By 
Make the most of your time and resources
Congratulations! You are the new maintenance manager for Megamonolith Corporation. Although he is excited about the position, he realizes that he has a lot of work ahead of him. Megamonolith recently bought another company and you are assigned to the site. During your first six months, you conduct a facility audit and discover that the previous maintenance program consisted only of breakdown repairs. (For information on facility audits, see my white paper “The Facility Audit” available on my website at http://www.fps-fm.com).
One of the first things you should do is establish a work management and coordination program that helps you and your staff identify, prioritize, plan, and track corrective actions. Everyone involved in maintenance should use the same process and everywhere. How can you do this?
The system we propose provides these important benefits:
1.Easy retrieval and dissemination of information.
2. Ensures immediate response for emergencies and safety-related issues.
3. Avoid wasting time.
4. Provide easy-to-follow guidelines and standards.
5. Use standard software.
6. Establish procedures.
7. Highly profitable.
The central point of a maintenance planning system is the Work Reception and Coordination Center, or WRCC. Depending on the size of your facility, it can be a group of staff or a single specialist who can even be an outsourced service provider. The WRCC is a single point of submission for all job applications; prioritizes and coordinates all work requests and provides a current status of all work in progress. Through the use of database applications, the WRCC provides critical information including prioritizing, leading, and assisting shops or contractors, and ensures that standardized forms and processes are used.
A word about priority. Regardless of the final form of your maintenance planning program, you need to ensure that work requests are answered in the appropriate manner. Here’s a suggestion:
Priority 1: Threat to life, health or safety. Requires immediate response on site.
Priority 2: Affects working conditions, affects ADA / disabled access or code requirements, but does not meet Pri-1 criteria. Requires recognition within 1 business day.
Priority 3: Highly desirable, will improve productivity, customer service and / or working conditions.
Requires recognition within 2 business days.
Priority 4: Desirable, routine work or improves community relations. Requires recognition within 2 business days.
Some companies set another high-level priority for C-level staff job applications, which could be listed by following Priority 2 or 3 in the matrix above.
Here is a flowchart for the job application:
1. Incoming job application -> Priority 1?
Yes, notify the Facility Manager and submit the work order immediately to the main shop. The lead shop begins work.
No, go to step 2.
2. Decision: does the work meet the planning criteria?
Yes, the request is sent to the maintenance planner and then to the Facilities Manager for approval. After installation
Manager approval, the work order is sent to the main shop or archived for later use when funds and
resources are available.
No, if it is within the authority of WRCC, the work order is generated and sent to the main shop for action. If the request is
Outside the authority of the WRCC, the work order is submitted to the Facility Manager for approval and scheduling.
The facility manager has the authority to reject and / or schedule all work orders.
Under normal conditions, the job application would be submitted by the manager of the home department. Only Priority 1 requests should skip this important step.
The WRCC decides whether the work meets planning criteria to ensure that human, budgetary, and equipment resources are available. Routine work that is within the scope of the WRCC’s authority results in a work order being sent to the main shop. Other requests go to maintenance department staff and then to the facility manager for final approval before being issued as work orders.