The Ultimate Guide to Work Order Management: Everything You Need to Know
Work order management is a critical process for managing requests, planning, and tracking work that needs to be performed within an organization. An effective work order management system helps ensure work is prioritized, scheduled, and completed efficiently while providing visibility into maintenance operations.
In this ultimate guide, you’ll learn what work orders are, why they’re important, the key elements of the work order process, best practices for work order management, how to choose work order management software, and much more. Whether you’re looking to implement a new system or improve an existing one, this guide has everything you need to successfully manage work orders.
What is a Work Order and Why are They Important?
A work order is a document that initiates a maintenance or corrective task or project. Work orders authorize and provide details related to the work that needs to be completed.
Some key reasons why work orders are critical for organizations include:
Initiate and authorize work - Work orders formally initiate requests for work to be completed and provide permission to execute the work.
Plan and schedule work - Work orders allow managers to properly plan and schedule both preventative and corrective maintenance.
Manage costs - By providing insights into labor and materials for tasks, work orders enable better cost control.
Track work details - Details like work location, priority, worker assigned, parts used, time to complete and more are tracked on the work order.
Improve accountability - Work orders create documentation that improves accountability for getting work completed properly.
Identify asset performance - Work order history provides asset maintenance teams visibility into equipment reliability and repair trends.
The 5 Main Types of Work Orders
While the purpose of work orders is consistent, there are a few different classifications of work orders including:
1. Corrective Work Orders
These work orders are used for corrective or reactive maintenance to address unexpected equipment failures, damages or accidents. Corrective work aims to restore assets and equipment back to working order.
2. Preventative Maintenance Work Orders
As the name implies, preventative maintenance work orders allow maintenance teams to get ahead of problems and schedule maintenance procedures to prevent equipment failure before it occurs.
3. Inspection Work Orders
Inspections work orders cover regularly scheduled visual examinations and tests to check equipment condition and identify any potential deficiencies that should be addressed.
4. General Work Orders
General work orders refer to any everyday requests related to repairs or changes that don’t fall into one of the other categories. Things like lighting replacements or minor leaks would fall under this type of work order.
5. Project Work Orders
Project work orders document larger maintenance projects that involve multiple tasks, higher costs, more planning and longer timeframes for completion.
The specific types of work orders used depends on the organization’s assets and needs. But most maintenance teams will use a combination of different work order types to manage a range of preventative maintenance, repairs and projects.
What Should be Included in a Work Order?
While work order formats can vary, most work orders contain some essential information including:
Work order number - Unique ID number to easily reference each work order
Initiator - Person who submitted the request
Date submitted
Asset identification - Serial number or ID for equipment the work is being completed on
Work priority - Ranking work order priority (1 = highest, 5 = lowest)
Location - Where work will be performed
Type of work order (corrective, maintenance, etc.)
Problem description - Brief summary of the issue, failure or reason for the work
Work description - More detailed description of what needs to be repaired, replaced or maintained
Assigned staff - Maintenance technician(s) responsible for completing work
Start date - When work is scheduled to begin
Parts/materials required - List of tools, materials, replacement parts needed
Cost estimate - Projected labor hours x rate + materials cost
Work status - Open, In progress, Closed
Completion details - Date/time closed and any notes
Additional information like related downtime, safety procedures, approvals required, or accompanying documents (images, manuals, etc.) can also be attached.
Key Steps in the Work Order Process
The work order management process generally follows six key phases:
1. Initiation - Work order is created in response to a request, scheduled preventive maintenance, inspection findings, or observed equipment issue.
2. Planning - Required information is captured in the work order. Work is prioritized and assigned. Parts, materials, tools needed may be reserved or ordered if not in stock.
3. Scheduling - Manager examines current workload, capacity and priorities across open work orders and maintenance calendar to schedule the date/time work will be started and completed by.
4. Execution - Maintenance staff performs the prescribed work procedure according to the details and schedule in the work order. Any additional notes, materials used, findings or modifications made during the work are logged.
5. Completion - Once work is completed to satisfaction, the work order is closed out. Details like work status, actual start/finished date/time, labor hours spent and any further notes are added.
6. Analysis - Completed work orders provide historical maintenance data that managers can analyze to uncover trends, adjust maintenance frequencies, identify recurring issues, control costs and manage assets more effectively.
Adhering to these main steps as consistently as possible helps maximize productivity and efficiency.
