Work Orders Fundamentals

In this article, we will show you how to schedule a simple work order, and cover the additional fields for more complex jobs.

A simple work order is one that has a single job to complete and can be completed with the same trade. 

Example: A broken Sprinkler is needing to be repaired. This can be a single (simple) work order and completed by the maintenance person assigned. This can be scheduled in 3 simple steps.

• From the main work order screen, click on the work order you want to schedule
• Select Edit/Schedule button
• 1. Verify the top information is correct like trade and priority.
• 2. Next, you will want to schedule the dates for the work.
  • Review the requested date to see if you can meet the requester's timing. 
    • Note that this may not always be possible to meet due to many circumstances.
  • Launch date: The date you want to work order to launch onto the dispatch screen
  • Scheduled Date: If needed you can insert the date and time the area will be available to do the job. Example the production line might be scheduled down at a certain time to do the job
  • Due Date: When the job needs to be completed by
• 4. Select save and return to the main list
• 

Note: The above is the minimum to schedule a simple job. Other items that can be added to the job include:

• Estimated External Costs: Here you can add an estimated external cost for the job. External Costs can be travel, outside vendors, or equipment rentals needed to perform the job. You can select a Category associated to each. Note: Go to the Setup Screens to add new 'External Cost Categories'.
• Spares Estimates: Here you'll add an estimated cost for spares used for the job.
• Cost Center: If you use cost centers, you can tie one to the job.
• Project ID: This is a free text field so you can add your companies ID's as a reference
• Parent work order: If this was a new work order that needs to be associated with another parent work order, you would find and select that here. 
• Notes: You can add further instructions on what to do for the assigned resource to follow.  
• Adding resources to complete the work.
  • You can add one or multiple trades, resources and estimated time to complete the work by opening up the work order and going to the resource section.
  • If you need to add multiple trades to complete the work, then you will want to click the Add button for each separate entries for this option.
  • You can edit or add to the resources, trades or estimated hours on by clicking on the pencil icon located to the right under the heading of estimated Hours 
  • Also to note is you can assign a trade and estimated hours but later on decide to to add to the job once it gets closer to the launch date
    • Note: a good suggestion would be that you associate your resources to trades in the setup system. When you select a trade in the work order and then you open the resource to add, it will add only those who are associated with the trade selected. 

• In this next section below, we will cover optional items you may add to a work order as needed depending on the complexity of the work.

Some jobs have more complex tasks that need to be broken down into multiple jobs by different trades in order to complete.  Below is an explanation of those options. 

1. Request Spares: Here you can add spare parts needed for the job.
2. Add External Costs: external costs are vendors, equipment rentals or travel needed to perform the job.
3. Add Child Work Orders: These are additional work orders if needed to break the job into smaller sections by different trades for example. 
4. Add Dependencies to child work orders: These can be set so that some jobs have to be scheduled before others. This is used in scheduling multiple child work orders. (This is only visible in the Project Management Module) 
5. Add Documents: Documents from the Standard Work/Documents module.
6. Add Scheduled Machines: Here you can add equipment that will be used to complete the job. For example, you might need a welder and a crane to complete the job. (This is only visible in the Project Management Module) 
7. Add Notes: Any additional notes can be added throughout the work as needed.
8. Add Attachments: These can be photos, sketches or whatever is needed to help with the job.
9. Launch a Work Order into a Dispatch: This will override the Launch date and create the dispatch immediately after selecting the launch button. 
10. Add Resources, Trades and Estimated Hours: as mentioned above, you can set any one of the three at any time
11. Add external estimated costs: This is for items like rental equipment and will roll up into the cost estimates. 

A. This section is the cost summary that can take all costs if entered in and compare to estimated costs.

Cost Estimations can be added to the work orders to help in understanding the variance between estimates and actuals. 

• External Costs Estimates. Here you can estimate items like equipment rental, outside contractors labor costs etc.. 
• Note: To set up external cost estimates, go to the main setup menu and add in External Costs Categories located under the Dispatch Setup section.
• Spares Estimates. Here you can add in the estimated costs for all parts needed for this work order.

