Building a PM schedule that gets followed

Start with the asset list and a criticality call

Write down every machine with make, model, serial, and location. Then make a criticality call on each one: if it stops for a day, does the shop stop, does one job slip, or does nothing much happen. Three tiers is enough.

This ranking is what keeps the schedule realistic. A PM programme that treats the only laser and the backup drill press as equally important produces a task list too long to complete, and a list nobody completes teaches everyone that the list is optional.

Pick intervals you can defend

Intervals run on days, run hours, or cycles. Use the manufacturer manual as the starting point, then adjust for how hard you actually run the machine and what has failed before. Write down why the interval is what it is, in one line, next to the task. That line is what stops the interval from being quietly doubled next year.

Fewer, well-chosen tasks beat a comprehensive list. Ten minutes weekly on the constrained machine, done every week, is worth more than a two-hour quarterly checklist that slips twice a year.

Assign, schedule, and log completion

Every PM needs a name and a slot. Unassigned maintenance happens when the shop is slow, which is to say it happens after the failure. Put PMs on a specific day for a specific person and treat overdue as a visible condition, not an internal feeling.

Log completion with date and who did it. The completion log is what makes the schedule real: it turns "we do PMs" into a rate you can look at, and it is the evidence a customer audit asks for.

• Overdue PMs flagged automatically, so the list stays honest
• Completion logged the day the work happens, with the person's name
• A short work request queue so floor observations stop living on sticky notes

Let the downtime log grade the schedule

Log unplanned stops: machine, start, end, reason code, note. Ten seconds each. By month end you have ranked hours by machine and by cause, and that ranking is the only honest feedback your PM schedule gets.

If a machine keeps stopping for a cause the PM was supposed to prevent, the interval is wrong or the task is wrong. If a machine never stops and carries a heavy PM load, you can probably stretch it. Adjust once a quarter using the data rather than the loudest complaint.

Two things this will not do

It will not predict failures — that needs condition monitoring, not a schedule — and it will not survive a shop where nobody owns it. Name an owner before you build the list.

The Maintenance & Downtime System ships the asset register, PM schedule with due-date flags, completion log, downtime log, and a downtime-by-cause ranking in one workbook.