Role
Shutdown planner
When is the date of a maintenance shutdown decided - a year ahead, or once the machine has already stopped? That is the whole difference between an overhaul and a breakdown.
Intro call
Four questions we would start with
When is the date of a shutdown decided?
A yearly horizon gives time for parts and contractors. A monthly horizon means you pay for haste on both.
What do you not know about the scope of work until you open the machine?
Always something. The question is whether you have planned a reserve for it, or whether every discovery lengthens the shutdown.
How long does it take to collect the work requests for a shutdown?
If the last ones arrive a week beforehand, the scope is closed after the parts have been ordered.
How many people does one shutdown touch - your own and external?
Counting that usually explains why the coordination takes more time than the work itself.
We take over the coordination and the chasing, you keep the decisions on scope
Collecting requests, building the work schedule, checking the readiness of parts and contractors and settling the shutdown can be taken off the desk. What goes into the scope is the planner's decision.
- The scope closes on a date, not in the last week. - Requests have a window, and after it every added piece of work is visible as a change of scope with a cost.
- Readiness is a state, not a declaration. - Parts, contractors, permits and documentation have a status visible before the shutdown opens.
- The run is recorded as it happens. - What was done, what was found and what was moved - recorded during, because after the shutdown nobody will reconstruct it.
Scope
What can be taken off shutdown planning
Twenty-one example tasks. Each one has a human approval point. Below is a selection, and the scope we fit to your maintenance cycle.
The annual shutdown plan
- Machines with the dates arising from their running hours
- Proposed shutdown windows against the production plan (decision: the planner)
- Agreeing the window with production planning
- A signal when a machine exceeds the recommended interval between overhauls
The scope of work
- Collecting work requests from maintenance and production
- A request window with a date for closing the scope
- Pointing out work added after the scope closed (decision: the planner)
- Linking a piece of work to parts and to the time it takes
- A time reserve for work discovered during the shutdown
Resources and contractors
- The parts required by the scope
- A signal about a part with a long lead time
- The schedule of external contractors
- The status of the permits and documents required for the work
- A readiness list before the shutdown opens
How the shutdown runs
- Recording progress against the schedule
- Reporting work discovered during the shutdown (decision to include: the planner)
- A signal when a piece of work is late against the window
- The readiness status for restart
Settlement and lessons
- The planned scope against what was delivered
- The cost of the shutdown by work and by contractor
- The machine's breakdown rate after the overhaul against the period before
A day's work
Today
- You collect work requests by email and at meetings, up to the last moment
- The scope grows after the parts are ordered, so some are bought in a hurry
- You check contractors' and permits' readiness by phone
- You know the progress of the work from walking round and from conversations
- Work discovered during the shutdown lengthens the window with no recorded decision
- After the shutdown you do not know what it cost or what did not get done
With AI assistance
- Requests have a window with a date for closing the scope
- Work added after the date is visible as a change with a cost
- You see the readiness of parts, contractors and permits in one view
- Progress is recorded and a delay reports itself
- Work discovered during the shutdown enters as a conscious, recorded decision
- You have the shutdown settled and compared with the plan, with no reconstruction
- Keeping to the shutdown window
the restart happens on the planned date more often
a delay in the work is visible during it
- A complete scope
less work postponed to the next shutdown
requests have a window and the scope has a closing date
- The cost of a shutdown
fewer purchases made in a hurry
the requirement follows from a scope closed earlier
- The breakdown rate after an overhaul
it is visible whether the overhaul achieved anything
the comparison of the periods before and after is calculated
We start with the scope, because it decides the parts, the contractors and the cost.
- Step 1
Collecting requests with a window
One route for requesting work, with a date for closing the scope.
- Step 2
The resources the scope requires
Parts, contractors, permits - with a signal about long lead times.
- Step 3
The readiness list and the run
The status before the shutdown opens and progress recorded during it.
- Step 4
Settlement and the breakdown-rate comparison
Last, because it needs at least one closed shutdown.
Common questions
Questions that come up at the first meeting
How is this different from ordinary maintenance scheduling?
The horizon and the scale of coordination. A service is an entry in maintenance's calendar. A shutdown is an undertaking with a scope, a budget, external contractors and a window whose overrun costs production - it is closer to a project than to a task.
Will preparing a shutdown need a smaller team?
A shutdown is an undertaking where coordination takes more time than the work itself - and it is the coordination we take over. A planner who is not phoning contractors for readiness status can close the scope earlier, and that translates into parts bought without haste. The headcount depends on the size of the shutdown, not on a tool.
Does this fall under the AI Act?
Shutdown planning is not a high-risk use. The data concerns machines, work and contractors; information about people is limited to the qualifications required to be allowed on the job.
Still have a question that is not here? Book a call
Next step
By how much did the last shutdown overrun its planned window?
We will show you what preparing a shutdown looks like when the scope closes on a date and the readiness of parts and contractors is visible before it opens.