An Overview of Work Orders

Maintenance planners, physical plant administrators, facilities managers, technicians, and equipment operators use work orders to plan, schedule, dispatch, track, account for, and report on the construction, repair, maintenance, and disposal of an organization's physical assets. Prior to creating a work order, along with PeopleSoft Maintenance Management, you must install and set up PeopleSoft Asset Management, PeopleSoft Project Costing, and PeopleSoft Purchasing, as well as optional product integrations such as PeopleSoft Inventory.

Important:

You must set up either a work order-managed or Project Costing-managed project before you can create a work order. Make sure the project's business unit is specified in the work order business unit's Integrations page, and add the project to the Work Order-Projects Association page in Setting Up Financial/Supply Chain, and then Product Related, and then PeopleSoft Maintenance Management before you create a work order.

See PeopleSoft Maintenance Management System Overview.

The two different formats for work orders in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management are:

  • Work orders, which can have multiple work order tasks and can involve the definition and scheduling of multiple types of resources.

  • Express work orders, which are easily entered and require minimal resources and data entry.

You can initiate the creation of work orders from several different applications and options in the system, which include:

  • PeopleSoft Project Costing.

  • PeopleSoft CRM Help Desk and third-party help desk applications.

  • PeopleSoft Maintenance Management service requests.

  • PeopleSoft Program Management.

See Integrated Product Setup Considerations.

This section discusses:

  • The Work Order component.

  • Express work orders.

  • Preventive maintenance work order creation.

  • Condition-based maintenance (CBM) work orders.

The Work Order Component

The standard work order in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management is a comprehensive planning and scheduling vehicle with extensive functionality in comparison to the express work order. You can create a work order directly in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management using the Work Order component, or you can create it by initiating it from a service request, PeopleSoft Project Costing, PeopleSoft Program Management, PeopleSoft CRM Help Desk and third party help desk applications, or from a CBM alert.

The pages in a work order include:

  • The Work Order page.

    You define the work order header, which includes the overall status of the work order, the work order approval status, service request information, if applicable, and the capability to approve a work order, if applicable, and the ability to add supplemental data, attachments, and notes. You can also specify an asset that applies to the overall work order. You can select a work order job template to apply to this work order, and you can create one or more work order tasks. The work order header status is automatically determined by the system based on the most outstanding status of all the work order tasks associated with this work order. Users cannot directly modify the status of the header. The work order status is indirectly changed when users change the work order task status and is only changed when you save the work order. If ESRI integration is implemented, you can access the location of the work order on a map.

    Note:

    The integration with ESRI ARCGIS (Geographic Information System) and Asset Lifecycle Management is no longer supported as of FSCM Update Image 9.2.055.

    You can set up more detailed task information on the Requirements and Schedules pages.

  • The Requirements page.

    The Requirements page is used to set up the details of each work order task. When you create a work order, the first work order task is automatically created. You can create additional work order tasks on the Requirements page of the work order and enter the details for each task, such as the task's start and end dates, the scheduler and supervisor responsible for the task, and the percentage of overlap between tasks. You can also change the status for a work order task on this page. When you change the status for each task, the system performs a weighting of the statuses of each task to determine the status for the overall work order. The status of the work order continues to change as the statuses of the tasks change.

    Note:

    You also can create additional work order tasks from the Work Order page, Schedules page, and Actuals page.

    You can enter a the location of the work and, if this is a Project Costing-managed work order, you can select an activity to associate with the task. If this is a work order-managed project, the activity is automatically generated. If the shop is set up for crew scheduling and a preferred crew was selected in the shop, this preferred crew displays in the work order. You can change the shop that the crew is associated with from this page, if necessary. You can click the Setup Accounts link to set up the asset capitalization filter and minimum, and select the chargeback rate set or rate plan options, if chargebacks are enabled for the task in PeopleSoft Project Costing and at the business unit, shop, or work order type level.

    You can select the asset affected by the task, and a description of its problem. You can also review any warranties associated with the asset and create a warranty claim from this page. There are links that enable you to review the asset's details, the asset's maintenance history, enter asset downtime, and, if the asset is associated with a meter, review the asset's meter reading history. You can also review the asset's calendar to determine when the asset is available for scheduling.

    Note:

    If you have set up integration to ESRI, a Map It button appears next to the Asset Location field on the Work Order, Requirements, and Schedules pages. When you click this button, the work order task locations appear on an ESRI map.

