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Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

Hi Micah, CMMS softwares are good for routine maintenance jobs but they do not give a good planning overview or gantt charts. Excel or google sheets are useable. However, you will need to customize them and create everything from scratch (unless you find a good template)
A good and easy solution is microsoft project. (we use the same). its easy to use, very easy to learn and a plan made on project shows a very good gantt chart and timelines that is admired by higher management. Also microsoft project is easier than other project management tools like PRIMAVERA.

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

Hi Micah,

Can I ask you what your maintenance plan to accomplish? I am not sure if it is more tactical in nature or are you building on (or developing) a Strategic Asset Management Plan Policy and Strategy. It is intended to document and communicate vision, policy, objectives, and near-term actions It describes the current asset condition, drivers for asset management, links to organizational context with our policy and objectives.  It provides the 'baseline' for your plan and evaluating its effectiveness over time.  

It can help with the plan for maintenance during online plant conditions and outages. You may also be looking for a plan for maintenance to be ready for a turnaround event?  There are resources available from the Electric Power Research Institute for that information which I can forward.

Hope we can help - 

Thanks!

Doug

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

Hi Micah,
As mentioned, CMMS are not good for communicating the plan. A Gantt chart or MS Planner are great tools I have used. Those and similar tools supply the ability to visualize the plan from the moment the first parts are ordered, the arrival onsite and the beginning of work. As a former O&M manager of several power plant types across renewables, including hydro, and carbon plants, it is always a challenge to get the purchasing and contract teams to understand the need to have orders filled on time. Gantt, Planner, etc. flow charts are good visual aids to understand the needs. Back those up with RACI matrices identifying personal responsibility, alerting people they are personally responsible for outage delays. 

Your plan must include milestones. If the runner(s) will be removed and repaired, the vendor(s) supplying the services must be contracted to be available to arrive on the dates necessary. Arranging the contract must be included in the plan as milestones; search for vendors, receive bids, select, meet and great to discuss site vs vendor safety regulations, etc. If the runner(s) will be replaced, then lead time on the new runner(s) must be considered in the plan and include milestones to verify progress with the vendor. Planned: everything, parts, personnel, permits, etc., required for the work is on site or has a verified arrival date. Scheduled: After the plan is known and verified, set the dates. 

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

Good day Larry, 

You really stated one of our biggest challenges in the O&M department. Sometimes one minor change in a contract can delay a major project for weeks. I will surely be looking into using MS Planner for our upcoming 2024 plan. Really appreciate the response. 

Lastly, any tips you can give a young Maintenance Planner thats been tasked to bring fort all new maintenance strategies and plans to a company that have never before adapted to this approach to maintenance before. Our management now sees the need for it and want it but its never been done. 

Thanks again, Mr Larry 

Hi Micah,
As mentioned, CMMS are not good for communicating the plan. A Gantt chart or MS Planner are great tools I have used. Those and similar tools supply the ability to visualize the plan from the moment the first parts are ordered, the arrival onsite and the beginning of work. As a former O&M manager of several power plant types across renewables, including hydro, and carbon plants, it is always a challenge to get the purchasing and contract teams to understand the need to have orders filled on time. Gantt, Planner, etc. flow charts are good visual aids to understand the needs. Back those up with RACI matrices identifying personal responsibility, alerting people they are personally responsible for outage delays. 

Your plan must include milestones. If the runner(s) will be removed and repaired, the vendor(s) supplying the services must be contracted to be available to arrive on the dates necessary. Arranging the contract must be included in the plan as milestones; search for vendors, receive bids, select, meet and great to discuss site vs vendor safety regulations, etc. If the runner(s) will be replaced, then lead time on the new runner(s) must be considered in the plan and include milestones to verify progress with the vendor. Planned: everything, parts, personnel, permits, etc., required for the work is on site or has a verified arrival date. Scheduled: After the plan is known and verified, set the dates. 

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024. 

No need to start with a blank document. Any similar plants you can barrow from? Old plans for your plant, even if not accurate to your needs? If nothing else, find a template online from any plant. All those give you a starting point.

Do not attempt perfection. Create what you believe is 40% to 60% correct. Knowing you are wrong. Take your best estimate to management and production SMEs. Work with representatives from both groups together. Refine the plan until it seems about 70% or better. Minor maintenance, such as a sump pump replacement, you can probably plan 90% or better on the first run. An outage is weeks to months, starting around 60% and increasing while aligning with all teams and concerns. 

Good day Larry, 

You really stated one of our biggest challenges in the O&M department. Sometimes one minor change in a contract can delay a major project for weeks. I will surely be looking into using MS Planner for our upcoming 2024 plan. Really appreciate the response. 

Lastly, any tips you can give a young Maintenance Planner thats been tasked to bring fort all new maintenance strategies and plans to a company that have never before adapted to this approach to maintenance before. Our management now sees the need for it and want it but its never been done. 

Thanks again, Mr Larry 

Hi Micah,
As mentioned, CMMS are not good for communicating the plan. A Gantt chart or MS Planner are great tools I have used. Those and similar tools supply the ability to visualize the plan from the moment the first parts are ordered, the arrival onsite and the beginning of work. As a former O&M manager of several power plant types across renewables, including hydro, and carbon plants, it is always a challenge to get the purchasing and contract teams to understand the need to have orders filled on time. Gantt, Planner, etc. flow charts are good visual aids to understand the needs. Back those up with RACI matrices identifying personal responsibility, alerting people they are personally responsible for outage delays. 

Your plan must include milestones. If the runner(s) will be removed and repaired, the vendor(s) supplying the services must be contracted to be available to arrive on the dates necessary. Arranging the contract must be included in the plan as milestones; search for vendors, receive bids, select, meet and great to discuss site vs vendor safety regulations, etc. If the runner(s) will be replaced, then lead time on the new runner(s) must be considered in the plan and include milestones to verify progress with the vendor. Planned: everything, parts, personnel, permits, etc., required for the work is on site or has a verified arrival date. Scheduled: After the plan is known and verified, set the dates. 

Good day, I'm Micah Thompson a young maintenance Planner and Outage Coordinator for a Hydro Electric Company in Belize. I was recently in the role of a Mechanical Technician and now currently in my planner role. I am now looking to start my maintenance Plan for 2024. I was wondering what other planner use to portray their plans to other members of the company. I know we usually have our CMMS but to present our dates and small projects in a format which can be viewed and easily understood from all different areas of the company. For example the use of excel or planner. Just looking for some advice to get starting with creating a plan for 2024.