6 Benefits of Work Order Management Software
While manual paper-based work order processes may seem simpler, using dedicated work order management software delivers significant benefits:
1. Increased efficiency - Automates manual tasks like work order creation, scheduling, assignments, status tracking, notifications and reporting.
2. More visibility - Dashboards give real-time views into all open work orders, maintenance backlogs, technician workloads and more.
3. Improved reporting - Dynamic reporting makes analyzing work order history, costs, asset performance and other trends far easier.
4. Lower costs - Tighter maintenance cost control prevents overspending on labor, maintenance materials and inventory stock.
5. Fewer mistakes - Automation and predefined templates minimize human data entry errors. Critical info isn’t missed.
6. Better planning - Data-driven insights uncovered from past work order analysis inform smarter preventative maintenance plans.
The right software pays for itself through time savings and improved maintenance productivity alone. But the data access and planning benefits take work order management to another level entirely for top performing maintenance teams.
Choosing the Best Work Order Management Software
With the benefits clear, adopting work order management software is recommended for most maintenance organizations. But reviewing options and determining the best solution for your specific needs is crucial.
Key evaluation criteria to consider:
Core features - At minimum, look for software with correct work order creation, scheduling, assignment, and tracking features. Asset management, inventory, analytics add value.
Ease of use - The system should streamline daily processes not complicate them. Look for modern interfaces employees can quickly learn to use efficiently.
Configurability - The software should adapt to your unique processes and terminology without requiring coding expertise. You don’t want to be locked into restrictive vendor templates.
Mobility - Technicians should have onsite mobile access to assign, update and close work orders without returning to a central PC. Offline access is ideal for spotty connections.
Integration - Does the software integrate with complementary solutions like EAM, CMMS, ERP or automation systems via APIs to eliminate data silos?
Scalability - As maintenance needs change over time, how easily can the system scale up in terms of users, assets, data volume etc without sacrificing performance? Also evaluate setup/expansion pricing.
ROI - Compare costs to efficiency gains, labor savings and overspend reductions the software will realistically deliver. ROI period should be less than 1 year.
Key steps for selecting and implementing work order software:
1. Define goals/challenges - Document your current work order management practices, pain points, and must have capabilities you expect new software to address. Know why you are switching solutions.
2. Create software criteria - Develop your buying criteria weighted by your most critical requirements based on identified goals, current processes and desired improvements.
3. Build a shortlist - Search software review sites like G2, Capterra and Software Advice and create a shortlist of 3-5 top-rated options that align with your criteria.
4. See demos - Watch demos from each shortlisted vendor to evaluate the UI, features and how well each matches stated requirements. Ask questions and take notes.
5. Decide winner - Compare pros/cons of the leading options and determine which solution best fits your needs. Verify buyer experiences through customer testimonials and case studies.
6. Purchase - Procure software subscription licenses for your user count. Seek discounts on multi-year terms.
7. Implement - Roll out software across team following vendor’s implementation methodology and best practices. Configure system settings, templates, integrations, workflows per your environment. Provide sufficient training.
8. Adopt - Gradually transition daily work order management fully into new system. Address any adoption resistance through additional training and requiring technology use.
9. Optimize - Once implemented, continue optimizing configurations, workflows, reporting and integrations to maximize ongoing software value.
Following a methodical software selection and implementation process ensures your work order management solution delivers the required ROI and efficiency gains your maintenance organization needs.
Work Order Management Best Practices
Beyond software adoption, adopting consistent work order management processes, and nurturing the right behaviors in your maintenance team are equally important for operational excellence.
Some work order management best practices include:
Use templates - Create work order templates with pre-defined fields for faster creation for common tasks like preventative maintenance or inspections.
Categorize work - Use work order types and priorities to categorize/filter work and properly assign resources.
Follow first-in-first-out - Manage work queues based on first-in-first-out not just urgency to prevent less critical tasks from being perpetually delayed.
Coordinate revisions - If new discoveries or obstacles emerge requiring changes to assigned work, notify the originator so impacted labor, timelines or costs reflected before closing.
Close promptly - Technicians should close work orders as soon as work is completed. Leaving orders perpetually open distorts queues, costs and metrics.
Reconcile spares - If parts stock was used for a task, create replenishment orders to restore inventory to par levels.
Provide sufficient detail - Briefly explain work completed and any findings, abnormalities or failures in completion comments - don’t just write “done”.
Cross-train staff - Reduce dependency on individuals and boost productivity by training all technicians on commonly recurring tasks.
Applying policies like these and closely monitoring software analytics leads to higher work order completion rates, greater technician productivity, more accurate cost data and greater visibility.
