Maintenance Planner

Overview

• Coordinate and control all planned and corrective maintenance activities across the raisin manufacturing site, ensuring seamless executionand minimal disruption to operations.

• Plan, sequence, and schedule preventative, predictive, and statutory maintenance across processing, drying, packing, and utility areas tomaximize asset reliability and plant availability.

• Drive compliance with food safety standards and engineering best practices while maintaining strict cost control and operational efficiency.

• Collaborate closely with Production, Engineering, and Stores to ensure alignment of maintenance plans with operational priorities.

• Ensure readiness of all maintenance activities by verifying work orders, labour allocation, tools, and material availability in advance.

• Maintain and govern CMMS (SAP) by ensuring accurate work order creation, execution tracking, and closure, enabling reliable data integrity.

• Capture and analyze maintenance data to support root cause analysis, performance tracking, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Produce clear and actionable reports to support decision-making, improve equipment performance, and optimize maintenance strategies.

Responsibilities

• Drive execution of maintenance strategies to achieve best-in-class plant reliability and availability, aligning with industry benchmarks.

• Develop and optimise maintenance work plans by implementing structured processes, incorporating root cause analysis (RCA) and lifecyclemanagement principles.

• Design and implement equipment-specific maintenance schedules aligned with Food Safety, EHS requirements, sector best practices, andPEMM methodology.

• Monitor, analyze, and report on maintenance KPIs, trends, and the full engineering scorecard to support performance improvement.

• Contribute to maintenance budgeting by analyzing historical data and applying zero-based budgeting principles to improve cost control.

• Ensure CMMS (SAP) data integrity by validating work orders, verifying artisan inputs, and maintaining strict document control standards.

• Manage and optimise the maintenance backlog, ensuring timely execution and closure of all work orders and job cards.

• Support reliability engineering initiatives by conducting and contributing to analysis such as RCA, and translating findings into actionableimprovement plans.

• Train and support maintenance and production teams on maintenance procedures and effective utilisation of the CMMS system.

• Integrate maintenance plans with production schedules to minimise downtime and maximise operational efficiency.

• Lead forward planning activities (weekly, monthly, annual) for maintenance tasks, labour, and materials to ensure consistent and effectiveexecution.

• Accurately scope and estimate maintenance work, including duration, priority, resource requirements, spares, tools, specialist services, andmaterials.

• Plan and coordinate contract labour to supplement internal resources and meet maintenance workload demands.

• Identify and manage critical equipment and spares through structured criticality assessments.

• Continuously review and improve maintenance strategies and tasks based on team feedback, plant changes, and evolving industry bestpractices.

• Maintain ≥95% SAP (CMMS) work order closure compliance by actively monitoring, managing, and driving timely completion and close-outof all maintenance job cards.

• Maintenance Planning & Scheduling

• Develop, update, and optimize preventive and predictive maintenance programmes across production, packing, and utilities to ensuremaximum equipment reliability.

• Build and execute detailed weekly and daily maintenance plans, including Maintenance Day Plans with defined scope, resources,durations, and lockout requirements.

• Lead pre-maintenance planning meetings to align Engineering, Production, and Contractors on scope, priorities, and execution strategy.

• Plan and coordinate major shutdowns, breakdown repairs, and seasonal maintenance activities, integrating maintenance withproduction schedules and cleaning cycles.

• Prioritize and release work orders in SAP PM, ensuring effective response to corrective and ad hoc maintenance based on risk, safety,food safety, and operational impact.Materials, Spares & Services Coordination

• Determine and manage spares requirements through criticality assessments, ensuring availability of critical parts, tools, and equipment.

• Coordinate external service providers and statutory inspections (e.g., boilers, lifting equipment) to ensure compliance and operationalreadiness.

• Accurately estimate maintenance work scope, including labour, duration, skills, spares, tools, and specialist services.

• Plan and deploy contract labour to supplement internal resources during peak workloads and shutdown periods.Execution Readiness & Governance

• Ensure execution readiness by defining clear job scopes, safety procedures, permit requirements, LOTO compliance, and food safetycontrols for all work orders.

• Govern work order quality in SAP CMMS by validating job card inputs, including time confirmations, materials usage, and technicalcompletion notes.

• Chair post-maintenance reviews to assess execution quality, identify gaps, and track deferred or incomplete work.

• Maintain ≥95% SAP (CMMS) work order closure compliance, driving discipline in timely completion and accurate system updates.Performance, Reliability & Continuous Improvement

• Monitor and report on maintenance KPIs, Asset Care indicators, backlog, and schedule adherence to drive performance improvements.

• Analyse equipment failures and losses using RCA, methodologies, translating insights into actionable reliability improvement plans.

• Continuously improve maintenance strategies by incorporating lifecycle management principles, audit findings, and industry bestpractices.

• Plan and track condition monitoring activities (e.g., vibration analysis, thermography) to proactively identify and mitigate equipmentrisks.

• Maintain engineering documentation and asset records, including drawings, P&IDs, OEM manuals, SOPs, and equipment history foraudit and traceability purposes.Stakeholder Management & Integration

• Collaborate daily with Engineering Managers, Technicians, Production Supervisors, Stores, and external vendors to align maintenanceactivities with operational priorities.

• Integrate maintenance plans with production schedules to minimize downtime and maximize plant efficiency.

• Train and support teams on maintenance procedures and effective use of SAP CMMS to strengthen process adherence and data quality.Financial & Strategic Contribution

• Support maintenance budgeting and cost control through analysis of historical data and application of zero-based budgeting principles.

• Drive best-in-class plant reliability and availability, benchmarking performance against industry standards and continuously improvingmaintenance effectiveness.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Certificate or Diploma Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial or equivalent).

• Trade Test qualification (advantageous).

• SAP PM / CMMS certification or formal training (advantageous). Experience

• Minimum 3–5 years’ experience in maintenance planning, maintenance coordination, or engineering maintenance within a manufacturing or FMCG environment.

• Proven experience in maintenance planning and scheduling, including preventive, predictive, and corrective maintenance.

• Experience working with CMMS systems (preferably SAP PM) for work order management, planning, and reporting.

• Demonstrated experience in shutdown planning, backlog management, and resource coordination.

• Exposure to food safety, EHS standards, and statutory compliance within a plant environment.

• Experience in working with automated production systems and modern plant equipment. Technical Knowledge

• Strong understanding of:

• Maintenance planning and scheduling principles

• Root Cause Analysis (RCA) methodologies

• Reliability concepts (MTBF, MTTR, asset care strategies)

• Preventive and predictive maintenance techniques

• Lifecycle asset management

• Knowledge of spares management and criticality assessments.

• Understanding of condition monitoring techniques (e.g., vibration analysis, thermography).

• Familiarity with engineering documentation (P&IDs, OEM manuals, SOPs).

Key Skills:

• Strong planning and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.

• Analytical and problem-solving ability with a data-driven approach to decision-making.

• High attention to detail, particularly in CMMS data integrity and reporting.

• Effective communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to coordinate across multiple departments.

• Ability to work under pressure and adapt to changing operational demands.

• Leadership and influencing skills to drive maintenance discipline and compliance. Behavioral Competencies

• Proactive and results-driven mindset.

• Strong accountability and ownership.

• Commitment to continuous improvement and operational excellence.

• Strong focus on safety, food safety, and compliance.