Shutdown day is where bad planning becomes visible to everyone — contractors waiting for permits that weren't ready, systems that should have been isolated hours ago, a punch list nobody agreed on until it was too late to fix. None of that is a shutdown problem; it's a planning problem that simply surfaces on shutdown day.

The Maintenance Scheduling, Shutdown Planning and Risk Management training course, delivered by Arab British Fellowship Training Academy, is built around the planning discipline that prevents that scramble. Participants learn to schedule and resource maintenance work, plan and coordinate major shutdowns, assess and mitigate the risks involved, and close the loop with post-shutdown review — so critical systems stay reliable and downtime stays controlled rather than accidental.

By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:

• Distinguish reactive, planned, and strategic maintenance approaches, and where each fits.
• Build maintenance schedules that minimise disruption to building operations.
• Plan resource, labour, and budget needs for maintenance and shutdown projects in advance.
• Define shutdown scope, sequence tasks, and run pre-shutdown readiness reviews.
• Identify shutdown risks and build mitigation and contingency plans, including safety considerations.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams and contractors during execution, and monitor progress against schedule.
• Run post-shutdown reviews, document lessons learned, and feed them into future maintenance strategy.

Target Group

• Maintenance managers, planning engineers, and facilities managers responsible for maintenance strategy
• Shutdown coordinators, project planners, and reliability or asset management professionals
• Operations managers overseeing critical building systems
• Contract, vendor, health, safety, and risk management professionals involved in shutdown execution

Module 1: Reactive, Planned or Strategic? Choosing the Right Approach

• Differences between reactive, planned, and strategic maintenance
• Role of maintenance planning within overall facilities strategy
• Common challenges in developing effective maintenance plans

Module 2: Scheduling and Resourcing Maintenance Work

• Developing short-term and long-term maintenance schedules
• Prioritising activities by criticality and risk
• Planning labour, equipment, material, and budget needs in advance

Module 3: Planning a Shutdown Before It Starts

• Defining shutdown scope, objectives, and timelines
• Pre-shutdown assessments and readiness reviews
• Detailed work plans, task sequencing, and stakeholder communication

Module 4: Managing Shutdown Risk and Safety

• Identifying and assessing risks specific to shutdown activities
• Developing mitigation strategies and safety measures
• Preparing contingency plans for unexpected challenges

Module 5: Running the Shutdown

• Managing execution against the planned schedule
• Coordinating cross-functional teams and contractor performance
• Monitoring progress, addressing delays, and ensuring quality control

Module 6: Closing the Loop: Review and Lessons Learned

• Conducting post-shutdown reviews and performance evaluation
• Documenting lessons learned and identifying improvement opportunities
• Reporting outcomes to management and stakeholders

Module 7: Building a Long-Term Maintenance Strategy

• Integrating shutdown planning into broader maintenance strategy
• Aligning planning with asset lifecycle management
• Using historical data to improve future planning and building organisational capability