    You can optionally define the labor, inventory, purchased and on-hand, and tool resource requirements needed to perform the task. In addition, links are provided for instructions, a checklist, attachments, supplemental data, notes, and task templates. Selecting a task template enables you to copy requirements to a task that is routinely performed for a work order, saving data entry time. You determine at the business unit level or at the shop level whether you want to calculate estimated costs based on these requirements. Requirement definitions are discussed in detail in the Defining Work Order Task Requirements topic of this documentation.

    See Understanding Work Order Task Resource Requirements.

  • The Schedules page.

    If you plan to schedule resources, you enter a scheduled start and end date for each work order task. You can access the same additional information and asset information fields and links that appears on the Requirements page. If you chose to set up resource requirements, you can copy the labor, inventory, purchased and on-hand, and tool resource requirements from the Requirements page to the schedules. You can optionally schedule specific labor, inventory, purchased and on-hand, and tool resources for each task. You determine whether you want to schedule labor, inventory, or tools resources at the business unit and shop levels. You can also access instructions, a checklist, attachments, task templates, supplemental data, and notes from the Schedules page. Normally a scheduler is designated on the Requirements page of the work order and the scheduler uses the Work Order Workbench component to access work orders to perform the scheduling.

    Note:

    If you indicate in the work order business unit, shop, or work order type associated with a work order that a work order requires approval, then the Schedules and Actuals pages do not appear until the work order is approved.

    See Understanding Resource Scheduling.

  • The Actuals page.

    The Actuals page shows the actuals entries for resources associated with a work order task. You enter actuals data on the Technician Workbench and Work Order Completion components, as well as through PeopleSoft Travel and Expenses and PeopleSoft Project Costing. Actuals data includes labor time entry, material and tools usage, and procurement data.

    See Understanding Work Order Task Completion.

  • The Cost page.

    This page shows a summary of the total estimated, scheduled, and actual costs for each resource type, along with the variances. In addition, a second grid displays the estimated, scheduled, and total costs, along with a variance, for each work order task. The Task Actuals grid shows the actual totals for the resources in each work order task, and also enables you to click the Capitalize button to display the capitalized costs and the Chargeback button to display the actual amounts charged back to other organizations in the enterprise by means of PeopleSoft Project Costing. You can also click on the task resource total to display the task line details in another grid.

    You must run the following Cost Collection processes in PeopleSoft Project Costing to collect the costs from PeopleSoft Travel and Expenses, PeopleSoft Inventory, PeopleSoft Payables, Procurement, and PeopleSoft Maintenance Management (tools).

    Labor costs are collected by running Project Costing, and then Cost Collection, and then Cost Collect Expenses

    Inventory costs are collected by running Project Costing, and then Cost Collection, and then Cost Collect Inventory

    Procurement costs are collected by running Project Costing, and then Cost Collection, and then Cost Collect Payables

    Tool costs are collected by running Project Costing, and then Cost Collection, and then PeopleSoft Maintenance Management.

    The actual costs are not updated for labor costs until you access either the Technician Workbench or the Work Order Completion components and enter each resource's time. On the Technician Workbench, you must save the time, and stage time entries to the Time Staging for Project Transaction table (EX_PROJ_RES_STG) in PeopleSoft Travel and Expenses. In the Work Order Completion component, the time entries are staged automatically and you do not have run the Stage Time Entries process from PeopleSoft Maintenance Management. For either component, you must run the cost collection process (PC-TLX) in PeopleSoft Project Costing, and run the Cost Summarization process in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management to display the costs on the Costs page. Once the entries are staged in PeopleSoft Travel and Expenses, you run the PeopleSoft Travel and Expenses to PeopleSoft Project Costing Application Engine process (PC_EX_TO_PC) in PeopleSoft Project Costing to pull staged time transactions from the Time Staging for Project Transaction table into PeopleSoft Project Costing tables and run the Cost Collection process (PC-TLX) to store the transaction costs are stored in the PROJ_RESOURCE table. PeopleSoft Project Costing applies its rules, capitalizes the costs in PeopleSoft Asset Management, if appropriate, and posts the costs to the general ledger business unit associated with the work order business unit. When you run the Cost Summarization process in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management or run the Work Order Close process, PeopleSoft Project Costing updates the total actual costs for the work order task stored on the Costs page of the work order.

    For inventory transactions, you schedule, commit, and reserve selected inventory items. Transaction 231 inventory record(s), which are the transactions or records that are used in cost collection, are created when a clerk issues one or more items from PeopleSoft Inventory. You schedule the inventory in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management and commit and reserve the inventory. You must access Cost Accounting, Cost Accounting, Inventory and Mfg Accounting, Create Accounting Entries, Cost Accounting Creation to create cost accounting entries to stage data to the PeopleSoft Project Costing tables (CM_ACCOUNTING_LN). The PeopleSoft Project Costing Cost Collection process pulls the data to the PeopleSoft Project Costing PROJ_RESOURCE tables. When you run the Cost Summarization process in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management either manually or when the Work Order Close process runs, the system updates these actual inventory costs on the Costs page of the work order.

