Summary
In short
- The findings field is the entire long-term value of a work order. What was replaced is a cost record; what was found is the input to reliability analysis, and it is the field most often left blank.
- Work orders must link to an asset that exists once. Duplicate asset records split the history, and a failure pattern spread across two identifiers is invisible to everyone.
- Safety controls belong on the work order: the energy control procedure, permits required and any confined space or height element. Discovering the permit requirement at the machine means either a delay or a shortcut.
- Closeout without findings, parts and actual hours makes the work order a completion notification rather than a record. It satisfies the schedule and contributes nothing to reliability.
- PSM and mechanical integrity regimes require that deficiencies are corrected before further use or that safe operating limits are documented, which makes work order closeout a compliance event for covered equipment.
- Emergency work orders raised after the fact are legitimate and must still be raised. Work done without a work order is work the asset history does not contain.
What it is
What it is
What is a maintenance work order?
A work order is the authorisation and record for a single piece of maintenance work on a specific asset. It captures what was requested, what was planned, what safety controls applied, what was actually done, what was found and what parts were used, and it becomes part of that asset's permanent history.
What is the difference between a work request and a work order?
A request is someone reporting that something needs attention. A work order is the planned, authorised work that follows, with a trade, a duration, parts and any permits identified. Combining them removes the planning step, which is what turns a maintenance function from planned to reactive.
When to use it
When to use it, and when not to
The work order covers a discrete piece of work on an asset. Adjacent records exist for the things it is frequently asked to do and should not.
Use it for
- A fault, breakdown or defect requires corrective work on a specific asset
- A planned maintenance task is due and needs executing and recording
- An inspection or condition monitoring finding requires intervention
- A modification is being implemented, having been approved through management of change
- Contractor work on an asset needs authorising, controlling and recording against that asset
Not for
- The management of change itself, which assesses and approves the modification before any work order implements it
- Statutory examination records, which are separate documents issued by a competent person and retained per their own requirements
- Project and capital work, which needs its own commissioning and handover rather than a maintenance record
- The permit to work, which is a separate control document referenced by the work order rather than replaced by it
- Purchasing and stores transactions, which the work order consumes rather than performs
Standards
What it is built against
Work orders are rarely named in regulation, but they carry the evidence that several regimes demand: that equipment is maintained, that deficiencies were corrected, and that the work was done by competent people under control.
| Clause | Requirement | Where it lands |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 55001 cl.8.1 | Operational planning and control of asset management activities, with documented processes | Planning and authorisation |
| ISO 55001 cl.7.5 | Asset information requirements and control of documented information | Asset link and history |
| OSHA 1910.119(j) | Mechanical integrity: written procedures, trained personnel, inspection and correction of deficiencies | Findings and closeout |
| OSHA 1910.147 | Energy control during servicing and maintenance, machine specific | Safety controls |
| PUWER reg.5 | Work equipment maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair | Execution record |
| PUWER reg.6 | Inspection of work equipment at suitable intervals and after exceptional circumstances | Inspection findings |
| ISO 9001 cl.7.1.3 | Infrastructure determined, provided and maintained for conformity of products and services | Whole record |
| GFSI schemes | Post-maintenance clearance and hygienic condition before production resumes in food facilities | Closeout and handback |
What it does not cover
- Management of change, which must assess and approve a modification before a work order implements it.
- Statutory thorough examination, which is a competent person activity with its own report and retention.
- The permit to work, which authorises the high-risk activity and is referenced by the work order rather than contained in it.
- Root cause analysis, which belongs in its own record where a failure is significant or repeating.
- Spare parts master data, which the work order consumes and should not create.
Filling it in
Filling it in well
Work orders are completed under time pressure by people who want to get to the next job. The fields that matter most are the ones that feel least urgent at that moment.
The action taken is what closes the job. The condition found is what informs the next decision about that asset: whether the interval is right, whether the failure mode is what was assumed, and whether the same condition is developing elsewhere. Without it the asset history is a list of repairs with no explanation.
The energy control procedure, any permits required, and any confined space, height or hot work element should be identified at planning. Discovering at the machine that a permit is needed produces either a delay that nobody has time for or a shortcut that nobody records.
Actual against planned is the only route to better planning, and cost against asset is the only route to a defensible repair-or-replace decision. Both are recorded at closeout by someone who has already finished the job, which is why the fields need to be quick.
Guards refitted, tools accounted for, area cleaned, and where applicable a post-maintenance hygiene clearance before production resumes. Guards incorrectly refitted after maintenance is a recurring cause of subsequent injury, and maintenance debris is a recurring foreign body source.
