Thanks for the reply guys. I appreciate it. I do indeed wish it was a little more straight forward but alas it is what we have to work with.

Interesting point regarding another system for weekly tasks Mike. It may come to that. I did in fact forget about PM time farmes. Thanks for the reminder.

Josh, this facility specializes in hazardous waste destruction and has been in operation now for twenty years. On the surface it appears as straightward operation but in reality is rather sophisticated.

Thanks again for your thoughts guys. If anyone else has any ideas or suggests, please feel free to post.

Glen F

If it's been there for 20 years, why you face scheduling problems now? Hasn't it been done before?

Sorry for my late reply. Has it not been done before? To some extent yes but the company that operated the facility was a publicly traded entity and toward the end of their involvement with the facility many programs were cut, many people layed off and a general belief that the mtce department was a money pit.

We are reaping the rewards for the general disregard that this previous company committed itself to. We are rebuilding from ground zero: 100% reactive to something approaching proactive.