Emergency maintenance refers to any job that should be attended to immediately. Emergency maintenance, by its nature, allows very little lead time for planning. The amount of emergency maintenance must be minimized and it should not exceed 10% of the total maintenance work. The maintenance department must have a clear policy for handling emergency maintenance. One of the following offers an approach to handling emergency maintenance:
1. Preempt the regular schedule and perform the emergency maintenance, then pick up the backlog with overtime, temporary workers or contract maintenance; and 2. Assign dedicated crafts for emergency maintenance based on the estimated emergency maintenance load. It is an accepted practice in industry to allow 10–15% of load capacity for emergency work.
The first approach is expected to result in increased workforce utilization; however, the second approach offers the ability to respond quickly as needed.