Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul

Our Maintenance Backlog Keeps Growing

A backlog grows when work orders come in faster than the crew closes them. Overtime moves it for a week. Sizing the backlog in hours and working the repeat failures that feed it is what brings it down.

What Is Usually Going On

  • Breakdowns take most of the crew's hours, so preventive work slips and causes more breakdowns.
  • The same few assets fail over and over, and each repair closes without a root cause.
  • Work orders wait on parts, permits or access to the equipment.
  • The backlog is counted in work orders, not hours, so nobody knows how big it is.
  • Old and duplicate work orders are never closed, so the list loses meaning.

How to Fix It

  1. Clean the listClose duplicates and work no longer needed. Give every open work order an estimate in hours.
  2. Size it in crew weeksBacklog hours / crew hours available per week for planned work. That number, not the count, says whether the crew can catch up.
  3. Split by typePreventive, corrective and project work. Track the share of crew hours spent on breakdowns each week.
  4. Rank assets by failuresFailures and repair hours per asset. MTBF (mean time between failures) and MTTR (mean time to repair) show where the hours go.
  5. Root-cause the repeat failuresRun a 5 Why or an FMEA on the top few assets. Each repeat failure removed frees crew hours for the backlog.
  6. Schedule only ready workPlan the week with work orders that have parts, permits and access ready. Kit them the day before.

Start Free

Guides and web tools on this site. No account needed.

Guide
Preventive & Predictive Maintenance
Guide
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
Guide
Downtime Analysis & Categorization
Calculator
OEE Calculator
Template
5 Whys Template
Template
FMEA Worksheet

When It Moves to the Floor

The same work as an offline file you keep: saved scenarios, print and export, no internet needed on the floor.

Common Questions

How big should a maintenance backlog be?

Size it in crew weeks and watch the trend. A backlog that grows week over week is the warning sign, whatever its size.

What are MTBF and MTTR?

Mean time between failures and mean time to repair. Higher MTBF means fewer breakdowns; lower MTTR means shorter ones. Both feed availability.

Should we add mechanics or overtime?

Clean and size the list first. If most hours go to repeat breakdowns, added hours get spent on the same failures. Fund the root cause work alongside.

Does OEE apply here?

Yes, on the equipment. The availability factor shows how much run time each asset loses to breakdowns and setups.