Module 8:

8.4 Creating an annual maintenance schedule

1   Before you start the next activity, it would be useful to see if you can locate any details for the current maintenance schedule for your own pitch as these could be used to help from the basis of this next activity.

When creating a maintenance schedule, it is important to continue to think of why the activity, or material is needed at the time slot being considered in the schedule.

Is it essential or desirable to do at the planned time?

Can there be some leeway in when it needs to be done?

This latter question is helpful when thinking about the likely workload that might be required at any given moment.

Try not to put everything all in the same day, week, month if labour inputs will be stretched or work requirements exceed available resources. Whilst this exercise is not about creating a detailed work programme, which would also include input hours and requirements of machinery and materials, and which would be the next stage after creating a schedule of work, it is helpful to be mindful of available resources as this can help prepare the groundwork for creating a work programme later on.

2   A really useful high-level view of the maintenance requirements for a specific football pitch can be provided by the creation of 12-month annual work plan.

Other benefits of this approach can contribute to budget planning, cash flow forecasting, machinery servicing, material ordering, machinery hire, contractor works, staffing availability, and as a precursor to creating an annual work programme, which would include the estimated times needed to carry out the activities, however, that is for another course.

So, it is (or can be) a very useful tool. Don’t worry about not getting it spot on straight away. In fact, it is unlikely to ever be perfect due to the many factors mentioned earlier, but it can go a long way to making sure you perform much better than not using one.

Before we look any further at creating a maintenance schedule, we will just look at the main activity of mowing a pitch. We will use this to help better understand what is required for building a maintenance schedule.