Book companion resource · Worksheet
Schedule Compliance Root-Cause Worksheet
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← Back to toolkit · Browse by chapterWhen schedule compliance slips, use this worksheet for the week's analysis. Traces the drop to a specific stage of the cycle — not just "operations keeps breaking the zone."
Companion to: Fix the System, Chapter 7. When to use: any week that schedule compliance drops below the target tier. Don't wait for monthly. Do it in the meeting the following Monday. Who fills it out: the planner + scheduler, with input from the maintenance supervisor.
Week in review
Week ending: _______________
Original jobs committed when the weekly schedule was published: _______
Those jobs completed on their originally scheduled day: _______
Schedule compliance %: _______
Change from previous week: _______
Compliance = original jobs completed on their scheduled day ÷ original committed jobs × 100. Do not count starts, remove displaced jobs, or add reserve/optional jobs to the denominator. Preserve original dates as each job enters its rolling 48-hour frozen zone.
Additions absorbed by reserve (reported separately, not missed jobs): _______
Reserve labor-hours used / reserve labor-hours allocated: _______ / _______
Part 1 — Which jobs slipped?
List every job that was scheduled for the week but did not complete on its originally scheduled day. For each, note what actually happened.
| WO # | Asset | Scheduled day | What actually happened | Reason category (see below) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Reason categories
For each slipped job, tag the first verified cause below and record contributing conditions separately:
- A — Committed work displaced by a qualifying, approved emergency
- B — Kit was incomplete / parts not available at execution time
- C — Operator / asset access not available at scheduled time
- D — Job plan was incomplete or wrong (scope expanded mid-job, or couldn't complete in estimated hours)
- E — Crew attendance or skill-mix issue (staffing)
- F — Committed work displaced by a non-emergency or an unapproved change
- G — Weather / external / utility outage
- H — Other (specify)
Part 2 — Count by category
Tally each reason category from Part 1.
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| A — Approved emergency displacement | _____ |
| B — Kit / parts failure | _____ |
| C — Operator / asset access failure | _____ |
| D — Job plan failure | _____ |
| E — Staffing | _____ |
| F — Non-emergency / unapproved displacement | _____ |
| G — External (weather, utility, regulatory) | _____ |
| H — Other | _____ |
Part 3 — Root cause to cycle stage
Each failure category maps to a specific stage of the work management cycle. Your dominant failure category tells you which stage needs attention.
| Category | Maps to cycle stage | Chapter to revisit |
|---|---|---|
| A — Approved emergency displacement | Schedule stage. Review the logged exception, reserve use and formal rescheduling; approval does not erase the original miss. | Ch7 and Ch10 |
| B — Kit / parts failure | Plan stage. Kitting discipline failing. | Ch6 — review PM Kitting Checklist |
| C — Operator / asset access | Schedule stage. Weekly scheduling meeting not confirming coordination. | Ch7 — review Scheduling Meeting Agenda |
| D — Job plan failure | Plan stage. Job plan quality too low. | Ch6 — review Job Plan Template |
| E — Staffing | Execute stage (and HR). Not a scheduling failure per se — but recurring patterns suggest staffing model problem. | Ch8 — see wrench-time analysis |
| F — Non-emergency / unapproved displacement | Schedule stage. Review the triage and approval gate; urgent non-emergency work uses reserve without displacement or waits. | Ch7 and Ch10 |
| G — External | External. Note but don't systematize around it. | n/a |
| H — Other | Root-cause manually. | — |
Your dominant failure category: _____
Cycle stage to revisit: _____
Part 4 — Five-Whys for the dominant category
For the dominant category above, do a quick 5-Whys analysis.
What happened: _____________________________________________________________________
Why? (1) _____________________________________________________________________
Why? (2) _____________________________________________________________________
Why? (3) _____________________________________________________________________
Why? (4) _____________________________________________________________________
Why? (5) — the root cause: _____________________________________________________________________
Part 5 — One action for next week
Based on the root cause, name ONE specific action you will take in the next week to address it. Not three. One.
Action: _____________________________________________________________________
Who owns it: _____________________________________________________________________
How you'll know it worked: (next week's compliance tracking) _____________________________________________________________________
Tracking across weeks
If the same failure category dominates for three consecutive weeks, the issue is structural, not circumstantial. Escalate to the monthly review and consider whether an upstream installation is needed rather than a one-week action.
| Week | Compliance % | Dominant category | One action taken | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
From Fix the System by Ivan Getov. Companion to Chapter 7: Schedule. getov.xyz/toolkit/fix-the-system/ch07/schedule-compliance-rca. Free. No email required.