Work Order Management Process FAQs
Common questions related to developing and improving work order management processes include:
How do you prioritize work orders?
Work order priority is primarily driven by safety, environmental and operational risk factors. Production asset failures or breakdowns that severely impact output usually top priority lists. From there, priorities assigned based on costs to repair, downtime and depreciation impacts, number of people affected and compliance/policy violations.
For planned work, recommended maintenance set by OEMs will rank higher than general component lifecycle best practices. Optimization tasks rank the lowest.
Why is it important to create a work order?
Creating work orders, even for minor tasks has multiple benefits:
Formally documents labor costs
Links work to affected assets
Provides task details if defects emerge later
Tracks technician workloads and productivity
Alerts parts teams of inventory needed
Identifies failure trends if recurring
Documenting all labor via work orders is vital for accurate cost accounting and informed decision making.
What information should every work order have?
As covered previously, key pieces of information every work order requires includes:
Clear task description
Known pain points/defects
Requesting party/department
Asset ID and location
Priority
Skillsets/staff required
Due dates
Estimated labor time and materials
With those details captured upfront, the rest of the process from scheduling to assignment to completion is far more efficient.
Who is responsible for creating work orders?
Typically any employee at an organization can and should initiate work orders for identified work needing completion. Common initiators include:
Facility/maintenance managers noticing deficiencies on asset inspections
Production managers logging breakdowns requiring immediate technician fixes
Employees reporting plumbing leaks, electrical issues, strange noises or safety concerns via help desks
Automated alerts from sensors and smart equipment
Technicians finding additional issues during active repairs needing future remediation
Ideally, make submitting work identification and creation an open, management-approved practice.
Key Takeaways and Action Items
Effective work order management is crucial for well run maintenance teams. Key takeaways include:
Work orders initiate and authorize tasks - Whether planned or unplanned, work orders formalize the approval to utilize labor and materials to execute work.
Different types classify work - Corrective, preventative, general, inspections and project work orders categorize work by nature and driver of the task for better organization.
Standard information should be captured - Details like asset, requestor, description, priority, assigned staff and more enable smooth work execution.
Follow a streamlined process - Work order software structures creation, planning, scheduling, execution, and closing steps for consistency.
Software pays dividends - Automating manual paperwork processes enhances efficiency, productivity, cost control and planning.
Best practices optimize processes - Adhering to work order management best practices ensures teams operate as effectively as possible.
If your current work order process is extremely manual or limited, the time is now to consider software and identifying areas for improvement. Key next actions include:
Document current work order processes end-to-end
Quantify productivity drains from manual administrative tasks
Determine must have work order software features based on pain points
Build a business case showing the hard and soft benefits stronger work order management would drive
Research software options and create a shortlist of top contenders
Schedule demos and decide on a solution
Develop rollout timeline and training plans
Following through on these action items leads to significant maintenance process improvements and greater visibility across your organization’s asset infrastructure. The effort upfront pays off exponentially over time.
The Ultimate Guide to Work Order Management: Everything You Need to Know
Work order management is a critical process for managing requests, planning, and tracking work that needs to be performed within an organization. An effective work order management system helps ensure work is prioritized, scheduled, and completed efficiently while providing visibility into maintenance operations.
In this ultimate guide, you’ll learn what work orders are, why they’re important, the key elements of the work order process, best practices for work order management, how to choose work order management software, and much more. Whether you’re looking to implement a new system or improve an existing one, this guide has everything you need to successfully manage work orders.
What is a Work Order and Why are They Important?
A work order is a document that initiates a maintenance or corrective task or project. Work orders authorize and provide details related to the work that needs to be completed.
Some key reasons why work orders are critical for organizations include:
Initiate and authorize work - Work orders formally initiate requests for work to be completed and provide permission to execute the work.
Plan and schedule work - Work orders allow managers to properly plan and schedule both preventative and corrective maintenance.
Manage costs - By providing insights into labor and materials for tasks, work orders enable better cost control.
Track work details - Details like work location, priority, worker assigned, parts used, time to complete and more are tracked on the work order.
Improve accountability - Work orders create documentation that improves accountability for getting work completed properly.
Identify asset performance - Work order history provides asset maintenance teams visibility into equipment reliability and repair trends.
The 5 Main Types of Work Orders
While the purpose of work orders is consistent, there are a few different classifications of work orders including:
1. Corrective Work Orders
These work orders are used for corrective or reactive maintenance to address unexpected equipment failures, damages or accidents. Corrective work aims to restore assets and equipment back to working order.