    When you schedule non-inventory items or open description materials using the Purchase/On-Hand tab in the work order, the estimated costs are staged either as a requisition or a purchase order directly from the work order. Once a voucher is created and paid, possibly taking into account additional costs and discounts, the voucher is posted and run through the Accounts Payable and is sent to the PeopleSoft Project Costing interface. When the Cost Collection process is run in PeopleSoft Project Costing, the costs are pulled into the PROJ_RESOURCE tables. When you run the Cost Summarization process in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management either manually or when the Work Order Close process runs, the system updates these actual Purchase/On-Hand costs on the Costs page of the work order.

    Important:

    Inventory materials that are floor stock and non-inventory purchased goods and services marked as on-hand are not calculated in the overall costs of the work order.

    Note:

    The usage amounts that you enter on the Technician Workbench Materials tab is not used in determining Inventory or PeopleSoft Purchasing costs. This data is informational only for recording actual materials usage versus what was issued for the task.

    When you enter and save the tool usage amounts on the Technician Workbench component or the Work Order Completion component, transactions are sent directly from PeopleSoft Maintenance Management to PeopleSoft Project Costing. When you run the Cost Collection process for PeopleSoft Maintenance Management in PeopleSoft Project Costing, the transaction amounts are pulled into the PROJ_RESOURCE table. When you run the Cost Summarization process in PeopleSoft Maintenance Management either manually or when the Work Order Close process runs, the system updates these actual Tool costs on the Costs page of the work order.

    The Costs page is described in the Closing Service Requests, Work Order Tasks, and Work Orders topic.

    See Understanding Service Request and Work Order Close.

  • The Miscellaneous page.

    This page presents a summary of the work order header information, the current status of the work order, who last modified the work order and when, individuals responsible for the work order, and the dates that the work order was completed and then closed.

    A maintenance type is required to close preventive maintenance work orders. You can set up a default maintenance type in the work order business unit and that value will display in the Maintenance Type field on the Miscellaneous page. You can override this value. Make sure this value is specified for each work order to avoid any problems at closing.

    You can indicate that this is a standing work order, which prevents it from being closed. However, you can close each task within a standing work order either manually or through the batch close process. If all the tasks are closed in a standing work order, the work order will still remain not closed. Standing work orders are typically used to capture frequently occurring, repetitive work, such as replacing light bulbs. You can close a standing work order by deselecting the Standing Work Order check box and changing any not closed, complete, or cancelled task statuses to Complete.

    If this work order is a child of another work order, you can select the parent work order. If this is a parent work order and child work orders were created, the child work orders are listed in a grid on this page. If this work order was created based on another work order (for example, you may create a work order to change the oil and discover that the brake pads are bad and create a work order to perform that work), then you can select a value for the Originating Work order field.

    You can input values into any supplemental data fields that you established.

    Work order access security enables authorized users assigned to a shop, resource pool, or shop and resource pool to access work orders and work order tasks from the Work Order, Express Work Order, and Technician Workbench components depending on how you set up Technician WO Security options on the Definition page of the work order business unit.

    The Technician WO Security options on the Definition page of the work order are Full Access, Shop, Resource Pool, and Shop and Resource Pool. You must also select the Apply WO Access Security check box in the User Preferences – Maintenance Management page for any user to whom you want to apply work order access security.

    To access the Work Order Access page from the Miscellaneous page of a work order, you must create the work order with a business unit that has Shop or Shop and Resource Pool selected on the Definition page. You must also select the Allow Access to WO Security check box on the User Preferences – Maintenance Management page to enable this user click the Technician Work Order Access link on the Miscellaneous page of the work order and display the Work Order Access page.

    The Work Order Access page displays with the shop used to create this work order listed along with any cross shops associated with resources assigned to work order tasks. The authorized user can add or delete any shops except for the primary shop used to create the work order. Before you can apply work order access security to resources in the shops listed on the Work Order Access page, you must select the Apply WO Access Security check box on the User Preferences – Maintenance Management page for each resource associated with one of the listed shops. Once these shops are set up, any resources assigned to the shops on the list can access those work orders and work order tasks from the Work Order, Express Work Order or the Technician Workbench components.

