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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Mobile Maintenance Planner

💰 $75,000 - $115,000

MaintenancePlanningSchedulingMiningConstructionHeavy IndustryAsset Management

🎯 Role Definition

As a vital member of our Asset Management team, the Mobile Maintenance Planner is the strategic linchpin ensuring the peak performance and longevity of our critical mobile fleet. You will be responsible for the end-to-end planning and scheduling of all preventative, predictive, and corrective maintenance activities. Your role is crucial for minimizing downtime, optimizing resource allocation (labor, parts, and tools), and driving a culture of proactive maintenance excellence. This position goes beyond simple task creation; it involves building and executing a robust maintenance strategy that directly supports our operational goals for safety, efficiency, and profitability.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Lead Maintenance Technician / Mechanic
  • Maintenance Scheduler
  • Junior Planner / Planning Assistant

Advancement To:

  • Senior Maintenance Planner / Lead Planner
  • Maintenance Supervisor / Superintendent
  • Reliability Engineer

Lateral Moves:

  • Fixed Plant Maintenance Planner
  • Project Planner / Scheduler

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop comprehensive, detailed job plans for all planned maintenance work, including preventative, predictive, and corrective tasks, ensuring all necessary resources, parts, tools, and safety documentation are identified.
  • Create, manage, and meticulously prioritize a backlog of maintenance work orders within the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), such as SAP, JDE, or Pronto.
  • Generate and distribute both weekly and long-range maintenance schedules, actively coordinating with operations and maintenance supervisors to secure equipment availability and minimize production impact.
  • Conduct regular planning meetings with maintenance and operations personnel to review upcoming work, confirm priorities, and proactively address potential scheduling conflicts or resource constraints.
  • Ensure all planned work packages include detailed, step-by-step work instructions, critical safety procedures (like Lock-Out Tag-Out), required permits, and technical specifications to facilitate safe and efficient execution.
  • Review completed work orders for accuracy, capturing crucial data on labor hours, parts consumed, and failure codes to support continuous improvement and reliability analysis.
  • Collaborate closely with the supply chain and warehouse teams to forecast, order, stage, and kit all necessary parts and materials for planned maintenance, effectively preventing delays due to stockouts.
  • Manage the master data for mobile equipment assets within the CMMS, including the development and optimization of maintenance strategies, task lists, and Bills of Materials (BOMs).
  • Analyze equipment maintenance history and performance data to identify adverse failure trends and recommend data-driven improvements to preventative maintenance strategies and task frequencies.
  • Scope complex repair jobs by conducting field walk-downs and collaborating with technicians and engineers to accurately define the scope of work, estimate labor hours, and identify required external services.
  • Coordinate and schedule external vendors, contractors, and specialized services for major repairs, component overhauls, or advanced diagnostic work, ensuring seamless integration with internal schedules.
  • Develop, track, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) related to maintenance planning and scheduling, such as Schedule Compliance, PM Compliance, Backlog Health, and Planning Accuracy.
  • Actively participate in Root Cause Analysis (RCA) investigations for significant equipment failures, contributing planning-related insights and historical data to prevent recurrence.
  • Assist in the development of the annual maintenance budget by providing data-driven estimates for planned work, major component change-outs, and required labor and material resources.

Secondary Functions

  • Champion the consistent and disciplined use of the CMMS to ensure high levels of data integrity and drive a standardized planning and work execution process across the team.
  • Liaise with the reliability engineering team to implement condition-based monitoring recommendations and integrate predictive findings into the forward-looking maintenance plan.
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives within the planning and scheduling process, constantly seeking opportunities to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve equipment reliability.
  • Manage and maintain a library of standard job plans for repetitive tasks to improve planning efficiency, reduce errors, and ensure consistency in work execution.
  • Provide regular, insightful reports to management on maintenance performance, backlog status, and upcoming major maintenance events or shutdowns.
  • Ensure all planned activities and associated documentation comply with company safety policies, environmental regulations, and relevant MSHA/OSHA standards.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • High proficiency in a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), specifically with modules like SAP Plant Maintenance (PM), Oracle JDEdwards (E1), or Pronto Xi.
  • Strong technical understanding of heavy mobile equipment maintenance (e.g., haul trucks, excavators, dozers, loaders, graders).
  • Advanced skills in Microsoft Office Suite, particularly MS Excel for data analysis/reporting and MS Project or Primavera for scheduling.
  • Proven ability to read and interpret technical manuals, engineering drawings, blueprints, and hydraulic/electrical schematics.
  • Solid knowledge of maintenance planning and scheduling best practices, including backlog management and resource allocation.
  • Familiarity with reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and preventative/predictive maintenance (PM/PdM) philosophies and techniques.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with tradespeople, supervisors, engineers, and operational staff.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities to diagnose planning deficiencies, analyze failure data, and develop effective solutions.
  • Superior organizational and time-management skills, with a demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced industrial environment.
  • Meticulous attention to detail to ensure the accuracy of work orders, parts lists, schedules, and maintenance data.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High School Diploma or GED coupled with a relevant Mechanical Trade Qualification or equivalent hands-on experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Associate's or Bachelor's degree in a relevant technical or business field.
  • Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP) or similar certification.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
  • Business Administration
  • Asset Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3-7 years of experience in a maintenance planning or scheduling role within a heavy industrial environment.

Preferred:

  • Direct experience planning maintenance for a large fleet of mobile equipment in the mining, heavy civil construction, or quarrying industry.
  • Verifiable experience in developing maintenance strategies and building standard job plans from scratch.
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