2. Preventative Maintenance Work Orders
As the name implies, preventative maintenance work orders allow maintenance teams to get ahead of problems and schedule maintenance procedures to prevent equipment failure before it occurs.
3. Inspection Work Orders
Inspections work orders cover regularly scheduled visual examinations and tests to check equipment condition and identify any potential deficiencies that should be addressed.
4. General Work Orders
General work orders refer to any everyday requests related to repairs or changes that don’t fall into one of the other categories. Things like lighting replacements or minor leaks would fall under this type of work order.
5. Project Work Orders
Project work orders document larger maintenance projects that involve multiple tasks, higher costs, more planning and longer timeframes for completion.
The specific types of work orders used depends on the organization’s assets and needs. But most maintenance teams will use a combination of different work order types to manage a range of preventative maintenance, repairs and projects.
What Should be Included in a Work Order?
While work order formats can vary, most work orders contain some essential information including:
Work order number - Unique ID number to easily reference each work order
Initiator - Person who submitted the request
Date submitted
Asset identification - Serial number or ID for equipment the work is being completed on
Work priority - Ranking work order priority (1 = highest, 5 = lowest)
Location - Where work will be performed
Type of work order (corrective, maintenance, etc.)
Problem description - Brief summary of the issue, failure or reason for the work
Work description - More detailed description of what needs to be repaired, replaced or maintained
Assigned staff - Maintenance technician(s) responsible for completing work
Start date - When work is scheduled to begin
Parts/materials required - List of tools, materials, replacement parts needed
Cost estimate - Projected labor hours x rate + materials cost
Work status - Open, In progress, Closed
Completion details - Date/time closed and any notes
Additional information like related downtime, safety procedures, approvals required, or accompanying documents (images, manuals, etc.) can also be attached.
Key Steps in the Work Order Process
The work order management process generally follows six key phases:
1. Initiation - Work order is created in response to a request, scheduled preventive maintenance, inspection findings, or observed equipment issue.
2. Planning - Required information is captured in the work order. Work is prioritized and assigned. Parts, materials, tools needed may be reserved or ordered if not in stock.
3. Scheduling - Manager examines current workload, capacity and priorities across open work orders and maintenance calendar to schedule the date/time work will be started and completed by.
4. Execution - Maintenance staff performs the prescribed work procedure according to the details and schedule in the work order. Any additional notes, materials used, findings or modifications made during the work are logged.
5. Completion - Once work is completed to satisfaction, the work order is closed out. Details like work status, actual start/finished date/time, labor hours spent and any further notes are added.
6. Analysis - Completed work orders provide historical maintenance data that managers can analyze to uncover trends, adjust maintenance frequencies, identify recurring issues, control costs and manage assets more effectively.
Adhering to these main steps as consistently as possible helps maximize productivity and efficiency.
6 Benefits of Work Order Management Software
While manual paper-based work order processes may seem simpler, using dedicated work order management software delivers significant benefits:
1. Increased efficiency - Automates manual tasks like work order creation, scheduling, assignments, status tracking, notifications and reporting.
2. More visibility - Dashboards give real-time views into all open work orders, maintenance backlogs, technician workloads and more.
3. Improved reporting - Dynamic reporting makes analyzing work order history, costs, asset performance and other trends far easier.
4. Lower costs - Tighter maintenance cost control prevents overspending on labor, maintenance materials and inventory stock.
5. Fewer mistakes - Automation and predefined templates minimize human data entry errors. Critical info isn’t missed.
6. Better planning - Data-driven insights uncovered from past work order analysis inform smarter preventative maintenance plans.
The right software pays for itself through time savings and improved maintenance productivity alone. But the data access and planning benefits take work order management to another level entirely for top performing maintenance teams.
Choosing the Best Work Order Management Software
With the benefits clear, adopting work order management software is recommended for most maintenance organizations. But reviewing options and determining the best solution for your specific needs is crucial.
Key evaluation criteria to consider:
Core features - At minimum, look for software with correct work order creation, scheduling, assignment, and tracking features. Asset management, inventory, analytics add value.
Ease of use - The system should streamline daily processes not complicate them. Look for modern interfaces employees can quickly learn to use efficiently.
Configurability - The software should adapt to your unique processes and terminology without requiring coding expertise. You don’t want to be locked into restrictive vendor templates.
Mobility - Technicians should have onsite mobile access to assign, update and close work orders without returning to a central PC. Offline access is ideal for spotty connections.
