A work order format is an essential part of any business or organization that deals with the production, maintenance, or repair of goods and services. Also known as a job ticket, work ticket, or service ticket, this document is submitted to the maintenance department from either an external customer or internally from someone in another department.
What Is a Work Order?
A work order or job order is a formal document in digital or paper format that contains details of production or maintenance work that has been approved for execution. It serves as a critical communication tool between management, supervisors, and frontline workers. It usually contains details of the job that needs to be completed along with any products that need to be purchased in order to do it, location, skills required and tools needed, among other things. Work orders usually contain more details than a purchase order.
Why Are Work Orders Important?
Work orders are primarily created to do the following:
Initiate tasks.
Provide clarity to the maintenance team on what tasks need to be accomplished.
To have set deadlines for the tasks in question.
To provide the maintenance team with special instructions (if any).
Work orders provide a clear set of instructions to frontline workers, reducing confusion and improving efficiency. By providing detailed instructions and timelines, work orders help workers complete tasks quickly and accurately, reducing downtime and increasing productivity.
What Are the Different Types of Work Orders?
Standard Work Order
A standard work order is basically a maintenance task that isn't high priority as it does not pose any kind of immediate risk to your systems, facilities and equipment. For example, jobs like painting, changing light bulbs, removing old equipment and setting up new equipment are all examples of a standard work order.
Preventive Maintenance Word Order
A preventive maintenance work order revolves around all the equipment in your organization and making sure that the life of those assets last as long as possible. What this amounts to is having systems in place for routine maintenance checks to prevent any kind of disruptions of the breakdown of the equipment.
Prepare for Inspections
When you create a work order, you have the provision to create a checklist that comprises various inspection points that a maintenance person will have to keep in mind while performing an equipment audit.
Reactive or Emergency Word Order
This kind of work order format is created when a certain piece of equipment breaks down and needs immediate repair or when a facility failure leads to the creation of an unsafe environment.
Corrective Maintenance Work Order
A corrective maintenance work order is created for the completion of a routine inspection for preventive maintenance. A corrective maintenance work order is typically initiated when a piece of equipment or facility is not functioning as it should or has stopped working altogether.
Contents of Work Order Format
Work orders are very commonly used in organizations every time equipment maintenance tasks need to be performed. For the most comprehensive work order format, you can rely on TranZact and save yourself the time and effort of creating a work order from scratch.
A work order template usually comprises the following things:
Description - The entire description of the job must be explicitly mentioned in the work order.
Contact details - You need to list down the contact details of the person or party or the department that has raised the task that needs to be actioned. As well as the contact details of the person, party, or department that's responsible to complete the task.
Timeline - A work order must include the estimated completion time of the task in question.
Location - A work order needs to contain the location of the job or task that needs to be done.
Other things that need to be mentioned in a work order are the skills and tools needed to perform the given task.
FAQs on Work Order Format
What is the purpose of a work order?
The purpose of a work order is threefold - to initiate a task, define what needs to be done, set timelines and give special instructions, if any.
Is a work order and agreement the same?
No, they are not the same. A work order is for one specific task, providing instructions to frontline workers on how to complete a specific task or project. Whereas, an agreement is for a longer duration and acts as a legally binding contract between two or more parties that outlines the terms and conditions of a business relationship.
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