    There is no direct relationship between the specific resources assigned to a work order task and work order access security. The major consideration is whether or not the resource is assigned to a shop or resource pool depending on the selection in the Definition page of the work order business unit that was used to create the work order, and the Apply WO Access Security check box is selected on the User Preferences – Maintenance Management page.

See Understanding Work Order Business Unit Setup.

See Application Fundamentals: User Preferences - Maintenance Management Page.

Express Work Orders

An express work order is the simplest and fastest way to create a basic work order. Use this option to create work orders that require few resources and little or no scheduling. You enter a full description of the work order and task on the Express Work Order page. You identify the asset requiring work, the scheduler, and the parent work order, if this work order is being created based on another work order. You select a project and activity, if this is a PeopleSoft Project Costing managed work order. If this is a work order managed work order, then a default project value displays and the activity field is inaccessible. For Project Costing managed work orders, you can click an icon next to the Project Activity field on the express work order to access the project and activity on the Resources by Activity page in PeopleSoft Project Costing or in PeopleSoft Program Management, if this product is installed. You have the option of defining the inventory and purchased and on-hand resources needed to perform the work. You can select these resources from an Equipment Parts List (EPL) if asset in the work order has an EPL associated with it. You can also add inventory and purchase/on-hand items to an existing EPL from an express work order. It is also possible to add attachments, notes, and supplemental data to this type of work order. You can only create an express work order by selecting the Maintenance Management, and then Work Order Management, and then Express Work Order menu option. Users cannot create an express work order from PeopleSoft CRM Help Desk, third party help desk applications, PeopleSoft Project Costing, PeopleSoft Program Management, or service requests.

Work order access security can be applied to control who searches and updates existing express work orders. The primary shop that is entered to create the work order is automatically added to the work order access security shop list, which means that only authorized resources assigned to that shop can access the shop's express work orders. If, for some reason, you wanted to authorize additional resources from another shop to access that express work order, you must access the Work Order component and add any additional shops to the Work Order Access page from the Miscellaneous tab. If you selected Resource Pools for work order security access in the work order business unit, then any employee, who is assigned to a resource pool can search for existing express work orders whose project/activity is associated to that resource pool.

If you are using the dedicated web services provided by PeopleSoft Maintenance Management that enable mobile device integration for technicians with a third party supplier, a Mobile Updates Pending link appears in any express work orders that you create with business units that have this feature activated. This link only appears if a task or any task-level data such as materials, checklists, and more have been sent to a mobile device since the last recorded date an update was received and the work order data was updated.

Note:

You cannot enter labor or tools requirements in an express work order.

See Mobile Web Services Integration.

See PeopleSoft Project Costing: Activity Definitions - General Information Page.

See Understanding Supplemental Data.

Preventive Maintenance Work Order Creation

Preventive maintenance work orders are normally used to maintain assets on a routine basis. To generate a preventive maintenance work order, you must set up a preventive maintenance schedule, in which you identify the asset (or assets) being maintained and the type of maintenance to be performed, associate a work order job template, and specify the intervals between work orders based on date-based and meter-based schedules. Once a schedule is set up, you can run the Preventive Maintenance process (WM_PM) to generate work orders, or run the Preventive Maintenance Projection process (WM_PM_PJC) to determine the next maintenance due date and generate preventive maintenance projections and work orders. You can review these projections online or load them into Microsoft Project. Once the work orders are generated, you access the work order using the Work Order component, where you can modify the work order and schedule the resources, if applicable. You cannot access generated preventive maintenance work orders using the Express Work Order component.

See Understanding Preventive Maintenance Work Orders.

Condition-based Maintenance Work Orders

Condition-based maintenance enables you to make maintenance decisions based on the actual condition of an asset. You can set up Web Services to enable external systems measure and analyze current readings on equipment and determine whether the condition of the equipment is outside of normal operating parameters. When the condition is outside normal operating parameters, the external system issues CBM alert or a user enters the alert manually indicating that the asset needs maintenance. A CBM coordinator associated with a specific work order business unit and shop is notified of the alert either through email or workflow. When a new alert is saved, the Update PM Schedule, Create a Work Order, and Close Alert buttons become available. The CBM coordinator can update the preventive maintenance schedule so that the Preventive Maintenance process generate a condition-based work order in the next run, or create a work order from the Condition-Based Maintenance Alert page. The status of each alert is tracked in the Alert Status History.

You must set up workflow and specific rules in Maintenance Management to enable condition-based maintenance.

See Understanding Condition-based Maintenance.

See Understanding Preventive Maintenance Work Orders.