Integration - Does the software integrate with complementary solutions like EAM, CMMS, ERP or automation systems via APIs to eliminate data silos?
Scalability - As maintenance needs change over time, how easily can the system scale up in terms of users, assets, data volume etc without sacrificing performance? Also evaluate setup/expansion pricing.
ROI - Compare costs to efficiency gains, labor savings and overspend reductions the software will realistically deliver. ROI period should be less than 1 year.
Key steps for selecting and implementing work order software:
1. Define goals/challenges - Document your current work order management practices, pain points, and must have capabilities you expect new software to address. Know why you are switching solutions.
2. Create software criteria - Develop your buying criteria weighted by your most critical requirements based on identified goals, current processes and desired improvements.
3. Build a shortlist - Search software review sites like G2, Capterra and Software Advice and create a shortlist of 3-5 top-rated options that align with your criteria.
4. See demos - Watch demos from each shortlisted vendor to evaluate the UI, features and how well each matches stated requirements. Ask questions and take notes.
5. Decide winner - Compare pros/cons of the leading options and determine which solution best fits your needs. Verify buyer experiences through customer testimonials and case studies.
6. Purchase - Procure software subscription licenses for your user count. Seek discounts on multi-year terms.
7. Implement - Roll out software across team following vendor’s implementation methodology and best practices. Configure system settings, templates, integrations, workflows per your environment. Provide sufficient training.
8. Adopt - Gradually transition daily work order management fully into new system. Address any adoption resistance through additional training and requiring technology use.
9. Optimize - Once implemented, continue optimizing configurations, workflows, reporting and integrations to maximize ongoing software value.
Following a methodical software selection and implementation process ensures your work order management solution delivers the required ROI and efficiency gains your maintenance organization needs.
Work Order Management Best Practices
Beyond software adoption, adopting consistent work order management processes, and nurturing the right behaviors in your maintenance team are equally important for operational excellence.
Some work order management best practices include:
Use templates - Create work order templates with pre-defined fields for faster creation for common tasks like preventative maintenance or inspections.
Categorize work - Use work order types and priorities to categorize/filter work and properly assign resources.
Follow first-in-first-out - Manage work queues based on first-in-first-out not just urgency to prevent less critical tasks from being perpetually delayed.
Coordinate revisions - If new discoveries or obstacles emerge requiring changes to assigned work, notify the originator so impacted labor, timelines or costs reflected before closing.
Close promptly - Technicians should close work orders as soon as work is completed. Leaving orders perpetually open distorts queues, costs and metrics.
Reconcile spares - If parts stock was used for a task, create replenishment orders to restore inventory to par levels.
Provide sufficient detail - Briefly explain work completed and any findings, abnormalities or failures in completion comments - don’t just write “done”.
Cross-train staff - Reduce dependency on individuals and boost productivity by training all technicians on commonly recurring tasks.
Applying policies like these and closely monitoring software analytics leads to higher work order completion rates, greater technician productivity, more accurate cost data and greater visibility.
Work Order Management Process FAQs
Common questions related to developing and improving work order management processes include:
How do you prioritize work orders?
Work order priority is primarily driven by safety, environmental and operational risk factors. Production asset failures or breakdowns that severely impact output usually top priority lists. From there, priorities assigned based on costs to repair, downtime and depreciation impacts, number of people affected and compliance/policy violations.
For planned work, recommended maintenance set by OEMs will rank higher than general component lifecycle best practices. Optimization tasks rank the lowest.
Why is it important to create a work order?
Creating work orders, even for minor tasks has multiple benefits:
Formally documents labor costs
Links work to affected assets
Provides task details if defects emerge later
Tracks technician workloads and productivity
Alerts parts teams of inventory needed
Identifies failure trends if recurring
Documenting all labor via work orders is vital for accurate cost accounting and informed decision making.
What information should every work order have?
As covered previously, key pieces of information every work order requires includes:
Clear task description
Known pain points/defects
Requesting party/department
Asset ID and location
Priority
Skillsets/staff required
Due dates
Estimated labor time and materials
With those details captured upfront, the rest of the process from scheduling to assignment to completion is far more efficient.
Who is responsible for creating work orders?
Typically any employee at an organization can and should initiate work orders for identified work needing completion. Common initiators include:
Facility/maintenance managers noticing deficiencies on asset inspections
Production managers logging breakdowns requiring immediate technician fixes
Employees reporting plumbing leaks, electrical issues, strange noises or safety concerns via help desks
Automated alerts from sensors and smart equipment
Technicians finding additional issues during active repairs needing future remediation
Ideally, make submitting work identification and creation an open, management-approved practice.
