A work order in maintenance is a formal document — physical or digital — that authorizes and tracks a specific maintenance task, from initial request through completion.
Anatomy of a Work Order
A well-structured work order contains:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| ID / WO Number | Unique identifier for tracking and reference |
| Description | What the problem is or what task needs to be done |
| Asset | The specific piece of equipment the work applies to |
| Location | Where the asset is located |
| Priority | Urgency level (Critical / High / Medium / Low or similar) |
| Assigned To | The technician or team responsible |
| Requested By | Who submitted the request |
| Due Date | When the work needs to be completed |
| Status | Open / In Progress / On Hold / Closed |
| Labor Log | Time entries from technicians who worked on it |
| Parts Used | Parts consumed, quantities, and costs |
| Completion Notes | What was found, what was done, any follow-up needed |
| Attachments | Photos, manuals, schematics |
Not every work order will use every field — a simple corrective repair may not need an attachment. But the fields should exist and be consistently populated, because that’s what turns a closed work order into useful maintenance history.
Work Order Types
Reactive (Corrective) Work Orders — triggered by a failure or reported problem. Something broke or stopped working, and the WO documents what happened and how it was fixed.
Preventive Maintenance (PM) Work Orders — generated automatically on a schedule tied to a specific asset. These cover routine servicing: lubrication, filter replacements, inspections, belt checks. A healthy maintenance program generates more PM work orders than reactive ones.
Inspection Work Orders — structured checks against a condition or safety standard. The output is an inspection record, not necessarily a repair.
Project Work Orders — for multi-day or multi-phase tasks like equipment overhauls, renovations, or installations. These may be broken into sub-tasks with individual assignments.
Work Order Lifecycle
A typical work order moves through these stages:
- Submitted — request created by a technician, manager, or requester
- Reviewed / Approved — priority and assignment confirmed (some orgs skip this for standard requests)
- Assigned — technician receives the WO
- In Progress — work has started; labor time is being logged
- On Hold — work paused due to parts, access, or scheduling
- Completed — work done; technician logs completion notes and parts
- Closed — verified complete; work order archived to asset history
The lifecycle stages vary by organization. The important thing is that every stage reflects a real state, and work orders move through them consistently rather than jumping directly from Open to Closed with no information in between.
Why It Matters in Maintenance
The work order is the atomic record of maintenance activity. A library of well-documented work orders is the maintenance history of your facility — it’s how you calculate MTTR, track maintenance spend per asset, and build a defensible record for compliance purposes. The quality of that history depends entirely on how well each individual work order is written and closed.
Related Terms
See also: Work Order Management