Looking to learn which work order software is best for your business? You have come to the right place.
Maintenance is an essential part of almost any facility. When your business operations rely heavily on assets and equipment, you cannot afford to have unplanned downtime. It’s not just a problem with manufacturing. Hotels, restaurants, and office buildings also need equipment to be working and management needs tools to keep everyone on the same page. When something inevitably breaks, the response time is absolutely critical. This is where work order software can be a game-changer.
This is because work order software comes with many benefits and features that you simply can’t get with traditional “offline” maintenance management. Good work order management software simplifies work orders by letting you create and assign work orders instantly.
You can also track work orders easier than ever–the best software solutions update status in real-time. You can also get access to powerful analytics and reports that would otherwise take a lot of time to compile manually–assuming you can even read your technician’s handwriting.
If you’re planning to use work order software or if you’re interested in switching from manual work order management to computerized work order management, this guide is your best resource for everything related to work order software.
What Is Work Order Software?
Work order software, simply put, helps manage work orders. When most people think of the term “work order,” they tend to think of something maintenance related. However, the term is evolving to include any type of directive action. When your spouse asks you to take out the trash, that could technically be a work order. A walkthrough inspection performed by a safety manager can also be classified as a work order.
With the best modern work order software, you can easily create, assign, and track work orders with your team. A great work order software solution won’t require you to dramatically change your workflow, rather it will facilitate your existing processes happening within the software with added benefits that improve efficiency.
MaintainX, for instance, does a great job at work order management. You can create unlimited work orders and assign them to your teams. Your teams can then access work orders from their mobile or computer, comment directly on work orders, receive real-time updates and status notifications, and access insightful reports all with a few clicks.
Everything works smoothly, automatically, and right on time.
Types of Work Order Software
Work order management software comes in different formats and is designed for unique use cases. Not all organizations like using CMMS tools for work order management so there is always room for different software.
1. Simple Work Order or Task Management Software
These are the specialized tools that are specifically developed for work order forms and management. This type of standalone work order software will help you create, manage, and track work orders only–nothing extra.
Standalone software is best suited to small businesses that don’t want to complicate processes and prefer simplicity.
2. FSM
Field Service Management (FSM) tools are typically used by companies that have service teams working out in the field. Some of these tools are optimized to support invoicing clients for completed work. FSM tools come loaded with work order management tools that let you share work orders with your teams in the field right on time.
FSM work order software is helpful if you have to work with distributed teams located in different areas while needing to manage customer service records and send invoices.
3. CMMS
A Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) tool is more comprehensive and manages your company’s entire maintenance and repair programs, including work order management.
CMMS tools focus on managing preventative maintenance schedules, parts inventory, purchase orders, and asset history.
CMMS Features
Finding the right work order management tool becomes easier if you know what to look for.
Here’s a list of key features that your work order software should have:
Work Order Form Creation
The first thing that you should look for in a CMMS is its ability to create and manage work orders. After all, it’s the core feature.
Can you upload your own work order forms? Does it provide you with work order form templates? Does it offer web-based and mobile-responsive forms? Can you modify work order forms in real time?
Another key feature is unlimited work orders. This feature helps you move in the right direction without any fear of utilizing your work order limit. It’s a key feature for businesses looking to grow fast.
Work Order Tracking
The best CMMS lets you track work orders throughout the process. You can prioritize work orders, re-assign them, schedule them, and keep track of them by work status and priority.
Tracking cost and time for work orders individually is a great feature to help you prioritize work orders and reduce costs. If a high-cost work order is delayed, you can notify the assignee or increase its priority level in the system.
Work Order Scheduling/Repeatability
Most businesses need to perform routine inspections or preventative maintenance at specific intervals. Automating these work orders can be a huge time saver and prevent important maintenance or inspections from falling through the cracks.
The ability to create recurring work orders and auto-assigning similar work orders to the right employees is one of the ways your software can automate work orders, including preventative maintenance.
Mobile Accessibility
This is a must-have feature for any work order program. If your work order software doesn’t have a simple-to-use mobile app, employees will always need access to a computer to update the progress of a work order. This is unusually impractical for workers who don’t spend time behind a desk.
Software that is accessible for both desktop and mobile users should be your top priority when selecting a work order software. Mobile accessibility empowers your teams to collaborate from the field and complete data entry in real time. It also keeps everyone on the same page and allows your workforce to become more agile when things change throughout the day.
Today, there are multi-billion dollar manufacturing companies that spend millions of dollars each year on phenomenal desktop-based work order software that doesn’t have a usable mobile interface. To account for this lack of mobile interface, they spend millions on data entry staff who collect completed hardcopy paper work orders and enter them into their system. Even with this extensive (and expensive) human-powered system, their data often lags behind by more than a month!
Mobile accessibility is critical for providing important information that would otherwise be impossible to retrieve from the field.
Lastly, if your software allows workers to upload photos from their phones, it can increase accountability, increase the quality of information, and make collaboration a piece of cake.
Analytics
When you use a work order management program, it should help you aggregate your data on asset management, downtime, cost, time, repair, materials, labor, and more. A powerful analytics feature will help you with decision-making across all levels and provide insights that are otherwise difficult to spot.
You may determine that a certain machine has been breaking down more frequently than similar machines and needs to be replaced to prevent yet another breakdown. Analytics and reporting can help you identify the cost of such breakdowns as well as which team members are most efficient and which ones may need additional training to become more productive.
MaintainX Is the Work Order Software for Your Business
Finding the right work order software for your business gets easier if you know your requirements. Ask yourself what exactly you want from your work order management tool. Is it work order form creation? Or, do you need full-feature maintenance software?
List your requirements and then evaluate work order software by comparing their features. For instance, if you know you need to create custom procedures and forms and want your employees to upload photos of the site and equipment, look for a product that makes work order form creation and collaboration simple and seamless.
Choose the work order software that’s right for your business and fits your business strategy, and then implement it. And, while we are here, we might as well say that we think MaintainX is the right (and best) work order software for your business.