Key Takeaways and Action Items
Effective work order management is crucial for well run maintenance teams. Key takeaways include:
Work orders initiate and authorize tasks - Whether planned or unplanned, work orders formalize the approval to utilize labor and materials to execute work.
Different types classify work - Corrective, preventative, general, inspections and project work orders categorize work by nature and driver of the task for better organization.
Standard information should be captured - Details like asset, requestor, description, priority, assigned staff and more enable smooth work execution.
Follow a streamlined process - Work order software structures creation, planning, scheduling, execution, and closing steps for consistency.
Software pays dividends - Automating manual paperwork processes enhances efficiency, productivity, cost control and planning.
Best practices optimize processes - Adhering to work order management best practices ensures teams operate as effectively as possible.
If your current work order process is extremely manual or limited, the time is now to consider software and identifying areas for improvement. Key next actions include:
Document current work order processes end-to-end
Quantify productivity drains from manual administrative tasks
Determine must have work order software features based on pain points
Build a business case showing the hard and soft benefits stronger work order management would drive
Research software options and create a shortlist of top contenders
Schedule demos and decide on a solution
Develop rollout timeline and training plans
Following through on these action items leads to significant maintenance process improvements and greater visibility across your organization’s asset infrastructure. The effort upfront pays off exponentially over time.
The Ultimate Guide to Work Order Management: Everything You Need to Know
Work order management is a critical process for managing requests, planning, and tracking work that needs to be performed within an organization. An effective work order management system helps ensure work is prioritized, scheduled, and completed efficiently while providing visibility into maintenance operations.
In this ultimate guide, you’ll learn what work orders are, why they’re important, the key elements of the work order process, best practices for work order management, how to choose work order management software, and much more. Whether you’re looking to implement a new system or improve an existing one, this guide has everything you need to successfully manage work orders.
What is a Work Order and Why are They Important?
A work order is a document that initiates a maintenance or corrective task or project. Work orders authorize and provide details related to the work that needs to be completed.
Some key reasons why work orders are critical for organizations include:
Initiate and authorize work - Work orders formally initiate requests for work to be completed and provide permission to execute the work.
Plan and schedule work - Work orders allow managers to properly plan and schedule both preventative and corrective maintenance.
Manage costs - By providing insights into labor and materials for tasks, work orders enable better cost control.
Track work details - Details like work location, priority, worker assigned, parts used, time to complete and more are tracked on the work order.
Improve accountability - Work orders create documentation that improves accountability for getting work completed properly.
Identify asset performance - Work order history provides asset maintenance teams visibility into equipment reliability and repair trends.
The 5 Main Types of Work Orders
While the purpose of work orders is consistent, there are a few different classifications of work orders including:
1. Corrective Work Orders
These work orders are used for corrective or reactive maintenance to address unexpected equipment failures, damages or accidents. Corrective work aims to restore assets and equipment back to working order.
2. Preventative Maintenance Work Orders
As the name implies, preventative maintenance work orders allow maintenance teams to get ahead of problems and schedule maintenance procedures to prevent equipment failure before it occurs.
3. Inspection Work Orders
Inspections work orders cover regularly scheduled visual examinations and tests to check equipment condition and identify any potential deficiencies that should be addressed.
4. General Work Orders
General work orders refer to any everyday requests related to repairs or changes that don’t fall into one of the other categories. Things like lighting replacements or minor leaks would fall under this type of work order.
5. Project Work Orders
Project work orders document larger maintenance projects that involve multiple tasks, higher costs, more planning and longer timeframes for completion.
The specific types of work orders used depends on the organization’s assets and needs. But most maintenance teams will use a combination of different work order types to manage a range of preventative maintenance, repairs and projects.
What Should be Included in a Work Order?
While work order formats can vary, most work orders contain some essential information including:
Work order number - Unique ID number to easily reference each work order
Initiator - Person who submitted the request
Date submitted
Asset identification - Serial number or ID for equipment the work is being completed on
Work priority - Ranking work order priority (1 = highest, 5 = lowest)
Location - Where work will be performed
Type of work order (corrective, maintenance, etc.)
