It's Friday at 4pm, the shutdown starts Monday at 6am, and the fitters are double-booked on Tuesday. That's the real test of mining shutdown planning: not whether you have a plan, but whether it survives crews, cranes and parts. Here are six phases to plan it, and how HVI ties inspections, work orders and parts into one register.
Same Work. Same Crew. Very Different Week.
Both plans below contain identical jobs and the same five days. Switch between them and watch where crew demand crosses what you can actually deliver.
Every hour a plant or major machine sits idle costs real money, which is why the planning runway matters more than the heroics during the window. The earlier jobs, parts and crews are tied together, the less you pay for surprises. A demo of shutdown work orders tracked per job shows how that connection looks on screen.
Mining shutdown planning: six phases from first idea to close-out
A shutdown isn't one big task; it's six smaller ones in sequence. Skipping a phase doesn't save time, it just moves the pain into the window. Here's the runway, with the timing most major shutdowns follow and where HVI fits.
- 1T−16 to 20 weeks
Define the scope
Collect candidates from pre-shutdown inspections, component hours, the backlog and PM falling due. In HVI: flagged defects become work orders in one click.
- 2T−12 to 8 weeks
Plan each job
Build work packs: steps, parts, tools, labour estimate, permits and acceptance tests. In HVI: orders carry mechanics, parts and cost logs.
- 3T−8 to 4 weeks
Schedule and level
Sequence the critical path, load each trade day by day and book cranes and contractors. Keep this in your project scheduler.
- 4T−4 to 1 weeks
Prepare and verify
Kit parts, finish permits and risk assessments, then hold the Go/No-Go review. In HVI: audit checklists and parts inventory back each gate.
- 5Day 0 onward
Execute shift by shift
Brief at the start, check progress against plan midshift, and push discovered work through change control. In HVI: mechanics update orders from the mobile app.
- 6After restart
Accept and close out
Verify acceptance tests, compare cost to estimate, and feed lessons back into PM intervals. In HVI: labour and material costs roll into reporting.
Phase one is where most shutdowns are won or lost, so give it time. Our guide to shutdown scope control and readiness reviews goes deep on freezing scope and the five readiness gates. For a project-style example, see how crews run a mill reline against a fixed window. One caveat: HVI isn't a critical-path scheduler. Keep sequencing in the tool your planners already use; HVI holds the inspections, work orders and parts underneath it.
Shutdown resource planning: level the week, not just the job
Most overloaded days aren't caused by bad estimates. They're caused by every job wanting to start on day one. Three habits fix most of it.
Load by trade, not by crew
Count fitters, electricians, riggers and boilermakers separately. A site with plenty of crew hours can still be short of one trade on one day.
Protect the critical path first
Give those jobs the best crews and the earliest slots, then use float jobs to fill the troughs. Move float work off the peak days.
Match parts and tools to the job
A kit that arrives late stalls a whole crew. Track parts in inventory against each order, and assign lifting gear and special tools with tool management.
Rank which jobs are untouchable if the window shrinks with an asset criticality ranking, and learn how strong mining planners and schedulers turn defects into jobs crews can execute.
Fixed plant and mobile fleet shutdowns: plan them differently
“Shutdown” means two different animals on a mine. A crusher or mill stop takes the whole plant down on one clock. A heavy mobile equipment shutdown, such as a major component change-out, happens one machine at a time against workshop capacity. Plan each for its own constraint.
| Factor | Fixed plant (crusher, mill, conveyors) | Mobile fleet (haul trucks, loaders, excavators) |
|---|---|---|
| Typical jobs | Liner changes, drive and gearbox work, chute and conveyor repairs | Major component change-outs, structural repairs, final drives |
| Main constraint | Isolation, access, lifting, one shared window | Bay capacity and component availability |
| Plan around | The critical path and restart date | Workshop capacity and machine availability |
| Inspect ahead | Wear, thickness, vibration, leaks | Walk-around defects, component hours |
| Typical surprise | Strip-out reveals damage beyond scope | Replacement unit or part not ready |
For mobile fleets, a good component change-out strategy and tracked crusher liner wear keep the surprises small. If you'd like to see this on your own equipment list, a short demo of HVI maintenance tracking is the quickest way.
