Area Planner

As an Area Maintenance Planner at Alcoa, your main responsibilities include coordinating maintenance activities, driving continuous improvement initiatives, planning and scheduling major outages, and ensuring an effective maintenance strategy that maximizes tradespersons' tool time. You'll work closely with the Maintenance Field Planners and play a crucial role in aligning maintenance activities with business goals.

To qualify for the Area Maintenance Planner position at Alcoa, candidates should possess previous experience in maintenance roles, particularly within mining, or hold a relevant degree with applicable work experience. Extensive knowledge of maintenance planning, especially in shutdown planning, and proficiency in maintenance management systems are also highly beneficial.

As an Area Maintenance Planner at Alcoa, you can enjoy a range of benefits including career development opportunities, a performance-related bonus, a benefits allowance, 16 weeks of paid parental leave, and paid annual volunteer hours. Furthermore, you will work in a supportive environment that promotes social engagement and diversity.

Health, safety, and the environment are core commitments at Alcoa. As an Area Maintenance Planner, you will adhere to strict safety protocols and collaborate with your team to ensure a safe working environment while promoting best practices in health and environmental management. Your leadership will help instill a culture that prioritizes these essential values.

At Alcoa, the Area Maintenance Planner role offers an excellent work-life balance through a compressed workweek schedule. This means you'll work four days, 9 hours per day, allowing you more time to engage in personal activities that matter to you, thus fostering a healthy balance between work and life.

To effectively answer this question, share specific examples of your past roles where you were involved in maintenance planning. Highlight your achievements, such as successful projects you led or challenges you overcame, emphasizing how your experience aligns with Alcoa's operations.

Respond by outlining your approach to safety, mentioning any relevant training or certifications you have. Discuss how you implement safety protocols in your planning and how you anticipate and mitigate potential risks.

Highlight the importance of clear and open communication. Discuss specific tools or strategies you use to foster team collaboration, such as regular meetings, updates, or shared digital platforms, and how these have supported successful outcomes.

Explain your prioritization process, considering factors like urgency, impact on operations, and available resources. Offering a real-life example where you successfully managed multiple tasks effectively will strengthen your answer.

Provide a situation where you identified a need for improvement and describe the changes you made. Focus on your thought process, the implementation steps, and the positive results achieved, demonstrating your proactive approach.

Mention specific tools you have experience with, such as CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Systems), and explain how you use them to optimize maintenance processes. Share any successes you've had in implementing or training others in these systems.

Discuss your problem-solving skills and ability to adapt. Talk about the steps you’d take to assess the situation, communicate with your team, and devise a recovery plan to bring the project back on track.

Emphasize the collaborative aspect of maintenance planning. Talk about how teamwork fosters better results, sharing details on how you encourage team participation and ensure that everyone contributes to the planning process.

Discuss your commitment to professional development through industry publications, workshops, and networking. Mention any specific organizations you’re involved with or courses you’ve taken that contribute to your knowledge about mining and maintenance planning.

Articulate your passion for maintenance planning and its impact on organizational success. Share personal motivations that drive you, such as supporting your team, achieving operational efficiency, and contributing to sustainable practices within the mining industry.