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Early equipment management 90-day model area plan

An early equipment management model area plan is a 90-day plan for proving, on one equipment project, that the lessons from the machines already running can be designed in before purchase and checked before start-up, before the routine is used on every project. The team writes the lessons from similar machines as design requirements, builds a design checklist, reviews the specification before the order and with the supplier, assesses the risks, runs acceptance tests with operators and maintenance, trains them before delivery, cleans and inspects at commissioning and tracks the start-up. Because a project has its own dates, the 13 weeks are the standard order: move the bars to fit the project. This template has the 13-week plan as a Gantt chart in three phases with the owner, deliverable and done-when of each activity, a scoring table to choose the model project, the team, a KPI board, the day-90 gate, and the expansion plan for months 4 to 12 in three waves, with a worked example.

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Page 1 of the early equipment management 90-day model area plan: a 13-week Gantt chart in three phases with the owner, deliverable and done-when of each activity, from collecting lessons from similar machines to the day-90 gate.
13-week Gantt planDesign checklist to start-upModel area scoringTeam rolesKPI boardDay-90 gateExpansion wavesWorked example

When to use it

When to use an early equipment management 90-day plan

  • When new machines arrive with the same problems the plant already fights on the old ones: hard-to-reach lubrication points, slow changeovers, weak guards.
  • When start-ups of new equipment drag on for months before the machine runs at its target.
  • When a plant wants to prove a design review and acceptance routine on one project before every project uses it.
  • When leaders want a project plan they can review every week: who does what, by when, and what done looks like.

How to fill it in

  1. 1

    Choose the model project

    Score up to three coming projects (five in Excel) on loss data, visibility, team willingness and repeatability, from 1 to 3. Loss data here means the known problems of the same machine type in the plant. Pick the highest total; on a tie, the higher loss data score wins.

  2. 2

    Name the team and write day 1

    Sponsor, pillar lead, the project engineer, a maintenance technician and operators who run the current machines, and safety and quality reps.

  3. 3

    Set the baseline and the day-90 targets

    Checklist items met before the order, lessons applied, punch list closed before shipment, tags open after commissioning and start-up OEE against target.

  4. 4

    Run the plan and update it every week

    Move the bars to the project's real dates, write the week each activity really finished, and add one actual per KPI each week. Late activities turn red in the Excel version.

  5. 5

    Pass the day-90 gate

    The sponsor and pillar lead check the six gate items with evidence. If one is not met, fix it before the routine goes to other projects.

  6. 6

    Plan the expansion waves

    Wave 1 is the next projects for the same kind of equipment, wave 2 all capital projects above an agreed size, wave 3 smaller projects and modifications, with the lessons list and checklist updated after each.

The 90-day plan

Week by week: from lessons on current machines to start-up

The standard order printed on page 1 and in the Excel version. Days 1 to 30 are weeks 1 to 4, days 31 to 60 weeks 5 to 9 and days 61 to 90 weeks 10 to 13. Move the weeks to the project's real dates.

  • 1

    Activity
    Choose the model project and form the team (Setup)
    Owner
    Pillar lead
    Deliverable
    Team list; project chosen with the selection table
    Done when
    Team named, sponsor agreed, first meeting held
  • 1 to 3

    Activity
    Collect lessons from similar machines (Lessons)
    Owner
    Maintenance technician
    Deliverable
    Breakdown history, tags, hard-to-reach points, changeover and safety findings
    Done when
    Every lesson is written as a design requirement
  • 2 to 4

    Activity
    Write the design checklist (Lessons)
    Owner
    Pillar lead
    Deliverable
    Checklist for maintainability, operability, safety, quality and changeover
    Done when
    Checklist agreed by maintenance, production, safety and quality
  • 3 to 5

    Activity
    Review the specification before the order (Design)
    Owner
    Project engineer
    Deliverable
    Specification marked up against the checklist
    Done when
    Every checklist item is met, changed or accepted with a reason
  • 4 to 7

    Activity
    Design reviews with the supplier (Design)
    Owner
    Project engineer
    Deliverable
    Review minutes and open items at each design stage
    Done when
    Open items have an owner and a date
  • 5 to 7

    Activity
    Risk assessment of the new equipment (Design)
    Owner
    Safety and quality reps
    Deliverable
    Machine risk assessment and process FMEA
    Done when
    High risks designed out or with a planned control
  • 6 to 9

    Activity
    Factory acceptance test with operators and maintenance (Build)
    Owner
    Project engineer
    Deliverable
    Acceptance checklist results and a punch list
    Done when
    No punch list item ships without an owner and date
  • 7 to 10

