Denny
All maintenance items on a plan adopt the same scheduling parameters. These multi-item plans ensure that the orders created from the each item are grouped together and will not become misaligned (unlike single plan/item combinations).
As an example, lets say you have 3 pump/motors on a skid:
So you may want to create a maintenance item for each of the 3 pump/motor sets with identical task lists/Packages etc, and then link these items to a single plan.
The plan would then ensure that the orders come out at the same time. If the orders are created early enough (via IP30), then your schedulers/planners can move the start dates of the individual orders to ensure that the 3 pump/moor sets are shut down and isolated at different times ensuring continued production.
So in essence, the plan is used for longer term planning, the orders are then rescheduled according to shorter term requirements.
PeteA