Maintenance, Repair & Operations

A Simple Way to Reduce PM Backlog

Aug. 17, 2021

Keep only the tasks needed to prevent the most time-consuming repairs.

If your PM backlog is spiraling out of control and you can’t get more resources, how can you close the gap? If you have sufficient history on completed repairs, then you could perform an analysis to determine two things:

Where the PM is insufficient to prevent specific time-consuming breakdowns.
Where a given PM task helps prevent a specific type of breakdown, but such a breakdown has never occurred.

The problem with the first item is that you don’t have resources to put there unless you take them from elsewhere. The problem with the second item is that you risk having even more breakdowns.

The issue is time, and that’s what you need to save. The following method must exclude critical equipment because it accounts only for maintenance time. It does not account for lost revenue, or issues of environment or safety.

For non-critical equipment, identify all failure modes. Then, assess the repair time for each failure. Temporarily (at least) keep only those PM tasks that are needed to prevent the three most time-consuming repairs.

About the Author

Mark Lamendola

Mark is an expert in maintenance management, having racked up an impressive track record during his time working in the field. He also has extensive knowledge of, and practical expertise with, the National Electrical Code (NEC). Through his consulting business, he provides articles and training materials on electrical topics, specializing in making difficult subjects easy to understand and focusing on the practical aspects of electrical work.

Prior to starting his own business, Mark served as the Technical Editor on EC&M for six years, worked three years in nuclear maintenance, six years as a contract project engineer/project manager, three years as a systems engineer, and three years in plant maintenance management.

Mark earned an AAS degree from Rock Valley College, a BSEET from Columbia Pacific University, and an MBA from Lake Erie College. He’s also completed several related certifications over the years and even was formerly licensed as a Master Electrician. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past Chairman of the Kansas City Chapters of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. Mark also served as the program director for, a board member of, and webmaster of, the Midwest Chapter of the 7x24 Exchange. He has also held memberships with the following organizations: NETA, NFPA, International Association of Webmasters, and Institute of Certified Professional Managers.