Understanding the Work Order Approval Process
Work order approval workflow is used to enforce the business rules of an organization's maintenance operations to ensure that all work orders are within budget and have proper authorization.
For example, ABC organization has the following business requirements for its work order business unit:
The designated capital work order approver must approve any capital work order.
The shop supervisor must approve any non-emergency corrective work order with an estimated cost of more than $5000.
A company director must approve any non-emergency corrective work order with an estimated cost of more than $10,000.
A maintenance supervisor or a business analyst in ABC sets up workflow approval rules in the system. When users create work orders for a specific work order business unit, the system checks them against these rules.
The Work Order component enables a user to submit a work order for approval depending upon whether the work order's business unit, shop, or work order type indicates either that a work order:
Is preapproved.
Requires approval.
The requirements for approving a work order are entirely dependent upon the way your organization defines its approval rules in the Approval Process Setup component.
See Understanding the Work Order Approval Workflow Architecture.
Work order approval status values are system defined, and change depending on the approval state of the work order, as shown in the following diagram:
Image: Work order approval status values
This diagram illustrates how work order approval status values are system defined, and change depending on the approval state of the work order.
To approve a work order:
If a work order requires approval, the user can click the Approval Preview button on the Work Order page to access the Work Order Approval page, review the approval process setup, and add approvers if desired.
Note: You must create a work order and save it before the Approval Preview link appears.
The user can click the Submit for Approval button on the Work Order Approval page to submit the work order for approval, or return to the Work Order page and click Submit for Approval.
Once a user submits a work order for approval, the approval status of the work order changes from Initial to Pending Approval.
The user can click the Approval History link on the Work Order page to view the approval workflow in the Work Order Approval page.
Note: The user cannot add or modify the approvers at this point.
The approval process routes the work order to the first approver for approval or denial.
If this approver approves the work order, the work order is routed to the next approver, depending on how many approvers are set up for this business unit.
The work order approval status changes to Approved after all required approvers have approved the work order.
If an approver denies the work order, the work order approval process terminates, and the submitter is notified of the denial.
The submitter optionally can revise the work order and resubmit it for approval.
When the work order approval status is Pending Approval a user can also cancel the approval process, change the work order, and resubmit it.
For example, Joe, an operations manager for ABC Company, submits a corrective work order with an estimated cost of $11,000. Because this estimate is more than $5,000, it requires approval by the shop manager, John Dean. John Dean approves the work order. Because the work order is over $10,000, it is then sent to ABC director Jennifer Lee for approval. If either John Dean or Jennifer Lee rejects the work order, the approval process is terminated.
Depending on the situation, either the submitter or the approvers can add another approver. If for example, Jennifer Lee decides that Asst. VP Steve Shaw should approve the work order, she can add Shaw as an approver. The work order is then sent to Shaw for approval.
The submitter or approver can also add reviewers to the approval process. In that case the system routes the work order to reviewers for their information. A reviewer's decision does not affect the progress of the approval process.
Once a work order is fully approved, the scheduler can then schedule resources to complete the work order.