Course Overview
This comprehensive professional development program is designed for Project Managers, Maintenance Planners, Maintenance Supervisors, Maintenance Managers, Maintenance Engineers, Planning Engineers, Operation Engineers, Operation Coordinators, Production Supervisors, and Reliability Engineers responsible for implementing maintenance planning across semiconductor, brick manufacturing, pulp-and-paper, and multi-organizational contexts. The program addresses proven practices in preventive maintenance scheduling, maintenance strategy alignment, and cross-functional planning where semiconductor case showing PM analysis reducing planned downtime and freeing technician hours, brick-manufacturing review emphasizing aligning maintenance tasks with appropriate strategies improving reliability and availability, and ABB industrial-plant case showing standardizing maintenance procedures and planning-scheduling protocols significantly increasing plant productivity and reducing costs.
The curriculum integrates Maintenance Planning and Scheduling, Workforce Management, Role of Maintenance Planner, Programmed Maintenance Development and Planning, Planning Processes for Maintenance Work Orders, Automated Maintenance Management Systems, Performance Management, and Contracting Out and Outsourcing Work to provide comprehensive coverage of maintenance planning principles, work-order workflows, and performance measurement domains for achieving professional maintenance planning excellence.
Why This Course Is Required?
PM scheduling optimization and workload reduction represent critical competencies where Penang semiconductor case showing analyzing PM activities and machine downtime then simplifying and restructuring PM schedule reducing planned downtime and freeing up technician hours with company separating machines into critical and non-critical categories and integrating PM with production planning and clarifying periodic intervals and clustering tasks by technicians. Maintenance strategy alignment and reliability improvement demand specialized knowledge where brick-manufacturing review emphasizing aligning maintenance tasks with appropriate strategies including preventive and predictive and corrective and using historical failure data to prioritize work on critical equipment improving reliability and availability. Cross-functional planning and productivity enhancement require professionals with planning expertise where ABB industrial-plant case showing improving and standardizing maintenance procedures and planning-and-scheduling protocols supported by cross-functional teams significantly increasing plant productivity and reducing costs.
Maintenance planning professionals must master maintenance planning fundamentals including work management process and work identification and work prioritization and definition of planning and scheduling and managing backlogs and materials and work execution and managing data accuracy and planning window and key performance indicators, understand comprehensive programmed maintenance frameworks including criticality grading and failure modes and effects analysis and programmed task selection criteria and task plans and work orders and corrective maintenance task procedures, and apply proper planning processes including work order systems and main steps and workflow and planning work process including scoping and creating detailed plan and level of detail required and time and cost estimates and parts and tools and job safety and closure and feedback to ensure organizations achieve superior PM scheduling optimization and workload reduction, enhanced maintenance strategy alignment and reliability improvement, improved cross-functional planning and productivity enhancement, and competitive advantage through work prioritization, workforce planning, and continuous performance measurement and CMMS-supported planning protocols.
Research demonstrates training is crucial for success, with Penang semiconductor case showing technicians’ PM workload could be reduced while improving effectiveness by focusing attention on critical machines and training operators and integrating PM with production schedules with course building capabilities including criticality grading and task clustering and integrating with operations and simplifying schedules to design realistic plans lowering downtime, while brick-manufacturing case demonstrating maintenance planners who use failure data and asset criticality to structure plans and schedules can materially improve equipment reliability and availability with by learning to define work-order workflows and estimate time and resources and set appropriate frequencies based on risk and history gaining tools to move organization from reactive to proactive maintenance, and ABB industrial-plant case showing planners who work within cross-functional teams and standardized planning-scheduling protocols becoming central to productivity and cost improvements with modules on workforce management and role clarification and CMMS-supported planning and performance indicators preparing to take that central role.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion, participants will have demonstrated mastery of:
- Increasing equipment availability, reliability, safety, and asset profitability by structuring maintenance plans and schedules around asset criticality, failure history, and business risk.
- Achieving maximum effectiveness by clearly separating planning from execution, defining robust work‑management workflows (from identification and prioritisation to closure and feedback), and using realistic weekly and daily schedules that technicians can actually complete.
- Distinguishing between planning and scheduling processes, and aligning them with production and operations so PM and corrective work are timed to minimise downtime and production disruption.
- Applying suitable risk‑management techniques and criticality grading to focus resources on high‑impact assets, create reusable job plans, and systematically reduce maintenance‑driven failures instead of reacting to breakdowns.
- Assessing and measuring the effectiveness of the maintenance process using CMMS data and KPIs (schedule compliance, backlog health, emergency work, cost and OEE impact), recognising root causes of delays and inefficiencies, and driving continuous improvement toward a predominantly proactive maintenance regime.
