Work Order Management System: How the Process Works?

Work order management or WOM is a systemic approach to promptly process and complete work orders to minimize asset downtime. It depends on the availability of maintenance resources like money, people, parts, and assets.

Importance of WOM

Usually, teams have relied heavily on paper-based job orders to communicate assignments. Thought orders themselves may be pretty easy to create by hand, but managing a paper-based order has been labor-intensive as well as often introduces a lot of problems than solutions. 

For instance, staff needs to interpret lousy handwriting. It can lead to incorrect data collection and documentation. Paper copies are liable to get lost and misplaced and can result in missed servicing. Heaps of papers can clutter up desks and file cabinets, making it pretty difficult to find past work orders. 

Some teams have used spreadsheet-based order management, but this system has limitations. One worker can only alter spreadsheets at a time. It makes it very difficult for other workers to see the updated information. Work instructions generated by spreadsheet software need to be printed. 

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It brings along various challenges mentioned earlier. Using this software may be pretty tough for the company, especially the workers. As companies grow, past order management techniques become inefficient and unsustainable. 

But a renewed focus on office operational effectiveness and efficiency has put stress on the functions of maintenance departments of organizations. To help improve this process, companies spend a lot of time, money, and energy to computerize their management systems.

Work Order Management Process

Good WOM considers the order at every stage from request to completion. The following part describes what will happen in every step of the process. People will notice how CMMS makes the process more efficient, effective, and streamlined.

Request approval

The need for a maintenance job is usually communicated through a request. The approver will check the request and find out whether it is legitimate or not. The approver also needs to know if there is enough information available to make an order or if the problem has already been communicated with the right team. A lot of companies use the requested feature of a CMMS to handle requests. If these requests are valid, they will be immediately approved, and the request will be created.

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Creation

The creation of the job request signifies that the authorization has already been given to perform the job. These things are created from the approved maintenance requests by the staff or automatically from the software. Using the mobile CMMS, workers can develop proposals directly from the field.

Prioritization

Prioritizing the request involves determining which directives are to be finished first. A directive’s priority is usually determined whether the job or asset is critical to the operation of the company or not. For instance, directives related to the site or staff safety may be a high priority for most companies. 

Lower priority requests include non-essential maintenance orders or routine preventive maintenance. Teams will create standards for what makes these directives low or high priority. It allows the high-priority jobs to be finished first, and when backlog happens, it should only consist of low-priority tasks.

Scheduling

The scheduling is based on the priority of the job. Emergency directives need to be finished without delay. Preventive maintenance directives are usually scheduled based on runtime- or calendar-based intervals or by the company’s manufacturer’s guidelines when it comes to servicing. 

But timing is not only a vital part of the work order management system and job scheduling requests. Managers consider the supplies and spare parts, tools, and other special equipment needed, as well as the availability of technicians to complete the task. CMMS software will allow companies to visualize the workload and identify how workers can be used most efficiently and effectively.

Assignment

Every servicing team is made up of technical workers with different abilities and skills. Job requests need to be assigned to workers best suited to do the task. For larger companies, technicians may specialize in a certain craft or do training in a particular asset. 

Small and medium-sized companies are more likely to use tradespeople with various skills and abilities for the task and can do multiple maintenance tasks. Knowing who is best for the task may be done by technicians with first-hand experience. It can also be identified using a maintenance report from the CMMS software.

Closure

Closure happens when all jobs have been finished, all services are delivered, and the task is completed. Technicians are now readily available to start working on other open projects. 

Analysis

The collective job order history is the primary foundation for meaningful reporting. Without the software’s reporting capabilities, it becomes pretty hard to track KPIs or Key Performance Indicators that can provide a closer look at the process. For instance, how easily can the company calculate the number of directives created or closed using paper-based tracking systems or spreadsheets?