Skip every “X” Occurrence is a conditional PM schedule that allows you to set a PM schedule that is skipped for the specified number of times that the maintenance would normally occur.

Skipping over occurrences is useful if your team covers a PM within other routine maintenance, like quarterly or annual tasks.

In this article, learn how to set PM schedules to skip occurrences in your Limble account, and look at meter and calendar-based examples.

Set the Conditional PM Schedule

Calendar & Meter-Based PM Schedule Examples

Calendar-Based Example: Annual, Semi-Annual, and Quarterly PM Schedules

Calendar-Based Example: Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly PM Schedules

Meter-Based Example: Checking Meters at 1,000 & 3,000 Hours

To skip occurrences of PM schedules, navigate to the Manage PMs page within the desired location. Choose a PM and click on its schedule.

(Note: if you don’t see these options by default, expand your view by clicking “Advanced Settings.”)

Within the new pop-up, select the “Skip every X Occurences” checkbox and fill in the desired number you’d like to skip.

Skip every “X” occurrence can be applied to both calendar- and meter-based scheduling. As you build out your PMs, you’ll want to be mindful of the tasks within your skipped PMs and make sure to build those instructions into the other PMs in the sequence.

For instance, let’s say you do a quarterly inspection of your most expensive and frequently used machine. You make sure things are functioning properly, replace the filter, and lubricate all rotating parts. You also perform a semi-annual inspection where you do a thorough cleaning and more detailed inspection of the machine, but still need to complete the work from the quarterly inspection. And finally, you do an annual inspection where you run a full diagnostics test — but you need to include the tasks from the semi-annual and quarterly inspections. Working backward from the annual inspection ensures you capture all instructions, and can dial back from there.

A great example of when to use skip every “X” occurrence would be for PMs that need to be done as part of annual maintenance, but also semi-annually and quarterly.

Knowing that your PMs need to be done in these timeframes, but not wanting them to overlap or generate at the same time, you can set up skip every “X” occurrence.

In this example, we’ll set an annual PM for January 1.

Next, we’ll set the semi-annual PM. For skip every “X” occurrence to work, make sure the subsequent PMs are scheduled using the first PM as the “day one” to count off from.

Since January is the first PM, we’ll want to schedule the semi-annual PM for July, which is 6 months from the annual PM. We’ll apply the skip every “X” occurrence command to skip every 2 occurrences, which will skip every other PM.

This will schedule the PM to generate in May and skip over the November occurrence.

(Note: you can view upcoming schedules for calendar-based PMs like this one by clicking on the square caret icon under the Options column.)

Finally, we’ll schedule a quarterly PM. Again, we need to use the initial date in January as the starting point to schedule this PM. Here, we’ll schedule the quarterly PM to occur in April, which is 3 months after the annual PM.

We’ll apply the skip every “X” occurrence command to skip every 2 occurrences as we did with the semi-annual schedule. This will ensure that the July and November occurrences are skipped.

This way, we’re able to conduct the quarterly PMs without duplicating the work in the semi-annual and annual schedules.

Now that the PMs are set up to skip occurrences properly, it should look like this:

Using skip every “X” occurrence for schedules that include weekly PMs requires a bit of a different setup.

If you plan to include weekly PMs in the mix with any other calendar-based scheduling, you’ll need to schedule your other occurrences in weekly increments as opposed to monthly or yearly increments.

For example, here is how you would schedule your other calendar-based schedules to line up with weekly PMs:

Regardless of which increments you choose, make sure to set the start date to be the day before you want the first occurrence to happen.

Depending on the number of weeks that are in each month (since it varies depending on which day of the week each month starts), scheduling this way may mean your PMs won’t generate on the first or last week of the month. However, this is the most efficient way to ensure weekly PMs line up with your other calendar-based PMs.

Another great use for skip every “X” occurrence is for meter-based PMs.

The key to making sure your meter-based PMs line up properly includes two steps:

For example, if you schedule a PM to generate every 1,000 hours, but the task isn’t completed until 1,015 hours, the next PM will generate at 2,015 hours. This will help you avoid running PMs too frequently.

In this scenario, we’ll need PMs to generate every 1,000 and 3,000 hours, but don’t want the 1,000-hour PM to generate when the 3,000-hour PM is scheduled.

First, we’ll set our 3,000-hour PM since we don’t need to apply any special scheduling changes.

In this scenario, the hours’ current value is 100.

Although we don’t need to skip any occurrences for the 3,000-hour PM, we do need to make sure to check off “Schedule at regular intervals” to ensure the PM generates at the correct interval.

Next, we’ll schedule the 1,000-hour PM. Again, be mindful that the hour start time is the same for both PMs.

Since the 3,000-hour PM will generate the at the same time as the third occurrence of the 1,000-hour PM, we’ll skip every 3 occurrences. Be sure to check off “Schedule at regular intervals.”

With this schedule in place, the PMs are set and the 1,000-hour PM will not generate during the 3,000-hour PM.

Since meter-based occurrences are not on a calendar-based schedule, you will not be able to see the next several scheduled occurrences within Limble. However, the occurrence that directly follows the most recent occurrence will be indicated under the Schedules column.

Conditional PM Schedules

Conditional PM Schedules: Seasons

Conditional PM Schedules: Holidays

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