Master professional maintenance planning excellence and drive PM optimization and reliability improvement success. Enroll today to become a Certified Maintenance Planner!
Training Methodology
This interactive Certified Maintenance Planner Training program comprises the following training methods:
The training framework includes:
- Interactive Lectures
- Seminars and Presentations
- Video Clips
- Group Discussions
- Assignments
- Case Studies and Functional Exercises
- Workshops developing criticality grading and work-order planning skills
- Hands-on exercises practicing CMMS utilization and performance indicator tracking
- Practical demonstrations with work prioritization scenarios and backlog management techniques
This immersive approach fosters practical skill development and real-world application of maintenance planning principles through comprehensive coverage of maintenance planning principles, work-order workflows, and performance measurement with emphasis on measurable PM optimization and reliability improvement and productivity enhancement.
This program follows the Do-Review-Learn-Apply model, creating a structured learning journey that transforms traditional maintenance approaches into professional maintenance planning excellence.
Who Should Attend?
This Professional Maintenance Planner Training Course is designed for:
- Project Managers
- Maintenance Planners
- Maintenance Supervisors
- Maintenance Managers
- Maintenance Engineers
- Planning Engineers
- Operation Engineers
- Operation Coordinators
- Production Supervisors
- Reliability Engineers
- Asset managers
- CMMS administrators
- Workforce coordinators
Organizational Benefits
Organizations implementing professional maintenance planning training will benefit through:
- Significantly enhanced PM scheduling optimization and workload reduction through comprehensive training delivering measurable returns where Penang semiconductor case showing analyzing PM activities and machine downtime then simplifying and restructuring PM schedule reducing planned downtime and freeing about 5.67 technician-hours per week for higher-value tasks exactly what training teaches
- Better maintenance strategy alignment and reliability improvement through brick-manufacturing review showing planning and scheduling having to explicitly align maintenance tasks with chosen maintenance strategies and asset criticality to be effective with using historical failure data on critical machine developing optimized maintenance plans and schedules improving reliability and availability as organizational benefits highlighted in training
- Improved cross-functional planning and productivity enhancement through ABB industrial-plant case showing comprehensive reliability-improvement program implementing standardizing maintenance procedures and strengthening maintenance planning and scheduling protocols across cross-functional teams improving plant productivity and reducing costs validating course content
- Strengthened competitive advantage through comprehensive understanding of maintenance planning principles, work-order workflows, and performance measurement that enable superior professional maintenance planning excellence
Studies show that organizations implementing comprehensive professional maintenance planning training achieve significantly enhanced delivery outcomes as research confirms semiconductor company implementing simplified PM schedule after classifying machines into critical and non-critical categories with each having different priority level being crucial step towards solving issue at hand and ensuring reduction in downtime occurrence in addition to reducing workload of technicians reinforcing course’s emphasis on criticality-based planning, better organizational outcomes through strategy alignment evidence demonstrating brick manufacturer using combination of time-based and condition-based approaches to maintenance planning and scheduling being successful in preventing failure recurrence and optimizing maintenance program with extended evaluation of data provided through condition-based assisting in optimizing maintenance tasks and scheduling, and improved competitive positioning as maintenance planning approach enables better productivity while organizations benefit from improving technique of planning maintenance activities by tracking equipment throughout life cycle, enhancing compliance with government protocols and procedures on maintenance, assessing which maintenance planning objectives are feasible and which ones need to be prioritized, benefiting from training employees on definition and importance of planning mechanical tasks, benefiting from understanding of distinct roles played within guidelines of maintenance planning, learning and applying standards in maintenance planning and safe operation and monitoring of equipment and equipment maintenance, and delegates being able to apply gained knowledge through course and practice skills impacting respective companies.
Empower your organization with professional maintenance planning expertise. Enroll your team today and see the transformation in PM optimization and reliability!
