Published: May 13, 2025  Updated: May 09, 2025

Maintenance Planning And Control: Improve Your Operations

Any organization that relies on equipment and machinery to operate efficiently must have maintenance planning and control (MPAC). The planning process identifies maintenance needs, schedules maintenance activities, and allocates resources. The control process involves tracking maintenance activities, evaluating their effectiveness, and making adjustments as necessary.

Effective maintenance planning and control help organizations reduce downtime, increase equipment reliability, and prolong equipment life. In this article, we will discuss the importance of maintenance planning and control and provide tips for implementing effective maintenance programs.

Why Maintenance Planning and Control (MPAC) Is Essential

Organizations want equipment and machinery to operate. That requires maintenance. Downtime means extra expenses, disruptions in operations, and a downturn in customer satisfaction.

As mentioned above, planning involves identifying maintenance needs and scheduling activities to prevent equipment failure. This proactive approach helps organizations spot and resolve potential problems before they occur.

The "control" involves tracking maintenance activities. Supervisors need to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions taken and make adjustments as necessary. This approach helps organizations monitor equipment performance and identify areas for improvement.

How to Implement an Effective MPAC Strategy

Now that we understand what MPAC is, let's look at ways to implement it. You read a lot of this in the definition of each, but let's expand on them.

Develop a Comprehensive Maintenance Strategy

What does this mean? You should start by listing your assets. Understand the workings of each. Know the manufacturer's recommendations for their care.

Determine their criticality and base much of your preventive maintenance (PM) around that. How will this asset's downtime affect the rest of the company? This will help determine priority ratings.

Part of developing a PM program may involve tracking equipment readings. These may help you shape the cycles of regular inspections, lubrications, cleanings, etc.

Note the tools, parts, and supplies required. Document the procedures with any relevant safety protocols. Communicate these with maintenance technicians.

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Schedule Preventative and Corrective Maintenance Activities

Once you have the PMs and other proactive measures set up, you need to create and schedule the work orders. Relevant information could include:

• Type of maintenance.
• Priority.
• Specific asset.
• Location.
• Description of job.
• Bill of Material (BOM).
• Deadline.
• Labor resources.

You might have costs listed and an estimated time of completion. Then you place these work orders on a calendar. Read this article for further details.

Next, let's go a bit deeper into those resources of inventory and labor.

Allocate Resources for Maintenance Planning and Control

Basically, this comes down to two areas. Inventory needed and labor. What tools and parts do the technicians need to complete the job?

Here, too, you have to note the scheduling. Do you have the parts available? If you've organized the stockroom, you do.

You've gone back to the planning stage and purchased enough stock to fulfill the jobs.

You've also set up a system of issues and returns. How does the technician obtain the needed inventory? Collect it himself? Present a work order to a stockroom supervisor who will retrieve the items. Your system depends on your company and needs.

Who does the work? Do you have one technician? A crew? A specialized craft? Again, you must coordinate everyone based on availability and job priority.

You don't want to overload the worker, but you want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your team. Of course, you have a properly trained team with ever-developing skills.

Track and Monitor Maintenance Activities

Questions to ask—

• How many completed work orders do you have completed in a specified date range?
• How many remain open?
• How many are backlogged due to various circumstances?
• Did technicians complete the jobs in the estimated time? If not, what caused the delay?

You should track the answers to these along with other information. You want to monitor the different aspects of the work performed. Yes, you want quality, and we'll discuss that next. For this point, the work itself has the spotlight.

For further information in this area, read this article.

Having this history helps to show trends in maintenance activity. Do you have a machine that constantly needs more and more attention? What causes the failures or breakdowns? Do you have one employee or even a shift that outperforms others?

With this knowledge, you can generate reports to analyze equipment performance and look for areas to improve. Yes, you look at costs or materials and labor because maintenance falls under the category of expenses.

However, you shouldn't cut corners to cut costs. Switching to a reactive mindset, where you pay attention to assets only after they break down, risks even more expense. Look at the PMs as extending asset life and sustaining the reliability of those assets.

Discover how streamlined maintenance processes can elevate production. Learn more.

Evaluate Maintenance Effectiveness Through Data

A technician finishing a job doesn't necessarily equate to effectiveness. You must have a standard for quality control. This could include spot checks, further equipment readings, and monitoring both the history and subsequent equipment performance.

Key performance indicator reports come in handy in this area. For more details on KPIs, read this article.

Make Data-Driven Adjustments to Your MPAC Program

You never rest on your laurels. You always look for ways to improve. You accept comments and feedback from your team and from production personnel.

Use the data you've collected. You look at new technologies and methods.

Discuss any changes with your team. Make sure everyone understands the plans, the goals, and the changes in any of them.

How CMMS Supports Maintenance Planning and Control

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) helps organize existing maintenance programs.

• Through asset management, you have a list of your assets with all the relevant information.
• In inventory, you have an organized stock room and auto quantity tracking.
• You have a PM section where the list of these activities resides. Quickly turn those PMs into work orders.
• Place work orders on a CMMS calendar and view all the jobs in a specified date range.
• Work order management keeps you up-to-date on all the completed, open, and backlogged jobs.
• You have numerous KPIs and other reports that will show costs, attainment, and more.

CMMS software centralizes all of your maintenance planning and control. It can assist with purchasing, barcoding, and even human resources.

With a CMMS, you have access to customized reports and features, integration with other systems, and upgrades and new features as your company evolves, changes, and grows.

Make Maintenance Planning and Control a Priority in Your Company

Maintenance planning and control require numerous business skills.

• Communications to effectively present the goals and plans to your team.
• Leadership to oversee everything and knowledge of when to delegate tasks and responsibilities.
• Time management for efficiency in all areas.
• Flexibility to adjust to changing trends.

Using a CMMS in your business brings many benefits. The system's versatility makes it beneficial to so many industries and brings organization to your planning and control of your maintenance department.

For the best in CMMS software, visit Mapcon Technologies. 800-922-4336