Who owns what in a mining shutdown
Shutdowns fail in the gaps between roles. Make each owner explicit, and write the name next to the work order, not just on an org chart.
Maintenance manager
Owns the budget, the freeze decision and the final Go/No-Go.
Planner
Builds work packs with steps, parts, tools, labour and acceptance tests.
Scheduler
Sequences the critical path, loads trades and levels the peaks.
Supervisor
Runs each shift: briefings, progress checks and handovers.
Operations
Hands the asset over cleanly, isolates it and accepts it back.
Safety lead
Signs off permits and risk assessments. See permit to work systems.
Give each of them one place to look. Shared visibility is the cheapest way to avoid the Friday 4pm surprise, and you can start free and put your next shutdown's jobs in one register. For job-level hazards, see point of work risk assessment.
From a maintenance manager at a gold operation
We used to plan the shutdown in a spreadsheet and manage it on a whiteboard. By day three the two disagreed, and the board always won. Half my morning was working out which version was true.
Now the defects come off the pre-shutdown inspections as work orders, the parts are tied to them, and the planner can see what's done without chasing anyone. I still run the critical path in our scheduler, but the jobs underneath it finally agree with reality.
Mining shutdown planning checklist
Run this at the end of each phase. If you can't tick six of eight at the readiness review, the window is relying on luck. See how each item maps to a screen in a live HVI demo built around your shutdown.
Planning started early enough
Major shutdowns begin 16 weeks or more out; mobile fleet plans run on a rolling window.Scope built from inspections
Findings, hours and backlog feed one register with photos attached.Every job has a work pack
Steps, parts, tools, labour estimate and acceptance tests.Crews levelled by trade
No day asks for more hours than the trade can supply.Long-lead parts confirmed
Ordered at least eight weeks out and tracked to site.Permits and risk assessments ready
Drafted before day one, with isolations and lifts planned.Change control agreed
Late additions need a named approver and a costed impact.Close-out review booked
Cost versus estimate and lessons feed the next PM and shutdown plan.Mining shutdown planning pays off before the window opens
The shutdowns that finish on time don't rely on a heroic week. They start early, build scope from evidence, level crews by trade, verify readiness with real gates, and close out with a review that improves the next one. Treat each of the six phases as a handover, and the Friday 4pm surprise turns into a Friday 4pm sign-off.
If you'd like inspections, work orders and parts tracked together before your next stop, try HVI free on one plant area or a few machines. For where the work comes from, see how sites run mining work order management from defect to repair.
Mining shutdown planning: your questions answered
What is mining shutdown planning?
It's the process of defining, preparing, scheduling and verifying maintenance work for a planned stop of a plant or major machine. The goal is to finish safely, on time and on budget.
How far ahead should a mining shutdown be planned?
Major shutdowns commonly start planning 16 to 20 weeks out. Many mobile fleet planners work to a rolling 12-week window, and long-lead parts should be ordered at least eight weeks ahead.
What should a shutdown work pack include?
Job steps, parts and tools, labour estimate, permits and risk assessment, and acceptance tests. The goal is that a crew can execute the job without chasing anyone.
How do you level resources during a shutdown?
Load each trade day by day, protect critical-path jobs first, then move float work off peak days. Check parts and tools against each job so crews never wait.
How does HVI support mining shutdown planning?
HVI turns inspection findings into work orders, assigns mechanics, consumes parts from inventory and logs cost and progress. It sits alongside your project scheduler rather than replacing it.
Turn your next shutdown into a plan that holds
Run pre-shutdown inspections from the cab, convert defects to work orders in one click, auto-schedule PM by meter reading and track every job with timestamped notes. One platform for haul trucks, excavators, loaders, drills and support equipment, so the gaps show up weeks before the window.
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