What is work order management?
Work order management consists of the processes and strategies needed to plan and monitor work activities across a company. Work order management procedures help in boosting productivity among employees as well as ensure the quality of the products and services delivered by the company.
Types of work order management
While any company can apply work order management principles, there are different approaches to planning work, depending on the complexity of the company's operations.
- Manufacturing: Work orders in the manufacturing industry are defined by production plans and master production schedules. Depending on the number of products and their complexity, production plans can be divided into work orders so that each employee is responsible for a specific operation.
- Maintenance: A work order for maintenance jobs groups several tasks required to perform activities such as repairs or calibration. For instance, a repair order comprises the following steps: identify the problem and its cause, find a solution, then perform the repair.
- Professional services: While professional services providers usually track work using project management software, work orders can be used for one-time activities.
Benefits of work order management
Work order management has multiple benefits for businesses, the most important being:
- Increased productivity: Employees who know exactly what they have to do, when it’s due, and how to do it are the most efficient since less time is wasted figuring out what their work consists of. Idle time and errors can also be reduced significantly by managing work orders.
- Improved quality: Work orders assign tasks to employees based on their qualifications, experience, and availability. This avoids putting unqualified employees in charge of complex activities such as manufacturing or maintenance operations. As a result, each activity is performed by the most qualified employees. Thus, this helps maintain a high level of quality of the products and services provided by the company.
- Better accountability: Monitoring work orders allows companies to identify what works and what doesn't, as well as who's responsible for issues such as managing defective products and low-quality services. Using this information, managers can take corrective actions to limit the potential damages of subpar operations.
Basic elements of work order management
Work order management encompasses the following essential elements:
- Templates: Since most work tends to be repetitive, companies need work order templates for various activities that can be reused and repurposed, instead of having to start from scratch every time new orders are created.
- Workflows: While simple work is straightforward, complex processes require workflow to assign tasks to multiple employees across different departments and teams.
- Planning: There is a need for planning when it comes to work orders, as they need to be matched with employees and their availability to the activities performed by each company department.
- Monitoring: Tracking work orders in real time allows managers to analyze the efficiency of their employees and identify if each person is performing the tasks assigned to them.
- Communication: All the information required to execute work orders needs to be communicated with the employees in charge. Also, employees need to be notified of any changes to work orders to ensure that they are performing the right activities at the right time.
- Analytics: Analyzing work orders provides insights into what works well and helps companies identify issues and trends.
Work order management best practices
To ensure work order management brings optimal results, companies should consider the following best practices:
- Identify and manage bottlenecks: Historical work order data can be used to identify issues that occur frequently and should be addressed by the company. Bottlenecks, like inefficient employees or lack of resources, can slow down operations and negatively impact productivity and quality. Corrective actions are often required to address these challenges, such as reassigning employees or reallocating resources.
- Adjust orders and reassign work: There will always be exceptions and unpredictable changes no matter how well managers plan work. Since these may have a ripple effect and impact other operations, they need to be identified as soon as possible and addressed quickly. To do so, managers can modify orders on the fly and reassign resources. For example, an employee that is sick can be replaced with a colleague who has the same qualifications.
- Establish targets and key performance indicators (KPIs): To better analyze the effectiveness of work orders, companies need to create clear and realistic targets. KPIs are measurable values that show how effectively a company manages work orders. KPIs compare the predefined target with the actual performance to identify discrepancies. For instance, a maintenance department may aim to perform 50 repairs per day but only completes 45, which means that its performance is below expectations.
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Gabriel Gheorghiu
Gabriel’s background includes more than 15 years of experience in all aspects of business software selection and implementation. His research work has involved detailed functional analyses of software vendors from various areas such as ERP, CRM, and HCM. Gheorghiu holds a Bachelor of Arts in business administration from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest (Romania), and a master's degree in territorial project management from Université Paris XII Val de Marne (France).
