Chapters 7, 10 and 19
Fix the System
Connect realistic loading to the operating rules that planning, operations, stores, and supervision must hold together.
Explore the book →Interactive scheduling framework
Build a maintenance schedule you can protect.
Separate realistic available hours, a named break-in reserve, committed work and optional ready jobs. Retain the weekly baseline and protect each job with a rolling 48-hour frozen zone.
Weekly commitment + separate reserve
Commit ready work. Keep reserve visible.
83%
Of available hours
Committed: 232 hrs. Named reserve: 48 hrs. Unfilled commitment capacity: 0 hrs. Layer percentages use the commitment limit; optional work is outside it.
Lookahead ladder
The schedule is built before the scheduling meeting.
The meeting confirms constraints. It is not the place to discover parts, permits, or windows.
Mini builder
Separate commitments from reserve.
Change these inputs to recalculate the live output panel beside it, the schedule stack above, and the break-in simulator below.
Control panel
Enter total crew labor-hours in each deduction category, once only. Do not enter per-person hours here or deduct reserve a second time.
Chapters 7 and 10 usually reserve 15–20% of crew hours; Chapter 10 suggests closer to 25% for a small crew. This teaching model allows 15–25%. The default 15% and gross-hours basis reproduce the book’s 12 × 40 = 480, with 72 hours reserved. The book does not work through deductions in that example. A net-hours basis is an explicit site assumption, not a quoted rule.
Known deductions are separate from reserve and must not overlap. Hours are rounded to one decimal. This is a draft capacity illustration, not a craft-by-day schedule or authorization to execute work.
Live outputs
These numbers update as you edit the mini builder.
Inputs update instantly
320 hrs
Payroll hours
40 hrs
Known deductions
280 hrs
Realistic hours
48 hrs
Named reserve
232 hrs
Commitment limit
232 hrs
Committed work
0 hrs
Unfilled limit
24 hrs
Optional ready
Available: 320 hrs − 40 hrs = 280 hrs.
Reserve request: 15% × 320 hrs = 48 hrs. Funded reserve: 48 hrs.
Commitment limit: 280 hrs − 48 hrs = 232 hrs.
Reconciliation: 232 hrs committed + 48 hrs reserve + 0 hrs unfilled = 280 hrs available. Optional ready work uses none of these hours until separately released.
Ready backlog inputs
The illustration allocates ready hours in the displayed priority order up to the commitment limit, never into reserve. It does not optimize crafts, access windows or whole jobs. Validate those constraints before committing. Optional ready work stays separate; another 90 hrs of other ready backlog remains outside the commitment.
Break-in simulator
Use reserve before moving a commitment.
The maintenance supervisor logs and triages each request. A legitimate addition that fits reserve can be approved without moving committed work. If it does not fit, non-emergency work waits. Qualifying emergencies follow the maintenance-manager escalation route. This simulation does not authorize work or delay the site’s immediate safety response.
Inside the rolling 48-hour frozen zone. This reference point is the affected committed job’s original scheduled start.
Fits within available reserve. No committed work moves.
4 hrs
Request
48 hrs
Reserve available before request
4 hrs
Reserve used by this request
44 hrs
Reserve remaining
232 hrs
Original committed hours
232 hrs
Committed hours remaining
Reserve utilization: 8% including prior use. The original weekly baseline stays 232 hrs. Neither an addition nor a displaced job rewrites it.
Hour-level illustration only: review job boundaries, safe stopping points, craft availability and access before an actual change. Log each affected job, reason, approval and replacement date; notify operations. Optional ready jobs are not committed jobs and cannot be counted as displaced baseline work.
Chapter 7’s concrete policy requires written Plant Manager approval before changing committed work inside 48 hours. The maintenance manager verifies the exception; maintenance and plant managers sign the policy. Chapter 10 provides the three-criterion emergency gate.
Review the emergency triage flowchart →Measure completions against the original week.
Chapter 19 measures originally scheduled jobs completed on their scheduled day, not starts or a forecast from labor-hours. Retain the published job list and dates in the CMMS. Do not add reserve or optional jobs to this denominator, remove displaced jobs, or reset it when a job enters the 48-hour zone.
Compliance: Not calculated
Enter whole job counts, with completions no greater than the original total. Report additions, reserve use and optional work separately. Editing the capacity draft or simulating an emergency does not change these counts.
Meeting playbook
Bring decisions, not vague objections.
Operations
Brings
- Release windows
- Production constraints
- Cleaning / lockout prep
- Asset priority conflicts
- Risk acceptance if a window is rejected
Decision
Which equipment can be released and what production risk is accepted.
Trap
Arriving with objections but no alternate window.
Do not re-plan the backlog in the scheduling meeting. Confirm next week's schedule and resolve constraints.
Build the system behind the schedule
A weekly schedule is a contract, not a list of hopeful work orders.
Chapters 7 and 10 define the rolling frozen zone, break-in gate, and named reserve. Chapter 19 measures completed jobs against the original weekly commitment.