    Activity
    Train operators and maintenance before delivery (Build)
    Owner
    Maintenance technician
    Deliverable
    One point lessons, maintenance procedures, lubrication and inspection points
    Done when
    The first operators and technicians are trained before start-up
  • 9 to 11

    Activity
    Site acceptance and the start-up plan (Start-up)
    Owner
    Project engineer
    Deliverable
    Site acceptance results; weekly start-up targets
    Done when
    Start-up targets agreed with production
  • 10 to 12

    Activity
    Initial cleaning and inspection at commissioning (Start-up)
    Owner
    Model area team
    Deliverable
    Tags from the first clean; cleaning, inspection and PM standards from day 1
    Done when
    Every tag closed or planned; standards in place
  • 11 to 13

    Activity
    Track the start-up against plan (Start-up)
    Owner
    Pillar lead
    Deliverable
    Weekly OEE, defects and tags against the start-up targets
    Done when
    Start-up issues logged and fed back to the lessons list
  • 13

    Activity
    Day-90 review and decision to expand (Gate)
    Owner
    Sponsor
    Deliverable
    Day-90 gate sheet, KPIs against baseline, lessons
    Done when
    Gate signed by the sponsor and the pillar lead

What's on the gates

The day-90 gate and the wave gate for early equipment management

The day-90 gate decides whether the model area is ready to be copied; the wave gate is checked for each new area before the next wave starts. Both are on page 3 of the PDF and on the Excel version's Day-90 gate and Expansion sheets.

Day-90 gate

All met before the first expansion wave starts

  1. 1The lessons from current machines are written as design requirements
  2. 2Every design checklist item is met, changed or accepted with a reason
  3. 3The acceptance punch list items have owners, and none shipped unowned
  4. 4Operators and maintenance were trained before start-up, with standards from day 1
  5. 5The KPI board has 13 weeks of data against the baseline
  6. 6The checklist, start-up results and lessons are written up for the next project

Wave gate

For each new area, before the next wave starts

  1. 7The area passed the same day-90 gate as the model area
  2. 8Its KPIs are measured against its own baseline, not the model area's
  3. 9The lessons list and design checklist were used on the new project, and what changed is recorded
  4. 10Coaches for the next wave are named and have run a session with the pillar lead watching
  5. 11The model area was audited again and still holds its standard

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example: a snack food plant (illustrative, with made-up numbers; the same as page 4 of the PDF and the Excel example sheets). Not a benchmark.

  • Model project choice, loss data, visibility, team willingness and repeatability scored 1 to 3: New bagging machine scored 12, Fryer upgrade scored 8 and Conveyor extension scored 7. The existing bagging machines have the most breakdowns and changeover problems in the plant, two more are planned next year, and the supplier agreed to design reviews.
  • Checklist items met before the order: baseline 0%, day-90 target 90%, week 13 actual 86%, 96% of the gap closed.
  • Lessons from current machines applied: baseline 0%, day-90 target 80%, week 13 actual 75%, 94% of the gap closed.
  • Acceptance punch list closed before shipment: baseline 0%, day-90 target 100%, week 13 actual 95%, 95% of the gap closed.
  • Tags open after commissioning: baseline 40, day-90 target 0, week 13 actual 4, 90% of the gap closed.
  • Start-up OEE against target: baseline 0%, day-90 target 100%, week 13 actual 90%, 90% of the gap closed.

The team passed the day-90 gate in week 13. Wave 1 (months 4 to 6) went to Bagging machines 2 and 3, wave 2 (months 7 to 9) to Fryer upgrade, case packer, and wave 3 (months 10 to 12) to Conveyor changes, tooling, with a model area team member coaching each wave 1 area.

Common mistakes

  • Reviewing after the order

    Changes are cheapest on paper. Review the specification against the checklist before the purchase order, not at delivery.

  • Lessons nobody wrote down

    If the problems of the current machines live only in people's heads, they will be bought again. Write each one as a design requirement.

  • Acceptance tests without the people who will run it

    Bring operators and maintenance to the factory acceptance test. They spot what the drawings hide.

  • Training after start-up

    Train operators and technicians before the machine arrives, and start cleaning, inspection and PM standards on day 1.

  • Not feeding back

    Start-up problems belong on the lessons list, or the next project repeats them.

Download the template

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Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite, professional maintenance tags log each breakdown with its start and end times, build a searchable repair history for every asset, and show MTTR and MTBF by machine or line in built-in dashboards so you can find your worst-performing assets.

FAQ

Early equipment management 90-day model area plan: common questions

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