Maintenance Planner

Maintenance Planner

Ridgecrest/Trona, CA

Searles Valley Minerals provides customers worldwide with high quality soda ash, sodium sulfate, and boron products from a large saline mineral deposit in California’s Mojave Desert. Searles Valley Minerals uses an environmentally friendly solution mining technology to extract mineral rich brines from over 25,000 acres of leased and owned reserves which it processes using proprietary technologies in three manufacturing facilities in Trona, California.

We are seeking a Maintenance Planner to be primarily responsible for ensuring maintenance activities can be carried out in the most efficient manner possible, through strict implementation of Maintenance Operating System procedures and adherence to RCM principles. This individual is responsible for procuring all required resources to execute job plans, and working with the O&M team, schedule work in a manner that minimizes impact to the production facility. The Planner maintains the CMMS database with regard to equipment, spare parts, and work order feedback, and has a thorough understanding of maintenance management best practices and the ability to accomplish work by directing team efforts. This role is a corner stone of the asset management system and the origin of maintenance efficiency KPIs.

Key Accountabilities:

1. Job Scope and Work Preparation
   • Create detailed job plans for work requests including parts, equipment and labor requirements.
   • Procure and stage parts at job sites and maintain orderly storage and staging areas.
   • Solicit quotes from outside vendors and initiate purchase request for contract manpower or materials.
   • Lead or participate in job scope development for projects to be outsourced.
2. Work Scheduling
   • With input from Operations, Engineering, Reliability and Maintenance, develop, refine and distribute weekly maintenance schedules based on facility needs.
   • Ensure no jobs are scheduled without parts on hand.
   • Lead weekly scheduling meeting and review weekly schedule with Maintenance Supervisors to ensure common understanding and agreement on job plans.
   • Initiate work request to other crafts as determined by scheduled jobs (crane, scaffold, electrician, etc.)
   • Generate and schedule PM work orders.
   • Close and/or reschedule work orders.
3. Database (CMMS) Management
   • Update PM work to ensure all PMs are valid, appropriate and of the right frequency.
   • Update work order backlog to ensure all work orders are valid and accurate with regard to priority and status.
   • Update equipment spare parts lists and return unused parts to store.
   • Assist in updating warehouse inventory using SAR.
4. Repairable Equipment
   • Ensure repairable equipment is placed on the appropriate drop point, tagged and has a work order in the system for repair.
   • Track spare equipment repairs to ensure they are completed in a timely, cost effective manner and returned to inventory.
   • “Install” equipment at appropriate service locations for change outs or corrections.
5. Plan and prepare for major turnarounds
   • Direct and facilitate cross-functional teams, including need for actin/information with “need-by” dates.
   • Create timeline listing major milestones for pre-outage activities, including meeting schedules, fabrication work, long lead-time parts procurement, etc.
   • Create turnaround schedule making efficient use of all equipment and labor resources, and present to the O&M team for review/approval.
   • Ensure all turnaround work is identified, included on the backlog and properly coded.
   • Compile and present complete scope of work to be completed during the turnaround, and coordinate pre-outage activities to ensure all resources are on site when needed.
   • Create high-quality RFQs to solicit bids from multiple vendors and conduct job walks as needed.
   • Ensure EAR/CAR forms are submitted with adequate time for approvals and ensure all costs are incurred against appropriate work orders/purchase orders/EAR/CARs.
   • Develop crane schedule to support jobs requiring lifts with minimum use of outside resources.
   • Compile rental equipment list and ensure equipment is on site when needed, and promptly returned.
   • Ensure all vendors have up to date master work agreements and all vendor employees have daily timecards with appropriate PO number.
   • Coordinate safety orientations and site specific training for each vendor.
   • Establish purchase orders for all outside resources, and communicate details to vendor and SVM supervisors.

6. Must be supportive of all Company policies and procedures including safety, environmental, housekeeping, participate in SVM safety program, and demonstrate safe work practices.

Required Skills:

• Be a self-starter, showing initiative, good decision making and sound judgment skills.
• Able to recognize unsafe behavior and situations and able to address and correct both.
• Able to handle multiple priorities, work under pressure and meet strict timelines, while working safely.
• Able to constructively engage employees at all levels in the organization to coach, confront, support and train about safety.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work independently or as an effective team member.
• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.
• Must possess basic math skills, including fractions, percentages and basic statistics.
• Must be skilled in report writing and be able to analyze and interpret data.

Leadership Responsibilities:

• Direction of team members.
• Mentor employees on RCM principles and practices.

Qualifications:

• High school diploma or general education degree (GED) and five to seven years related experience and/or training.
• Must possess a valid Driver’s license subject to DMV driving record monitoring.
• Requires supervisory skills demonstrated by a minimum of two years leadership experience.
• Must be familiar with RCM concepts.
• Ability to work autonomously and effectively prioritize activities with little input from supervisor.
• Ability to work mathematical concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios and proportions to practical situations.
• Ability to calculate and understand key performance indicators to measure planning and maintenance efficiency and effectiveness.
• Ability to collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions.
• Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills; must communicate effectively with technicians, tradesmen, contract representatives, engineers, supervisors/managers and executive management.
• Capable of reading and understanding technical documents and drawings, and have the ability to accurately and effectively describe work plans and the work accomplished on work orders.
• Excellent organization skills.
• Very proficient (power user) in the use of CMMS, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project.
• Capable of establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships conducive to working in a team environment.
• Demonstrated leadership skills, capable of directing team members to achieve specific tasks, while providing honest and direct feedback.

Physical Demands:

• Requires normal or correctable vision, normal hearing, and manual dexterity.

Work Environment:

• Climate controlled office environment with moderate noise levels.
• Requires up to 40% of work in physical plant areas with exposure to outdoor weather and loud noise.
• Occasionally works in wet and humid conditions, near moving mechanical parts, and in high and precarious places.
• Percent Travel: None.

Searles Valley Minerals is a Responsible Care® Company that has a commitment to a culture of safety throughout its operations. We employ over 700 employees and contractors and operate continuously to safely and sustainably provide customers with quality products. We ship thousands of tons of high grade mineral product daily to major manufacturers in the US and worldwide. Searles Valley Minerals provides a competitive salary, a relocation package for some positions, and an outstanding employee benefit package that includes comprehensive medical and dental plans, short-term and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, paid time off, a 401k retirement savings program, and paid holidays. This compensation package coupled with a dynamic and challenging work environment employing a diverse, sustainable and highly skilled workforce makes Searles Valley Minerals an excellent employment opportunity.

Benefits/Culture

Here at Searles Valley Minerals our employees are what keep our business going. We reward our employees by offering some of the best benefits in the industry. Some of them are outlined below:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision
• Competitive 401k with company match
• Life Insurance / Accidental Death and Dismemberment
• 10 Paid Holidays
• Paid Vacation
• Paid Sick Leave