Problem description - Brief summary of the issue, failure or reason for the work
Work description - More detailed description of what needs to be repaired, replaced or maintained
Assigned staff - Maintenance technician(s) responsible for completing work
Start date - When work is scheduled to begin
Parts/materials required - List of tools, materials, replacement parts needed
Cost estimate - Projected labor hours x rate + materials cost
Work status - Open, In progress, Closed
Completion details - Date/time closed and any notes
Additional information like related downtime, safety procedures, approvals required, or accompanying documents (images, manuals, etc.) can also be attached.
Key Steps in the Work Order Process
The work order management process generally follows six key phases:
1. Initiation - Work order is created in response to a request, scheduled preventive maintenance, inspection findings, or observed equipment issue.
2. Planning - Required information is captured in the work order. Work is prioritized and assigned. Parts, materials, tools needed may be reserved or ordered if not in stock.
3. Scheduling - Manager examines current workload, capacity and priorities across open work orders and maintenance calendar to schedule the date/time work will be started and completed by.
4. Execution - Maintenance staff performs the prescribed work procedure according to the details and schedule in the work order. Any additional notes, materials used, findings or modifications made during the work are logged.
5. Completion - Once work is completed to satisfaction, the work order is closed out. Details like work status, actual start/finished date/time, labor hours spent and any further notes are added.
6. Analysis - Completed work orders provide historical maintenance data that managers can analyze to uncover trends, adjust maintenance frequencies, identify recurring issues, control costs and manage assets more effectively.
Adhering to these main steps as consistently as possible helps maximize productivity and efficiency.
6 Benefits of Work Order Management Software
While manual paper-based work order processes may seem simpler, using dedicated work order management software delivers significant benefits:
1. Increased efficiency - Automates manual tasks like work order creation, scheduling, assignments, status tracking, notifications and reporting.
2. More visibility - Dashboards give real-time views into all open work orders, maintenance backlogs, technician workloads and more.
3. Improved reporting - Dynamic reporting makes analyzing work order history, costs, asset performance and other trends far easier.
4. Lower costs - Tighter maintenance cost control prevents overspending on labor, maintenance materials and inventory stock.
5. Fewer mistakes - Automation and predefined templates minimize human data entry errors. Critical info isn’t missed.
6. Better planning - Data-driven insights uncovered from past work order analysis inform smarter preventative maintenance plans.
The right software pays for itself through time savings and improved maintenance productivity alone. But the data access and planning benefits take work order management to another level entirely for top performing maintenance teams.
Choosing the Best Work Order Management Software
With the benefits clear, adopting work order management software is recommended for most maintenance organizations. But reviewing options and determining the best solution for your specific needs is crucial.
Key evaluation criteria to consider:
Core features - At minimum, look for software with correct work order creation, scheduling, assignment, and tracking features. Asset management, inventory, analytics add value.
Ease of use - The system should streamline daily processes not complicate them. Look for modern interfaces employees can quickly learn to use efficiently.
Configurability - The software should adapt to your unique processes and terminology without requiring coding expertise. You don’t want to be locked into restrictive vendor templates.
Mobility - Technicians should have onsite mobile access to assign, update and close work orders without returning to a central PC. Offline access is ideal for spotty connections.
Integration - Does the software integrate with complementary solutions like EAM, CMMS, ERP or automation systems via APIs to eliminate data silos?
Scalability - As maintenance needs change over time, how easily can the system scale up in terms of users, assets, data volume etc without sacrificing performance? Also evaluate setup/expansion pricing.
ROI - Compare costs to efficiency gains, labor savings and overspend reductions the software will realistically deliver. ROI period should be less than 1 year.
Key steps for selecting and implementing work order software:
1. Define goals/challenges - Document your current work order management practices, pain points, and must have capabilities you expect new software to address. Know why you are switching solutions.
2. Create software criteria - Develop your buying criteria weighted by your most critical requirements based on identified goals, current processes and desired improvements.
3. Build a shortlist - Search software review sites like G2, Capterra and Software Advice and create a shortlist of 3-5 top-rated options that align with your criteria.
4. See demos - Watch demos from each shortlisted vendor to evaluate the UI, features and how well each matches stated requirements. Ask questions and take notes.
5. Decide winner - Compare pros/cons of the leading options and determine which solution best fits your needs. Verify buyer experiences through customer testimonials and case studies.
6. Purchase - Procure software subscription licenses for your user count. Seek discounts on multi-year terms.
7. Implement - Roll out software across team following vendor’s implementation methodology and best practices. Configure system settings, templates, integrations, workflows per your environment. Provide sufficient training.