Personal Benefits
Professionals implementing professional maintenance planning training will benefit through:
- Deeper understanding of criticality-task-clustering-integration mastery and realistic-plan design through Penang semiconductor case showing technicians’ PM workload could be reduced while improving effectiveness by focusing attention on critical machines and training operators and integrating PM with production schedules with course building same capabilities including criticality grading and task clustering and integrating with operations and simplifying schedules so professionals can design realistic plans that lower downtime and make better use of limited maintenance resources
- Enhanced failure-data-criticality mastery and proactive-maintenance advancement through brick-manufacturing case demonstrating maintenance planners who use failure data and asset criticality to structure plans and schedules can materially improve equipment reliability and availability with by learning to define work-order workflows and estimate time and resources and set appropriate frequencies based on risk and history gaining tools to move organization from reactive to proactive maintenance
- Stronger cross-functional-standardized mastery and central-role positioning through ABB industrial-plant case showing planners who work within cross-functional teams and standardized planning-scheduling protocols becoming central to productivity and cost improvements with modules on workforce management and role clarification and CMMS-supported planning and performance indicators preparing to take that central role and to communicate clearly with production and engineering and management
- Advanced expertise in maintenance planning principles, work-order workflows, and performance measurement
- Enhanced career prospects and marketability in maintenance planning, asset management, reliability engineering, and CMMS management sectors with professionals gaining skills in criticality grading, backlog management, and KPI tracking
- Ability to learn how to calculate entire life-cycle costs of maintenance planning rather than only initial costs
- Skills to make more informed decisions to support long-term success of organization’s mission and goals and objectives
- Knowledge to assess risk implications of asset failure to help focus resources on critical priorities and reduce overall risk
- Capability to reduce unexpected failures with structured day-to-day attention to maintenance planning thus minimizing emergency repairs and costly lawsuits and customer relations problems
- Understanding to become expert in field of maintenance planning to expand professional horizons on global scale
- Expertise to improve work opportunities across industries like oil and gas and automobile and production and construction and aeronautics worldwide
- Proficiency to secure relevant job anywhere in world with right knowledge in maintenance planning
- Recognition for getting promoted in current job in maintenance planning field
- Opportunity to acquire professional skills and knowledge required to accomplish tasks with optimal competence and accuracy
Course Outline
Module 1: Maintenance Planning & Scheduling
- Why should we focus on planning & scheduling?
- Work management process
- Work identification
- Work prioritisation
- Definition of planning
- Definition of scheduling
- Managing backlogs
- Managing materials
- Work execution
- Managing data accuracy
- The planning window
- Key performance indicators
- Separating planning from doing the work
- Weekly and daily scheduling practices that work
Module 2: Workforce Management
- Introduction to workforce management
- The change management process
- Workforce planning
- Employee life cycle
- Workforce generations
- Benchmarking in workforce management
- Organisation structure
- Defining roles for planners, supervisors, and technicians
- Aligning crew capacity with the work plan
Module 3: Role of the Maintenance Planner
- Importance of maintenance and asset management
- Objectives and types of maintenance
- Evolution of the maintenance function
- The planning processes
- Types of maintenance
- Clarification of roles in maintenance activities
- Defining the work order system
- Setting priorities to work orders
- Establishing a preventive maintenance program
- Preventive maintenance risks
- Using criticality to focus the planner’s effort
- Documenting job plans for repeatable work
Module 4: Programmed Maintenance Development and Planning
- Criticality grading
- Failure modes and effects analysis
- Programmed task selection criteria and tools
- Task plans and work orders
- Corrective maintenance task procedures
- Practical exercise and discussion
- Linking FMEA results to PM task lists
- Adjusting frequencies from history and risk
Module 5: Planning Processes for Maintenance Work Orders
- Work Order systems
- Main steps
- Workflow
- Planning work process
- Scoping
- Creating a detailed plan
- The level of detail required
- Time and cost estimates
- Parts and tools
- Job safety
- Closure and feedback
- Standard job packages with all needed information
- Using feedback to improve future plans
Module 6: Automated Maintenance Management Systems
- Planning principles versus using a CMMS
- Helpful features for planning and scheduling
- Types of projects
- Planning for a CMMS
- Ongoing support
- Scheduling with computer spreadsheets
- The MPSH scheduler excel spreadsheet
- Ensuring data quality and coding in CMMS
- Basic reports for backlog and KPI tracking
Module 7: Performance Management
- Setting up performance indicators and data sources
- Work management performance indicators
- Asset maintenance effectiveness performance indicators
- Cost control performance indicators
- Planning performance indicators
- Practical exercise and discussion
- Using OEE and GLP to see planning impact
- Tracking emergency work and schedule compliance
Module 8: Contracting Out / Outsourcing Work
- Benefits of contracting/outsourcing
- Problems with contracting/outsourcing
- Alternative forms of contracting/outsourcing
- Deciding what to keep in‑house vs. contract
- Managing contractor performance and interfaces
Real World Examples
Semiconductor manufacturer in Penang, Malaysia – PM schedule optimization
Implementation: A semiconductor company in Penang, Malaysia with 109 machines operated by only 8 technicians (6 on day-shift and 2 on night-shift) for maintenance work suffered frequent breakdowns and heavy technician workload because its preventive-maintenance schedule was complex and poorly prioritized. Company faced major and minor breakdown problems with major breakdowns requiring maintenance for more than 2 hours. Data for major machine downtime was collected from January 2011 until September 2011 with April 2011 showing worst downtime at 449.25 hours total. Analysis using affinity diagram and tree diagram highlighted several issues with PM implementation including ineffective maintenance schedule and insufficient focus on critical machines. By analyzing downtime data, company classified 109 machines into critical and non-critical categories based on production flow importance, simplified PM schedule by focusing resources on critical machines that control overall production flow, coordinated PM activities with production shutdowns to minimize disruption, and clustered maintenance tasks by technicians to optimize workload distribution.
