Symptoms of Poor Work Order Management

Poor work order management can be a hidden problem for many facilities management teams. Often, common symptoms of poor work order management are experienced a long time before the cause is identified.  

This can leave teams chasing their tails, trying to reactively address the symptoms, rather than focussing on improving work order management.

If your team is experiencing any of these symptoms, it’s time to review your work order process.

Team is stuck in "react" mode

Without visibility over requests and work orders, it is difficult for facility managers to prioritise and allocate resources effectively.  

This can mean that the loudest requesters and most senior stakeholders get their jobs actioned, while other jobs end up unintentionally overlooked until the problem has compounded.

If the team is only ever in react mode, they’ll be forever favouring the direction of others over important strategic work. This can result in teams spending all their time on reactive work, leaving no time to manage and schedule critical planned maintenance work, or plan for asset replacements.

Resources constantly overstretched

Limited visibility over expenditure and works makes it difficult to efficiently allocate resources. Without a clear idea of what works are coming up, facility managers have to throw resources at jobs as they come up, which can lead to budget blow outs.

Without a clear overview of what work is coming in and what is in progress, it’s nearly impossible to effectively allocate resources. Ad-hoc allocation of work orders not only creates problems with prioritising different jobs, but also makes it difficult to capitalise on the strengths of different team members.

Little to no scope for team improvement

It is difficult for team members to feel fulfilled when every day is consumed by “busy work”. If the team is forever stuck in this cycle, there will never be time for meaningful projects that drive long term improvements.

Additionally, ad-hoc work order management can make it very difficult to measure team performance in any meaningful way. Without proper visibility, the facilities manager is left to just assume the required work is being done, and that each team member and all contractors are contributing equally.

Finally, without being able to meaningfully measure service delivery, it is difficult for the team to make any improvements on the service provided to stakeholders.

Relationships with stakeholders are strained

Poor work order management can cause relationship rifts within the facilities team, and with stakeholders across the broader business.

Communications fall apart when the right information isn’t available to the right people at the right time. This can manifest itself as a lack of collaboration within the facilities team, with contractors, or with facility users.

When it’s difficult to know exactly what is happening with works across the team, it’s difficult to effectively manage communications for stakeholders. Follow up requests and questions are hard to answer, and finding those answers can be time consuming and frustrating for the facilities team.

Reporting is time consuming and/or difficult

Reporting is absolutely critical in facilities management. To align with regulations, and effectively control a significant cost base, good quality, accessible data is critical.

When work orders aren’t managed effectively, it is difficult to find the information required to satisfy stakeholders reporting needs. This leads to delays in getting the information to decision-makers, affecting the viability of the decision.

In some cases, the data may not be timely or accurate enough to support informed decision making. When stakeholders are making decisions based on poor data, it can spell disaster for the organisation.