How it is organized
You define maintenance task lists: what gets checked on each type of equipment and how often. They produce the preventive work orders, which are carried out with their checklist. When an inspection finds something, it creates planned corrective work.
Why plans slip
Because preventive work competes at a disadvantage. The emergency has someone on the phone; the planned inspection has nobody to stand up for it. And there are three specific causes:
- There is an intention, not a schedule. If the plan does not create an assigned, dated work order, it does not exist.
- Postponing costs nothing. If nobody sees that an inspection was pushed back, it gets pushed back again.
- It is not measured. Without the ratio of corrective to preventive work in front of them, nobody sees things getting worse.
The usual mistake
Planning too much. A plan that checks everything every month does not get done, and a plan that is not done is worse than no plan: it creates paperwork and a false sense of control. Start with critical equipment and expand once the plan is being met.