Audit findings
Common audit findings
Work order findings in audits concentrate on the gap between the work being done and the record proving it.
| Finding | Clause | What fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| Work orders closed without findings recorded, so asset history has no diagnostic content. | ISO 55001 cl.7.5 | Make the findings field required at closeout, with free text rather than a code list alone. |
| Work carried out with no work order raised, particularly emergency and out-of-hours work. | PUWER reg.5 | Permit retrospective raising within a defined window; the record matters more than the sequence. |
| Work order not linked to an asset, or linked to one of several duplicate asset records. | ISO 55001 cl.7.5 | Control asset creation and merge duplicates; a split history hides the pattern. |
| Energy control procedure not referenced or not machine specific. | 1910.147(c)(4) | Link the machine specific procedure to the asset so it attaches automatically. |
| Deficiency identified and equipment returned to service without correction or documented limits. | 1910.119(j)(5) | Block closeout where a deficiency is open unless safe operating limits are recorded. |
| Actual hours and parts not captured, so planning never improves. | ISO 55001 cl.8.1 | Capture at closeout on the device; retrospective timesheet reconstruction is not data. |
| Contractor work not recorded against the asset, leaving gaps in history. | ISO 45001 cl.8.1.4 | Raise work orders for contractor work and require the findings field of them too. |
| Backlog not aged or prioritised by criticality, so deferral happens by omission. | ISO 55001 cl.8.1 | Age backlog by criticality and require approval to defer above a threshold. |
| Post-maintenance clearance missing in food areas before production resumed. | GFSI scheme | Add a hygiene clearance step to closeout for work in production areas. |
| Temporary repair recorded as complete, with no follow-up work order raised. | 1910.119(l) | Flag temporary repairs and raise the permanent work order with an expiry at the same time. |
Worked case
Case in point: three bearings and no pattern
A packing line drive failed in March. The work order was closed as "bearing replaced, line returned to service". It failed again in August, closed the same way by a different technician. In January it failed a third time, this time taking the shaft with it and costing two days of production.
The failure analysis found misalignment introduced during a coupling replacement eleven months before the first failure. Every technician had seen the evidence: the wear pattern was distinctive and two of them mentioned it verbally at handover. None of it reached the work order, because the field asked what was done and they answered accurately.
The information existed three times and was never recorded once. The asset history showed three bearing replacements, which reads as a consumable wearing out on schedule rather than as a system being destroyed by an alignment fault.
Definitions
Definitions and key terms
- Corrective work order
- Work raised in response to a fault or defect, as distinct from work raised on a schedule.
- Planned maintenance work order
- Work generated from a schedule against an asset, at an interval derived from failure modes or manufacturer guidance.
- Backlog
- Raised work not yet completed, meaningful only when aged and weighted by asset criticality.
- Wrench time
- The proportion of a technician's shift spent performing maintenance rather than travelling, waiting or seeking parts and permissions.
- Closeout
- The completion record: what was found, what was done, parts, hours and confirmation the asset is safe to return to service.
- Temporary repair
- A repair not meeting the design standard, which should carry an expiry and a follow-up work order rather than being closed as complete.
- Criticality
- The consequence of an asset failing, which should drive maintenance strategy and backlog priority rather than asset value.
- Handback
- Returning the asset to operations, including guard reinstatement, area clearance and, in food areas, hygiene verification.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Should emergency work have a work order?+
Yes, raised retrospectively if necessary. The purpose is the asset history, not the authorisation, so a work order raised after a 3am breakdown still carries the value. Requiring it before work starts in a genuine emergency produces either delay or unrecorded work, and unrecorded work is the worse outcome.
What should a work order require at closeout?+
What was found, what was done, parts consumed, actual hours, and confirmation that the asset is safe and clean to return to service. The findings field is the one that matters most and the one most often skipped, because the technician has finished the job and the question feels like paperwork.
How should backlog be managed?+
Aged and weighted by criticality rather than counted. Total backlog hours is close to meaningless: two thousand hours of low-criticality work is a resourcing question, while forty hours overdue on a critical asset is a risk. Deferral above a threshold should require approval, so that it is a decision rather than a default.
Should contractors raise work orders?+
Work done by contractors should be recorded against the asset in the same system, whether the contractor raises it or you do. Otherwise the asset history has gaps precisely where specialist work occurred, which is frequently the work most relevant to understanding a subsequent failure.
How does a work order relate to management of change?+
MOC comes first for anything that is not a like-for-like repair. Replacing a component with a different specification, altering a control setting or modifying an installation all require assessment and approval before the work order executes them. Work orders that quietly implement modifications are how undocumented change accumulates.
The agents
What the agents do with it
The work order itself is straightforward. What fails is the connective tissue: the asset it should attach to, the procedure it should carry, the deficiency it should block on, and the pattern nobody sees across three of them.
Holds work orders against the asset register, attaches the machine specific energy control procedure, and blocks closeout where a deficiency remains open.
Watches for repeating failures across work orders on the same asset or asset class, and raises the reliability question before the third occurrence.
Connects permits, energy control and confined space requirements to the work order at planning rather than at the machine.
Adds post-maintenance hygiene clearance in production areas, so handback is a verification rather than an assumption.
This template lives in KnowMaintain — asset maintenance. Work orders, planned maintenance, calibration, reliability and shutdowns.
Meet KnowMaintain→Sources
Sources
- ISO 55001:2014 asset management systems, clauses 7.5 and 8.1
- 29 CFR 1910.119(j), mechanical integrity, OSHA
- 29 CFR 1910.147, control of hazardous energy, OSHA
- Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998, regulations 5 and 6 (GB)
- SAE JA1011, evaluation criteria for reliability centred maintenance processes