7 Reasons Why Work Order Management is Important
In a facility, staff members, tenants, customers, etc., may submit work requests via a service request form, or a work order management software shall automatically create work orders. Work orders constitute the heart of maintenance operations. In the 5G technology age, facility managers effortlessly and efficiently manage work orders using CMMS software.
CMMS software helps technicians best discharge their duties by offering instant access to checklists, documents, manuals, resources, knowledge base, etc. It provides for future planning and easy work order reference at a later stage. Read on to learn the importance of digital work order management.
1. Standardizing work order template
A work order should include the following essential information regardless of its type.
- Requester name with timestamp
- Current status of the job
- Technicians involved in the process
- Estimated completion date
- Actual completion date
- Tools needed to perform the job
- Customer digital signature
- Cost for the job
An able work order management is vital to a successful maintenance strategy that ensures only genuinely necessary maintenance tasks are undertaken or scheduled. It is possible to optimize maintenance based on equipment running conditions and actual usage.
A digital work order management strategy ensures you stick to the maintenance budget without compromising on the asset wellness in the long run, restore the failed equipment to working condition at the earliest, and assign the job to the best engineer at the moment.
Work order management software lets managers glance, assign, schedule, and prioritize all maintenance tasks. It helps them know the outstanding backlog count, areas of delay, the ratio of planned and reactive maintenance, frequently failing assets, spot specific business locations that lag in maintenance performance, etc., with a glance at the Dashboard using their mobile app.
It is impossible to accomplish the above said insights without a digital trail using manual techniques centered on paper and Excel sheets. The digital method standardizes maintenance by establishing a rigid framework and process.
2. Segregation of work orders
We can classify Work orders into several types: general work orders, regulatory compliance work orders, inspection work orders, corrective work orders, etc., based on organizational requirements. Depending on the type, a work order will be used by:
- Factory managers
- Facility managers
- In-house maintenance managers
- Various maintenance teams
- Inventory managers
- Asset managers
- Customers
- Other departments in the office
A Facility Management Software or Enterprise Asset Management software intimates the supervisor on the arrival of a service request. The supervisor reviews and approves it after adding any additional details if necessary. If any information is needed to complete the work order, he sends the request to the person who requested the service.
The supervisor can auto-assign the task to a department. Any engineer mapped to the department can self-assign it for execution. Alternatively, it is possible to assign the task to an engineer within the Geo-Fencing circle or based on the visibility into the current workload.
Such intelligent task assignments will be impractical or inefficient using manual management. The facility manager will be clueless about the volume of work and the current status of high-priority work orders in each category.
3. Optimizing Preventive and Corrective Maintenance
A well-constructed digital work order that is self-explanatory, to the point, and includes all the necessary documents accessible via mobile app makes it easier to execute a preventive maintenance program and spring into action rapidly in case of reactive maintenance.
It is equally important that work orders get routed through powerful processes. If maintenance techs notice an issue while performing inspection tasks, they must be able to outrightly raise a corrective work order which the application should channel properly for prompt redressal.
The software solution makes it easier for facility managers to identify trends, pinpoint constantly failing assets, alter maintenance plans, and allocate budgets reasonably based on real-time maintenance insights.
Such maintenance management software, also available as a mobile app, lets your technicians enter notes or update work orders in real-time and work offline too! The cloud and mobile app-based maintenance application eliminates duplicity of data and affirms the operational data is accurate.
4. Build a connected workplace
A facility can be a connected workplace only if the work orders are prioritized and completed without much trouble. Disjointed work orders with incomplete information, communication gaps, and miscommunication prolong completion times with poor visibility into the performance of assets, engineers, and the facility, as a whole. It increases the count of backlogs and causes chaos when the volume of work orders increases beyond expectation.
Computerized maintenance management software can clear the work orders at a higher first-time fix rate(FTFR) and longer mean time between failures (MTBF). An IoT-powered CMMS application goes a step further in connecting and integrating assets, facilities, technicians, facility managers & other stakeholders, and sensors in a unified digital pipeline to achieve new levels of excellence in maintenance, uphold work transparency, encourage best practices, and share knowledge.
The application notifies service engineers of task assignments via push, in-app notifications so they are always aware of it. Facility managers can schedule, re-assign, and track work orders while traveling or from remote locations. The application instantly notifies them of the arrival of service requests, slow work order progress, or inaction so that nothing goes far away from achieving a good and acceptable standard of work order execution.
5. Gather analytics for continuous process improvement
Work order management software maintains a trail of data on maintenance operations. The data is stored and accessed in a very secure manner. If done manually, gathering the data for performance analysis would take days. With digitization, make a giant leap forward by gathering customized data on any aspect at the speed of your thoughts. You can rely on the data and take it for granted!
6. Focus on core business operations
It is not an exaggeration to say work order management is the firm base on which core business rests. When not managed properly, the unstable assets trouble the core business operations. Moreover, maintenance issues aren’t worth robbing much of your precious time and attention. Entrust it to the facility or internal maintenance manager by empowering them with the right tool to secure maintenance.
7. Maximize profits
Amid widespread inflation, you cannot reduce the cost of a product or service your business provides beyond a point. There may be other reasons to justify the selling price, such as high manufacturing costs, the burden of taxes, etc. On the contrary, cutting down on maintenance, utility, and operating expenses is simple and feasible.
According to a recent study by BusinessWire, companies using software such as EAM, FSM, and CMMS achieve a 20% reduction in equipment downtime and maintenance costs. The apt choice of work order management software is the crucial final piece of the puzzle. Grow and succeed in your business by widening profit margins.
