Published: March 24, 2025  Updated: March 21, 2025

How to Prioritize Maintenance: 8 Essential Tips for Success

"People who can focus, get things done. People who can prioritize, get the right things done." – J. Maeda

"Holy cow, Bob, get your priorities straight!"

We've all heard a similar admonishment at least once in our lives. Often, it comes after a deadline was close or missed for something more important than what we were otherwise doing.

If one steps back for a second and looks at everyday life, we prioritize with almost every choice we confront. Sometimes it's a quick decision and we don't recognize that we did set one thing as being more important than another. What's the priority – sleeping in or going to work? Doughnuts for breakfast or something more healthful? Is it necessary to pass that slow car during rush hour traffic? Do you spend time with friends or with your significant other? Is it more important to have that eight hours of sleep or stay up a little longer?

The above are routine and for the most part, mundane. However, what priority do you place on annual physicals with your doctor? Schedule the oil change? Inspect the home's roof or foundation?

To steer the discussion toward a narrower focus, what prioritization do you place on maintenance around the home and at work? Preventive maintenance should be important even if the job takes extra time or cuts into your leisure schedule. If you deem PMs low priority now, they'll top your list later.

Let's look at nine tips to prioritize maintenance. Notice how each relates to both home life and in the workplace in one manner or another.

What Maintenance Tasks Should You Prioritize?

The type of maintenance could determine priority. Is the job a repair because a processor failed? Repairing holes in the plaster? Replacing parts in a ceiling fan?

Is it work to increase safety such as deicing or installing a machine guard? ("Bob, get up to the roof and shovel off the snow.")

Is it time for the routine inspection preventive maintenance?

How Urgent is the Maintenance Job?

Of course when the job needs to be done is at the heart of prioritizing. The rest will add their effects to this point.

For instance, that routine inspection could be done within a certain date range. By the end of the week. By Wednesday.

On the other hand, if the broken processor is holding up production, that might be given an emergency classification. Designating a priority rating helps scheduling. Yes, you're pushing Bob out of the office door to get to an emergency but if other jobs aren't immediate, the date range of the job helps the scheduler be better organized.

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Understanding the Scope of Maintenance Work

Not the type but the details of the job. Granted this and type work together. This brings up how important and urgent the job is. If it's important for Bob to repair a processor but it's not an urgent task, where could this fall on the priority scale? What are the details of the job? A simple lubrication PM or an entire rebuild.

Considering the Location of Maintenance Tasks

Granted, if a repair is an emergency, it won't matter where it's located. Bob and his crew will drive to the back forty to remove fallen electrical lines before a fire starts.

However, maintenance two miles away could be down the priority scale and be the last in a series of repairs or inspections that takes Bob progressively closer to that final job.

Assigning the Right Crew for the Job

Do we need to round up a specific crew or craft? Could the job be given to an individual or anyone on a particular shift? A certain job needs that top guy. Can the job wait or does the person need to stop current work and tackle this one?

Estimating the Time Needed for Maintenance

How long will the job take to complete? Once again, emergencies will take precedence no matter if two minutes or two hours are needed. However, if a supervisor knows the job will be lengthy, the job may be delayed until the time can be set aside. On the other hand, a quick inspection could be bumped up just to get it done.

When to Decline a Maintenance Request

Supervisors must judge the importance of the work request and work order. The "urgent" and "important" aspects come into play. ("No, Bob, we're not going to install fire poles to slide down between floors. Use the stairs.")

While most work requests or orders won't be as extreme as the above, sometimes a job needs to be rejected for another. Non-urgent and unimportant can be denied.

Proving Technicians with Key Maintenance Information

This tip helps the worker get to that high-priority job faster. When drawing up the work order for a need-it-now job, consider adding the following:

Bill of Materials. Don't let Bob guess what parts or tools are needed, then take the time to search the stockroom. Have the items and their location on the work order.

Checklists – Step-by-step procedures help with efficiency and make sure Bob doesn't skip or forget something.

Safety Regulations – Even if the job is an emergency, Bob needs to take precautions. Not doing so risks damaging the machine more, injury, or worse. Add those safety measures.

Attachments – Give Bob an image of the equipment or a way to view video instructions.

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Reviewing Data for Future Maintenance Prioritization

After the job is completed, a supervisor should check on the following:

On-time compliance - Know the reasons why jobs took longer or shorter than expected.

Attainment – Is Bob working to his full potential or taking too many Twinkie breaks? No, you don't want to overload and overwork him, but you want the shift versus wrench time percentage to be positive.

Cost reports – For Labor, materials, and the asset itself.

While this last point is after the fact, the reports can assist in future jobs and affect their priority settings.

Make Prioritizing Maintenance more Efficient with CMMS

There are several factors to designating a priority for a job. Not every one of the nine points will be considered for every job, but more than likely, a few will. The complexity is judging one job against another.

What will assist a supervisor in all nine tips and keep the process more streamlined, is a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). All of the areas covered can be found in a CMMS. From priority settings to adding a bill of materials to authorizing requests and work orders.

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