What is a Work Order?

A 'work order' is a fancy way of saying, "Here’s something that needs to be fixed, here’s how to do it, and this is the person who needs to do it."

Components of a Work Order.

Work Orders come in all shapes and sizes and are a key component of CMMS software. A typical work order has the following components.

What needs to be done? (Fix the exhaust fan in Room 101.)
Who’s going to do it? (Bob the builder.)
When is it due? (by Friday the 13th.)
How urgent is it? (Assign a priority 'Normal' or 'Urgent'.)
Any spare parts needed? (Link to your inventory system.)
Any special instructions? (Add any checklists.)
Risk involved? (PTW (permit to work) needed?)

Work orders are a fundamental part of maintenance activities in any enterprise. Work orders can be manually created or automatically generated based on the maintenance schedules you set for your assets.

How and when are Work Orders generated?

Work orders are usually generated in one of these three ways.

On Demand.
Time/Calendar Based.
Event Based.

On Demand.

Machines can breakdown unexpectedly and at odd times. In such cases, 'On Demand' work order is created manually and assigned to a team member. More often than not, an 'On Demand' work order indicates an 'emergency' that needs to be fixed immediately.

Time / Calendar Based.

Predefined 'Maintenance Schedules' form the basis for generating Time/Calendar based work orders.

You can create Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly repeating maintenance schedules for your assets.
You can specify a 'Start Date' and 'End Date' for each maintenance schedule.
You can attach one or more Team Members to each maintenance schedule.
Work orders are automatically generated based on these maintenance schedules and added to the calendar of the associated team member(s).
New work orders are generated around midnight for the subsequent day/week/month/year.
You also have the option of generating the next work order only after the current one is closed.

These type of work orders are part of 'Planned Maintenance' activities and usually do not constitute any emergency. In other words, Time/Calendar based work orders are generated even if a machine is working fine.

Event Based.

'Event based Work Orders' are generated in response to an event that has occurred or when certain conditions are met - like when a generator runs for so many hours, or when a turbine completes so many RPM's.

'Event based Work Orders' may require an API integration with IOT or SCADA systems. Work orders can be generated based on readings/events from IOT/SCADA devices and some business rules that you define. For example, you can generate a work order if 'boiler temperature' is consistently over 70°C for a 10 minute period.

Types of Work Orders.

Work orders fall under three broad categories based on the way they are generated.

Preventive Maintenance.
Corrective Maintenance.
Predictive Maintenance.

Preventive Maintenance.

Preventive Maintenance is work taken up at regular intervals even if a machine is running fine. This is done to avoid machine breakdowns at unexpected times which can turn out to be very expensive. Preventive Maintenance work orders are Time/Calendar driven. They are generated at predefined time intervals, daily, weekly, monthly, or annually or any variation thereof.

Corrective Maintenance.

Corrective Maintenance can be considered the opposite of Preventive Maintenance. Corrective Maintenance work orders are generated when a machine breaks down or when a maintenance technician notices that the machine is under performing. These work orders are of the 'On Demand' type discussed above.

Predictive Maintenance.

It is impossible for maintenance crews to go around and inspect all the machines all the time to detect under performing ones. It's impossible to know what's happening inside a complex machine with many moving parts.

That is where technology comes into the picture. For a while now, many machines come factory-fitted with IOT sensors that can capture readings how the machine is working. These readings can be analyzed in real time and work orders can be generated if these readings match up to some historical fault patterns. In recent years, machine learning algorithms are being used to detect abnormal patterns in readings and generate work orders.

Predictive Maintenance work orders fall in to the category of 'Event based Work Orders'.

SuperCMMS makes maintenance life easy.

SuperCMMS is a 'Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)' that brings together 'Asset Management', 'Work Order Management', and 'Inventory Management' in one seamless platform. It is available in the Cloud and can be accessed both on Web and Mobile (iPhone, Android).

SuperCMMS is free for 5 team members - forever and all features included. The paid version will save you a ton of money compared to ANY alternative on the market.

Give it a try. Your team, especially the field staff, will love you for it.

Trusted in 50+ countries

99.95% Uptime SLA

Forever free plan