If you are an approver in the work order system, you will get emails alerting you to jobs that are submitted for approval. Of course, you can always deny the work order as well but this is how you get to the approval page. 

Note: Remember to do this function you first must have an email set up in your L2L user account and also be set as an approver in the work order settings. 

To start

• Open your email and locate the link. This link will take you either to the L2L login page or if you are already logged into L2L, it will open a new window and take you straight to the Review Work Order 
• Now that you're in the Review page, you will see the information for the work needed to be completed. Here is where you make the decision to Approve or Deny. 
• If you Deny the work order, you will get a pop-up screen where you put in the reason why you are denying the work order request. This will send the information back to the requester. (Provided they have an email account in L2L) 
• If you approve the work request, you will also get a pop-up screen and from here you will send a note to the new owner of the work order.
  • Example: would be that you approved the work, then you send it to Jay who is the group planner
• From the main work order screen, you can click on the work order and see the information about the work needing to be completed including the Status of the job
• Statuses the work order could be change to are:
  • Approve: Ready to schedule work and assign resource(s)
  • Deny: Work is not approved to complete
  • On - Hold: The job is on-hold waiting for some action
  • Waiting for parts: Parts are on order for the job
  • Reviewing: The job is being reviewed and further time is needed 
  • Forward: The job has been forwarded for the approval by some other person

Have you noticed that you do not see the Work Order Request button when clicking on the follow up tab in a dispatch? First, you want to go look your work order settings. 

From here you will want to check to make sure under Miscellaneous Settings that you have Allow Work Order follow ups to a Dispatch marked as True. 

If you still do not see the Work Order Request when hitting the Follow Up button in a dispatch, there is one other thing in your settings you need to be sure is set up correctly. And that is under the Default Work Order Settings: you need to have a Default Trade for Work Orders selected. 

Work Orders can be a critical portion in gauging our success and rate of improvement. On many occasions, abnormalities are identified during a machine downtime instance that may not be addressed during the Dispatch Code Red. On many occasions, a newly identified abnormality may not be convenient or feasible to address immediately. This Work Order method will allow a user to identify and document an abnormality to be addressed at a later date.

If an abnormality is identified during a Dispatch response or during any situation, it may be necessary to address the newly identified opportunity at a later time. Within the Work Order system, Leading2Lean has created a very simple and valuable method to assess and address the newly identified abnormality. 

If and when the Dispatch is ready to close and an individual is ready to document the newly identified abnormalities within the individual Dispatch, simply scroll to the bottom of the Dispatch and Select the "Follow Up" tab. By selecting the "Follow Up" tab, you will be able to create a Work Order tied to the original Dispatch with all of the associated specifics of that Dispatch. 

Once you have selected the "Follow Up" button, simply select "Work order Request". Populate the required fields, specifics of work to be completed and select save.

By using this functionality, you will be allowed to create a unique Work Order associated with a specific Dispatch. The Dispatch can be closed and updated, not having any effect on the newly created 'Follow Up Work Order'. This promotes good documentation and allows abnormalities to be identified and completed or addressed at a more convenient time.

To get a glimpse at the overall work orders, there is an icon at the top far right that will open a widget view.

You can see Open Work Orders by Category:

This widget will show you the top 6 categories with the highest count of open work orders. We do not show Closed, Completed or Denied in this widget.

Work Order Planning:

This widget separates work orders by status. You'll see the number of work orders in the statuses Reviewing, Approved, Ready to Schedule, and Needs Approval. Needs Approval and Ready to Schedule will appear in red text if greater than 0.

Clicking on any of the tiles will open a filtered view of the Work Orders with that status.

30 Day Work Order Trend:

This widget shows the number of completed work orders in a 30 day window against the number of launched work orders in the same 30 day window. You can see the dates along the bottom (x-axis) and the number of work orders along the left (y-axis).

30 Day Work Order Time to Complete:

This widget is in histogram format with the x-axis representing weeks up to 30 and the y-axis representing the number of work orders completed in a 30-day timeframe.

For example, the first bar shows the number of work orders completed in 1 week or less and the second bar represents a completed duration of greater than 1 week but less than or equal to two weeks. The last bar (30) shows the number of work orders completed in 29+ weeks.