Top Common Mistakes Maintenance Planners and Schedulers Make

1. Planning from the desk instead of the field

• Not inspecting the job site
• Missing access issues, safety hazards, or real conditions
• Not verifying parts, tools, or special equipment (Scheduling function)
  Result: Technicians arrive and immediately “discover” problems the planner should have caught.

2. Writing vague or incomplete job plans

Examples:

• “Fix pump.”
• “Replace motor.”
• “Inspect conveyor.”

Without:

• Clear scope
• Task steps
• Torque values
• Tools required
• Permits needed
• Estimated labour hours
  Result:  Rework, inconsistent work quality, and troubleshooting delays.

3. Not coordinating with stores for availability of parts and materials (Scheduling function)

• Assuming parts are in stock
• Not checking lead times
• Not verifying the correct revision or BOM
  Result:  Techs waste time searching for materials or jobs get postponed.

4. Planning reactive work instead of enforcing a backlog

Many planners get dragged into “firefighting,” and then:

• Stop doing forward planning
• Spend time chasing emergencies
• Let PM and corrective backlog grow
  Result:  Chronic reactive culture.

5. Not maintaining an organized, prioritized backlog

• Jobs lacking prioritization (criticality-based)
• No standard lead times
• Duplicate work orders
• Poor descriptions
  Result:  Scheduler can’t build a realistic weekly schedule.

6. Overestimating or underestimating job durations

• No feedback loop from technicians
• Poor descriptions
  Result:  Schedule non-compliance.

7. Not communicating with technicians or supervision

• Not asking for input during plan development
• Not reviewing completed work orders, No Consistent Quality control of provided information before closing work orders.
• Not gathering feedback to improve future plans
  Result:  Plans never improve and mistakes repeat.

8. Ignoring failure history and asset condition data

• Not reviewing past breakdowns
• Not checking trends in CMMS, PdM systems, or OT data
  Result:  Plans don’t address root causes and repeat failures

9. Using planners as relief supervisors, expediters or parts chasers

This isn’t a planner’s fault, but it’s a common organizational mistake:

• Planners run around finding parts
• Get pulled into daily emergencies
• Lose time for proactive planning
  Result:  No planning → no stability → more reactive work.

10. Not setting up job plans for repeatability

• No standard job plans for recurring work
• No templates for PMs or common failures
  Result:  Every job becomes a “reinvent the wheel” exercise.

11. Allowing work to be planned without proper priority or approval

• Planning tasks that aren’t necessary
• No supervisor/engineering review, No Consistent Quality control of provided information before prioritizing or approval.
  Result:  Waste of labor on low-value work.

12. Not training your planners and schedulers properly

• How to use the CMMS that you have in place
• The maintenance planning and scheduling process
• Where to find equipment data and information, things like data sheets, and drawings, and equipment manuals.
• How to create and store job plans and work packages.
• How to order parts and materials.
• The kitting and staging processes that happen in the warehouse.
• Result:  Unwanted increase in the Mean Time To Repair.