Hello Abrar,
You don't need a third-party planning database to build solid Planning practices. Many high-performing sites rely on a simple spreadsheet to estimate task durations and use their CMMS to capture actual hours, closeout details, and KPI performance. This approach aligns cleanly with SMRP Work Management guidance and gives planners full control over how norms are created and improved.
A spreadsheet works because it lets you build standard durations for recurring tasks, tie them directly to your job plans, and refine those estimates as real execution data becomes available. The CMMS then serves as the single source of truth for validating your estimates. As actual hours accumulate, you can compare them against your planned hours, monitor variance, and adjust norms through metrics such as Actual Hours to Planning Estimate and the Planning Variance Index. Over time, this produces more predictable planning and a more stable schedule.
The KPIs that drive maturity are the same ones SMRP emphasizes. Labor Utilization helps you understand whether planned hours are aligned with the craft hours actually logged. PM Compliance and PM Yield confirm whether your job plans support predictable preventive work and whether your PM program is generating meaningful corrective actions. Work Order Compliance provides the feedback needed to refine your plans and ensure they reflect real field conditions. Schedule Compliance remains the primary indicator of planning accuracy, because as planning improves, schedule adherence reliably increases.
Many organizations overestimate the need for external databases when the most accurate information already exists in their own CMMS history. The real challenge is not access to a large library of standard times. It is protecting planner time, capturing consistent feedback from the technicians doing the work, and using SMRP KPIs to validate whether planning accuracy is actually improving. When these fundamentals are in place, a simple tool becomes extremely powerful.
Success shows up when every available labor hour is scheduled, when job plan durations become consistent and repeatable, when the variance between planned and actual hours steadily decreases. This confirms that your planning process is stabilizing, schedule reliability is improving, and the organization is moving toward a proactive maintenance culture.
------------------------------
Clayton Robbins
Senior Consultant
Osorno
Lawrenceville GA
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 12-05-2025 04:40 PM
From: Abrar Ahmad
Subject: Planning Norms Database
Hello everyone,
We're in the process of establishing Planning Norms to support our Maintenance Planners, and I'd love to tap into the community's experience.
Commercial Databases: I'm aware that there are some planning and estimating norms databases available in the market. Can anyone recommend reliable sources for a comprehensive Planning and Estimating Norms database?
Your Experience: If you've used planning norms before, what was your experience like? Any challenges you faced or tips you'd share for successful implementation?
Thanks in advance for your insights!
------------------------------
Abrar Ahmad
Specialist, M&R Advisor
Suncor Energy Inc
------------------------------