8. Adopt - Gradually transition daily work order management fully into new system. Address any adoption resistance through additional training and requiring technology use.
9. Optimize - Once implemented, continue optimizing configurations, workflows, reporting and integrations to maximize ongoing software value.
Following a methodical software selection and implementation process ensures your work order management solution delivers the required ROI and efficiency gains your maintenance organization needs.
Work Order Management Best Practices
Beyond software adoption, adopting consistent work order management processes, and nurturing the right behaviors in your maintenance team are equally important for operational excellence.
Some work order management best practices include:
Use templates - Create work order templates with pre-defined fields for faster creation for common tasks like preventative maintenance or inspections.
Categorize work - Use work order types and priorities to categorize/filter work and properly assign resources.
Follow first-in-first-out - Manage work queues based on first-in-first-out not just urgency to prevent less critical tasks from being perpetually delayed.
Coordinate revisions - If new discoveries or obstacles emerge requiring changes to assigned work, notify the originator so impacted labor, timelines or costs reflected before closing.
Close promptly - Technicians should close work orders as soon as work is completed. Leaving orders perpetually open distorts queues, costs and metrics.
Reconcile spares - If parts stock was used for a task, create replenishment orders to restore inventory to par levels.
Provide sufficient detail - Briefly explain work completed and any findings, abnormalities or failures in completion comments - don’t just write “done”.
Cross-train staff - Reduce dependency on individuals and boost productivity by training all technicians on commonly recurring tasks.
Applying policies like these and closely monitoring software analytics leads to higher work order completion rates, greater technician productivity, more accurate cost data and greater visibility.
Work Order Management Process FAQs
Common questions related to developing and improving work order management processes include:
How do you prioritize work orders?
Work order priority is primarily driven by safety, environmental and operational risk factors. Production asset failures or breakdowns that severely impact output usually top priority lists. From there, priorities assigned based on costs to repair, downtime and depreciation impacts, number of people affected and compliance/policy violations.
For planned work, recommended maintenance set by OEMs will rank higher than general component lifecycle best practices. Optimization tasks rank the lowest.
Why is it important to create a work order?
Creating work orders, even for minor tasks has multiple benefits:
Formally documents labor costs
Links work to affected assets
Provides task details if defects emerge later
Tracks technician workloads and productivity
Alerts parts teams of inventory needed
Identifies failure trends if recurring
Documenting all labor via work orders is vital for accurate cost accounting and informed decision making.
What information should every work order have?
As covered previously, key pieces of information every work order requires includes:
Clear task description
Known pain points/defects
Requesting party/department
Asset ID and location
Priority
Skillsets/staff required
Due dates
Estimated labor time and materials
With those details captured upfront, the rest of the process from scheduling to assignment to completion is far more efficient.
Who is responsible for creating work orders?
Typically any employee at an organization can and should initiate work orders for identified work needing completion. Common initiators include:
Facility/maintenance managers noticing deficiencies on asset inspections
Production managers logging breakdowns requiring immediate technician fixes
Employees reporting plumbing leaks, electrical issues, strange noises or safety concerns via help desks
Automated alerts from sensors and smart equipment
Technicians finding additional issues during active repairs needing future remediation
Ideally, make submitting work identification and creation an open, management-approved practice.
Key Takeaways and Action Items
Effective work order management is crucial for well run maintenance teams. Key takeaways include:
Work orders initiate and authorize tasks - Whether planned or unplanned, work orders formalize the approval to utilize labor and materials to execute work.
Different types classify work - Corrective, preventative, general, inspections and project work orders categorize work by nature and driver of the task for better organization.
Standard information should be captured - Details like asset, requestor, description, priority, assigned staff and more enable smooth work execution.
Follow a streamlined process - Work order software structures creation, planning, scheduling, execution, and closing steps for consistency.
Software pays dividends - Automating manual paperwork processes enhances efficiency, productivity, cost control and planning.
Best practices optimize processes - Adhering to work order management best practices ensures teams operate as effectively as possible.
If your current work order process is extremely manual or limited, the time is now to consider software and identifying areas for improvement. Key next actions include:
Document current work order processes end-to-end
Quantify productivity drains from manual administrative tasks
Determine must have work order software features based on pain points
Build a business case showing the hard and soft benefits stronger work order management would drive
Research software options and create a shortlist of top contenders
Schedule demos and decide on a solution
Develop rollout timeline and training plans
Following through on these action items leads to significant maintenance process improvements and greater visibility across your organization’s asset infrastructure. The effort upfront pays off exponentially over time.