Results: Company reduced planned downtime and freed approximately 5.67 technician-hours per week for higher-value tasks by eliminating weekly maintenance of non-critical machines from master schedule. Implementation proved that separating machines into critical and non-critical categories with each having different priority level was crucial step towards solving issue and ensuring reduction in downtime occurrence in addition to reducing workload of technicians. Results illustrated how professional maintenance planning and scheduling as taught in this course improves both reliability and efficiency, demonstrating how structured planning and scheduling core skills in this course can cut downtime and workload while maintaining safety and throughput.
Brick-manufacturing company – Strategy-aligned planning and scheduling
Implementation: An engineering maintenance case study on brick-manufacturing company found that planning and scheduling had to explicitly align maintenance tasks with chosen maintenance strategies and asset criticality to be effective. Company faced poor quality production of bricks resulting in customer complaints and corrective action requests due to unplanned work or breakdowns on critical extruder machine. Through case study evaluating maintenance strategic approaches on critical asset using Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), company analyzed historic failure analysis of recorded breakdowns between years 2018 to 2022. Implementation involved optimizing maintenance plans and schedules using hybrid maintenance strategy including both time-based and condition-based approaches, with proactive maintenance strategies comprising predictive maintenance (vibration analysis, oil sampling), condition-based maintenance (inspection of components during operation), reliability-centered maintenance (scheduled replacement based on runtime hours), and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) involving operators in cleaning and basic maintenance tasks.
Results: Using historical failure data on critical extruder machine, company developed optimized maintenance plans and schedules that improved reliability and availability, with year 2022 showing noticeable improvement in downtime reduction attributed to improved availability of extruder machine as result of optimized maintenance planning and scheduling. Study concluded that combination of time-based and condition-based approaches to maintenance planning and scheduling could be successful in preventing failure recurrence and optimizing maintenance program, reinforcing value of data-driven, strategy-aligned planning skills developed in this course. Results demonstrated that continuous planning and scheduling based on asset criticality and failure history is necessary to reduce unplanned work and support stable production, which matches this course’s focus on risk-based planning, work prioritization, and KPI-driven improvement.
Industrial plant supported by ABB Consulting – Cross-functional planning and scheduling
Implementation: In case study by ABB Consulting, industrial pulp-and-paper mill sought to maximize asset reliability and productivity following facility consolidation by partnering with ABB to identify and implement variety of maintenance improvement initiatives. ABB conducted detailed benchmark study of existing maintenance and reliability situation at mill and developed list of prioritized recommendations. Implementation involved comprehensive reliability-improvement program that included standardizing maintenance procedures and strengthening maintenance planning and scheduling protocols across cross-functional teams comprising Maintenance Planners, Maintenance Supervisors, and Validators (operations staff representatives) from eight critical functional areas. Training and certification program involved three levels of certification (bronze, silver, gold) for individual team members with curriculum focused on improving maintenance-related planning and scheduling activities to support world-class maintenance and reliability program covering topics including maintenance planning and work prioritization, backlog management, planned and rebuild parts management, spare parts identification, time estimation for work order execution, performance indicators, and more.
Results: Initiative improved plant productivity and reduced costs by ensuring maintenance tasks were properly planned, prioritized, and coordinated with operations. As result of reliability improvement initiatives including training and certification of Core Team members, facility achieved 3-4 percent improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) across all three paper machines. Maintenance spend as function of average replacement value improved from 3.1 to 2.7 meaning it costs mill far less to maintain same set of assets. Among Planners who took initial assessment exam, 50 percent passed on first try but after entire team received additional training and coaching all passed second reassessment. Results provided practical example of how planning, scheduling, and performance-management techniques from this course deliver measurable results, illustrating how methods taught in this course work management, workforce planning, and performance measurement translate into tangible performance gains.
Be inspired by leading professional maintenance planning achievements. Register now to build the skills your organization needs for PM optimization and reliability excellence!
