Planned Maintenance

Scheduling & planning

Maintenance & work orders

Preventive maintenance schedule template

Equipment maintenance scheduling

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) is a proactive maintenance strategy in which assets are serviced at predetermined time or usage intervals to reduce the likelihood of failure. Tasks may include inspections, lubrication, filter changes, calibrations, and component replacements. PM schedules are typically based on manufacturer recommendations, regulatory requirements, or historical failure data.

Maintenance Scheduling

Maintenance scheduling is the process of planning when maintenance tasks will be performed, assigning resources (technicians, parts, equipment), and sequencing work to minimise disruption to operations. Effective scheduling balances preventive maintenance intervals, corrective work priorities, resource availability, and production demands. It transforms a backlog of work orders into an executable plan.

Work Order

A work order is a formal document or digital record that authorises and tracks a specific maintenance task. It typically includes the asset identification, description of work required, priority, assigned technician, parts needed, safety requirements, and completion details. Work orders provide a structured workflow from request through approval, execution, and closeout.

Maintenance Backlog

The maintenance backlog is the accumulated queue of approved but not yet completed maintenance work orders at any point in time. It includes all work that has been identified, validated, and approved for execution but has not yet been scheduled or completed due to resource constraints, parts availability, equipment access, or prioritisation decisions. A healthy backlog is a normal and necessary part of maintenance planning because it provides a buffer of ready-to-schedule work that allows planners to optimise crew utilisation. However, an excessively large or growing backlog signals that the organisation is generating maintenance demand faster than it can execute, which leads to increased equipment risk, deferred safety tasks, and declining asset reliability. Backlog work orders should be prioritised by criticality, with safety-related and compliance-driven tasks at the top, followed by tasks that protect critical production assets, and then lower-priority items that can be deferred without significant operational or financial risk.

Shutdown Maintenance

Shutdown maintenance, also called turnaround maintenance, is a planned period during which equipment, a production line, or an entire facility is taken out of service to perform major maintenance, overhauls, inspections, and modifications that cannot be carried out while the asset is operating. Shutdowns are common in process industries such as oil and gas, mining, power generation, and manufacturing where continuous operation makes it impossible to access certain components during normal running. Planning for a shutdown typically begins months in advance and includes scope definition, resource allocation, material procurement, contractor coordination, safety planning, and a detailed task schedule designed to minimise the duration of lost production. The scope of a shutdown can range from a single production line being offline for a day to an entire refinery or processing plant being shut down for several weeks, with hundreds of contractors working simultaneously on thousands of individual tasks that must be carefully sequenced and coordinated.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

Total productive maintenance is a holistic maintenance philosophy that aims to maximise Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by engaging every level of the organisation, from machine operators to senior management, in equipment care. TPM originated in Japanese manufacturing in the 1970s and is built on eight pillars: autonomous maintenance, planned maintenance, quality maintenance, focused improvement, early equipment management, training and education, safety health and environment, and TPM in administration. A core principle is that operators who use the equipment daily are trained and empowered to perform basic cleaning, inspection, and lubrication tasks rather than leaving all maintenance to specialised technicians. This catches early signs of deterioration, frees technicians for complex work, and builds a culture of ownership. Implementation typically begins with a pilot line or asset group to demonstrate results before scaling across the operation, and progress is measured through OEE improvements, reduction in breakdowns, and the maturity of operator-led maintenance routines.