What is a Work Order?

Work orders are at the heart of facilities management, but like many things in facilities management, can go by many different names. Across different organisations, work orders have also been known as job orders, maintenance jobs, service orders, cases, and work slips.

Whatever you call them, work orders play a key role in effective maintenance management and compliance.

What is the purpose of a work order?

Whether in a digital or paper format, work orders document and communicate the necessary information to complete maintenance work for the facility.

The details contained in a work order will usually include:

-             Description of the work to be conducted and location

-             Priority of the work

-             Dates the work was requested, and expected date of completion

-             Who will be conducting the work

-             Who has approved the work

-             Details of the asset in question

-             Who raised the request

Three stages of work orders

 A typical work order process is be broken down into three stages – creation, triaging, and closure.

Work order created

Work orders can be created following a work request from a facility user, or as part of a regular maintenance strategy. All work conducted in the facility should have a related work order containing the all-important details of the work to be completed.

Work order triage and action

Once a work order is created, it needs to be assessed and assigned to the right resource for action. This is typically the role of the Facility Manager or Coordinator, who will consider resourcing, contractor agreements, and prioritisation amongst other tasks before assigning the work order.

Once a work order has been assigned, whoever has received the work order will use the information to conduct the required work in the specified timeline.

Work order closed

Once the work is completed, the work order is appropriately closed off and details recorded in the audit log for compliance. In an efficient work order management process, these closed work orders can then deliver powerful insights to support long term improvement of the facilities function. In many organisations, this improvement plays a key role in achieving the strategic plans and goals of the organisation.