Glossary

What is maintenance schedule compliance?

Quick answer

Schedule compliance is the percentage of scheduled maintenance work that is actually completed as planned in the period it was scheduled for. It is a core measure of whether a maintenance organisation is in control. Best practice sits around 90 percent or higher.

FormulaSchedule compliance % = (scheduled jobs completed as planned / total jobs scheduled) x 100

Benchmark

Benchmark
GoodAround 90 percent or above indicates a plant that plans realistically and executes the plan.
Warning signBelow about 70 percent usually means reactive work is constantly breaking the schedule.

Why it matters

Schedule compliance is the hinge between planning and reliability. If the schedule is routinely broken by reactive work, planned and preventive tasks slip, reliability falls, and more reactive work follows. High compliance is both a cause and a symptom of a plant in control.

How to improve it

Build a realistic, fully resourced weekly schedule from a ready backlog, protect it from non-emergency interruptions, and review compliance daily rather than monthly.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good schedule compliance percentage?
Around 90 percent or higher is the widely cited best-practice target. Sustained figures below 70 percent indicate the schedule is being overrun by reactive work.
Why is schedule compliance important?
Because broken schedules mean preventive work slips, which causes more failures, which breaks more schedules. It is the loop that either compounds reliability or erodes it.

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