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Work order + Purchase order = Intervention report

Efficiently manage maintenance work

Efficient work management

The use of work orders is essential for managing interventions. The work order is the document that collects all the information needed to manage maintenance. This information then facilitates planning, scheduling and maintenance record-keeping.

All maintenance work (preventive, troubleshooting, repair) must be justified by a work order prepared and issued in advance by the maintenance manager. Maintenance work orders that are cancelled due to lack of time, resources, etc., must be retained. When the effectiveness of a maintenance program is verified, the repercussions (accidents, costs, etc.) of such cancellations can be seen, justifying the addition of maintenance personnel or the replacement of certain equipment.

A standard work order should include the following information:

  • Nature of intervention required;
  • Brief description of the problem and symptoms observed;
  • Targeted trade and stakeholders;
  • Parts required for the intervention;
  • Estimated time required for the work.
  • Actual duration of work;
  • Priority of intervention according to a predetermined code:
  • Impact of machine stoppage on production.
As a result, two forms are required for a job: the work order and the purchase order.
Work order
+
Purchase order
A different way of proceeding is to use the same single form, while simplifying the spare parts purchasing process as described above.
This reinvented work order can therefore serve as both a purchase requisition and a purchase order when completed by maintenance personnel.
The benefits of integrated forms
Compiled history
The filing of work reports by equipment file becomes a direct history of the work carried out on that equipment. Problems and their respective solutions, parts required, purchase requisitions, purchase orders and invoices, estimated and actual times, impact on production, costs, etc. are all included. In short, all information relevant to the intervention is summarized on a single form, and all other compilation sheets have been eliminated.
Maintenance staff
It is filled in by the mechanic, who analyzes and describes the problem. There is therefore less risk of error in copying the elements of the purchase requisition onto a purchase order, and the purchasing department is delighted not to have to fill them in and decipher them.
Purchasing
It serves as a work order, a purchase requisition and a unique purchase order for more than one supplier (P/O number or “purchase order”, approval signatures if applicable). It can be faxed directly to suppliers as a purchase order, but they often only ask for the P/O number.
The management
Although management may fear a loss of control over purchasing, the advantage is that they see everything. The person who authorizes the expenditure and signs the cheques has all the information on the intervention and doesn’t have to search or question before processing the invoices.
Accounting and bookkeeping
The accounting department also has all the information it needs to allocate expenses, because with a copy of the intervention report, it can allocate expenses by project and equipment to the right general ledger code. For auditing purposes, it can make as many copies of the intervention report as there are different invoices.

Developing a preventive maintenance program doesn’t happen overnight. It takes energy and resources. However, a great deal of time and effort can be saved if mandates and responsibilities are clarified right from the start. All that’s left to do is to equip ourselves with the right tools to structure our approach. The next and final phase is the implementation of the preventive maintenance program.

Technical data sheets enable all departments within the company, as well as external parties, to quickly and easily identify the characteristics of equipment for their particular needs.

The help of apprentices in the field would be a perfect resource to assist with data collection. It is advisable to start the interview with a minimum of equipment, and to ensure that the program is running smoothly.

The choice of maintenance type will always be the result of a financial and technical compromise.

The creation of equipment technical files provides quick and easy access to the technical characteristics, operating status and maintenance carried out during the life of each piece of equipment.

To produce preventive maintenance records, we need to consider technical manuals, maintenance history summaries and, above all, the experience of maintenance personnel.

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