Crafting Effective Work Orders: Key Steps for Maintenance Success

• Published date: 18 March 2024
• Author: Louise Simpson

As every experienced maintenance professional will tell you, effective maintenance management begins with the creation of a detailed work order. A well-crafted work order serves as a roadmap for maintenance technicians, guiding them through the necessary steps to keep equipment and facilities running smoothly. Task identification is often the easy bit – we have identified an issue, and it needs to be fixed! However, creating a work order for an issue is one thing, capturing all the information needed is another.  

Here are the key steps we would recommend for crafting effective work orders once a task has been identified: 

1. Detailed Description: Provide a comprehensive description of the maintenance task, including specific details such as the nature of the issue, observed symptoms, and relevant background information.
2. Equipment or Asset Identification: Clearly specify the equipment or asset requiring maintenance, including details such as the asset ID, location, and any unique characteristics.
3. Priority Level: Assign a priority level to the work order based on safety considerations, production impact, and equipment criticality to ensure timely completion of urgent tasks.
4. Required Materials and Resources: List all materials, tools, and resources needed to complete the maintenance task, facilitating efficient procurement and preparation.
5. Estimated Time for Completion: Provide an estimate of the time required to complete the task, aiding in resource planning and scheduling.
6. Safety Precautions: Identify any safety hazards associated with the task and specify necessary precautions to ensure technician safety.
7. Documentation and Reference Materials: Attach relevant documentation, manuals, or reference materials to the work order to aid technicians in troubleshooting and performing tasks accurately.
8. Digital Signatures and Approvals: Implement digital signature capabilities to facilitate approval workflows and ensure that all necessary information is provided before work begins.

If you have CMMS or EAM software in place or are thinking about it, it is well worth considering all the above steps within your work order creation. By incorporating these details into work order creation, maintenance managers can ensure that tasks are clearly defined, properly prioritised, and efficiently executed, leading to improved asset reliability and operational efficiency. In addition, capturing these details within a CMMS or EAM will provide you with a seamless information flow and real-time tracking of maintenance activities. 

To discover how organisations like yours manage their work orders within Agility CMMS / EAM as part of their maintenance management success, please contact a member of our global team today.