IBM Maximo Maintenance Operations Planning Training Course

Course overview

Maintenance teams lose productive capacity when work orders are poorly scoped, preventive maintenance plans are not aligned to asset criticality, and weekly schedules are released without realistic labour, material, or access constraints. IBM Maximo can hold the required data, but operational value depends on planners and supervisors configuring it consistently and using it to make defensible decisions. This course addresses the practical gap between recording maintenance activity in Maximo and running a controlled maintenance planning and scheduling process.

Participants work through the full planning cycle in IBM Maximo Manage: asset and location data, work order lifecycles, job plans, preventive maintenance records, routes, labour and craft requirements, materials, safety information, priorities, and backlog management. They learn to create plan-ready work packages, classify and prioritise work, calculate backlog, balance weekly capacity, use Maximo Scheduler to sequence work, and monitor schedule compliance through operational reports and KPIs. The course also examines how data standards, approval controls, and failure reporting improve maintenance decision-making.

Instruction combines guided Maximo demonstrations with scenario-based configuration exercises in a training environment. Participants plan maintenance for a realistic asset-intensive operation, progressing from a raw corrective-work backlog to an approved weekly schedule with constraints, assigned resources, and performance measures. Each participant leaves with a maintenance operations planning pack: a work-order planning checklist, job-plan template, weekly scheduling board, backlog analysis, KPI definitions, and a 90-day application plan for their own site.

The course is designed for professionals who already work with maintenance processes or IBM Maximo and need to improve planning discipline, schedule reliability, asset availability, and reporting quality across maintenance operations.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure work order classifications, statuses, priorities, and approval paths for controlled maintenance execution
• Build reusable job plans with labour, craft, materials, tools, safety steps, and estimated durations
• Create preventive maintenance schedules using time-based, meter-based, and seasonal frequency rules
• Analyse maintenance backlog by priority, age, craft, asset criticality, and readiness-to-schedule status
• Calculate weekly labour capacity and convert approved work into a resource-feasible maintenance schedule
• Use IBM Maximo Scheduler to assign crews, sequence work, manage constraints, and resolve schedule conflicts
• Design maintenance KPIs for schedule compliance, wrench time, backlog health, preventive maintenance completion, and repeat failures
• Produce a site-specific maintenance operations planning pack with governance rules, templates, and a 90-day improvement roadmap

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Maintenance Planners — who must turn incoming work requests into complete, schedulable work packages
• Maintenance Supervisors — who need realistic weekly schedules and visibility of crew utilisation and schedule compliance
• IBM Maximo Administrators — who configure work management records, workflows, security, and planning-related data structures
• Reliability Engineers — who use failure history, asset criticality, and preventive maintenance performance to improve maintenance strategies
• Operations Managers — who need maintenance plans coordinated with production windows, shutdowns, and operational risk
• Asset Managers — who require reliable Maximo data and maintenance KPIs to support lifecycle and availability decisions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand core maintenance concepts, including corrective and preventive maintenance, work orders, asset hierarchies, labour crafts, spare parts, and maintenance backlog. Practical experience navigating IBM Maximo Manage is expected: attendees should be able to locate assets, create or review work orders, and interpret basic status fields. Experience as a planner, supervisor, reliability engineer, or Maximo key user is strongly beneficial. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel for simple calculations is useful. No programming, database administration, API development, or prior Maximo Scheduler configuration experience is required.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short, focused explanations followed by guided work in an IBM Maximo training environment. Participants configure records, build job plans, generate preventive maintenance work, assess work-order readiness, and schedule a constrained weekly backlog in Maximo Scheduler. Small groups compare prioritisation choices for a simulated operating site, including production access windows, material shortages, safety requirements, and limited craft capacity. Daily debriefs connect system actions to maintenance governance. The final session converts each participant’s outputs into a practical 90-day implementation plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Maximo maintenance work management foundations

• Maintenance planning roles, handoffs, and RACI responsibilities
• IBM Maximo Manage navigation for assets, locations, and work orders
• Asset hierarchies, location systems, and operational context
• Work order types, status flows, and approval controls
• Priority coding using asset criticality, consequence, and urgency
• Work request screening and planner-ready work order criteria
• Data quality rules for descriptions, failure codes, and ownership

Workshop: Participants assess a set of incoming maintenance requests, correct missing planning data, assign priorities, and produce a triaged work-order register.

Day 2: Job plans and preventive maintenance programmes

• Job plan structure and revision control in IBM Maximo Manage
• Labour estimates, craft requirements, tools, and service needs
• Materials lists, storeroom reservations, and kitting requirements
• Safety plans, permits, isolation steps, and hazard information
• Preventive maintenance records and frequency-based generation
• Meter-based, seasonal, and floating preventive maintenance schedules
• Routes and multi-asset work execution planning

Workshop: Participants build a reusable pump-maintenance job plan and preventive maintenance record, including labour, materials, safety steps, and generation rules.

Day 3: Backlog control and weekly capacity planning

• Backlog definitions, ageing bands, and ready-to-schedule criteria
• Backlog segmentation by priority, asset, craft, and work type
• Estimating available labour hours and productive capacity
• Identifying material, permit, access, and dependency constraints
• Weekly maintenance planning cycles and freeze-period discipline
• Shutdown and production-window coordination
• Work-order readiness reviews and schedule gate meetings

Workshop: Participants analyse a multi-craft backlog, calculate available weekly capacity, and produce a prioritised candidate work list for the schedule meeting.

Day 4: Scheduling and dispatch with Maximo Scheduler

• IBM Maximo Scheduler views, graphical scheduling, and assignment controls
• Crew, craft, shift, and calendar configuration concepts
• Assigning labour and sequencing work against available capacity
• Managing job durations, constraints, dependencies, and access windows
• Visual conflict resolution and schedule optimisation decisions
• Daily dispatch boards and supervisor handoff practices
• Capturing schedule changes, break-ins, and deferred work

Workshop: Participants use Maximo Scheduler to build a one-week crew schedule, resolve resource conflicts, and issue a daily dispatch plan.

Day 5: Performance control and operational implementation

• Schedule compliance, schedule attainment, and planned-work measurement
• Preventive maintenance compliance and overdue-work analysis
• Wrench time, labour utilisation, and backlog health indicators
• Failure reporting, repeat-work identification, and data feedback loops
• Maximo reporting options and export preparation for KPI review
• Planning governance, master-data ownership, and audit routines
• Ninety-day maintenance operations planning improvement roadmap

Workshop: Participants present a maintenance operations planning pack containing KPI definitions, a governance cadence, and a 90-day Maximo-enabled improvement plan.

Tools & standards covered

IBM Maximo Manage, IBM Maximo Scheduler, IBM Maximo Mobile, ISO 55000

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions