Parent/Child Work Order Relationship and Setting Dependencies

When planning out large projects that need different trades or skilled workers to complete the project, you use the parent and child work orders to plan out the job. Whether you're remodeling the IT server room at your plant or a job out on a machine, you first want to start with the overall project and set that as the parent work order. 

• Create the parent work order for the overall project
• Use the child work orders to plan out the actual jobs that are needing to be completed
• Set the dependencies of those child work orders (project planning module only) from each other in the steps needed to complete the overall job (parent work order) 

The example below is a project to modify the speed control system for a machine. To do this the job needs:

1. The parent work order of the overall job (modify the speed control)
2. A child work order for a Mechanic to mount the new control box to the machine (set in trade and estimated hours)
3. A child work order for an Electrician to wire up the speed control box (set in trade and estimated hours)
4. A child work order for an Automation programmer to program and test out the new speed control box (set in trade and estimated hours)

This screenshot below shows the parent work order and the child work orders associated and approved to schedule. 

Dependencies setting (Project Planning Module Only):

After creating the parent work order for the overall job and creating the child work orders for the work to actually be completed for the overall project (parent work order) you can now set the dependencies in the order for the jobs. This is an optional step, however, dependencies allow the jobs to be scheduled in a certain order according to how you set the dependencies. If you set the dependency that you have to mount the control panel like in the example above before the electrician wires the box, then follow these steps.

•  Click on the child work order you want to set a dependency on. In my example, I'm clicking on wire up the control box work order to pull up the dependencies page.
• Then select the "Add" button to the right side of the dependencies section

Here (above) you can either add a new work order if you wanted and set the dependency before or after (New required after) the work order you are currently on. In my example, I'm going to select the "Existing Work Order" so I can go set the dependencies for all the child work orders on the speed control project. When you select the Existing work order, it will pull in all the open work orders on one screen.

• Use the filters to only show the work orders associated with the parent work order. Next, select the work order in the lower half of the screen. In my example, I will select the mount speed control box work order and select from the pop-up screen to "Require Before" to set the dependency to mount the control box before wiring up the control box child work order for the electrician.

• You will do the same to set the relationships with the other child work orders in this one screen. After you have completed setting all the relationships you will use the return button to take you back to the work order screen and see the relationships there as well. 

 Just a reminder that dependencies are only for scheduling the work. The system will set the auto-launch and schedule dates by the discrepancies. You can still manually launch, open, work on and close out any of the child work orders in any order at any time still if needed. 

Scheduling the child work orders when using dependencies (Project Planning Module Only):

 When you have dependencies set for the work orders, scheduling the work is a little different when using parent /child relationships as you need to remember the dates set for launching and scheduling will be separated from each other. 

Note: This is important to remember because you must set a scheduled date for the parent work order of the project in order to set the launch, schedule and due dates for the child work orders. 

• By setting the scheduled date and due date of the parent work order, it allows you to set the child work orders, however, you don't need to set a launch date for the parent as it is only the holder for the project. 
  • NOTE:  When all the child work orders are complete, the last child is closed, this will close the parent work order automatically. (Parent work order is just the project)
• When setting the schedule and launch dates for the child work orders, when the dependencies are set, a pop up will prompt you to make a decision as the system will change all dates to align with the dependencies if you select to do so. (see example below)

After setting the dates, you can go to the calendar to see the work planned.  In the example below, you can see the project for the new speed control scheduled out by the different trade to be completed.