About Work Orders

Modified on Fri, Nov 8 at 4:54 PM

In SOMAX, a work order is a document for repair or maintenance of Assets. It is the central point where labor cost, parts used, notes and photos taken of the work to be done or work that was completed.

A planned work order should contain:

any safety precautions that must be taken before the job can be started or during performance of the job
a detailed description of the work to be completed
who will be completing the work
what specific tasks must be done
what asset the work must be done on
how long the work may take
any parts or other resources such as drawings or equipment required to do the job

When completed the work order should also contain any notes or recommendations made by the user who completes the work order. It can also contain photos of as arrived and as left.

Work Orders vs Work Requests

A work order differs from a work request by who may create them. In SOMAX, a work order can only be managed or created by an administrator or full user. A work request is created by any other requestor user and is approved or denied by an administrator or full user. If approved, it becomes a work order, and only then can it be officially scheduled.

For more help with work orders or requests, see:

Important Work Order Overview Information

When you open an existing work order you should immediately be directed to the work order overview. This section should describe the different menus that will be shown and how to navigate between them. The picture below shows a sample Work Order Overview.

Details & the Work Order Form Fields at a Quick Glance

The very top menu is an easy way to quickly glance at the most important details of your work order and can be edited if needed by the form fields below the "Costs" menu. While it does not include every form field, it does include the work order's:

No. (ex: 24000344)
Status (ex: Approved)
Type (ex: Preventive Maintenance)
Priority (ex: Potential to Shut Down the Line)
Description (ex: Dailey Conveyor PM - Need to replace sprocket)
Asset ID (ex: CONV-002A)
Asset Name (ex: Egg conveyor 3)
Asset Location
Lines towards completion (ex: when it is scheduled, assigned, completed, etc)
Department (ex: PROD)
Line (ex: Line 1)

The chart below provides detailed descriptions of each of these fields and any other ones found in the full list below the "Costs" widget.

Field	Description
Work Order No	Number for the Work Order
Status	This is the status of the work order and is automatically filled by SOMAX based on the actions taken to create, schedule, approve, or complete a work order. For more help changing status, see: Creating a Work Order Approving a Work Request About Labor Scheduling Completing a Work Order Canceling a Work Order
Work Status	What needs to be done to progress the status (ie: Ready to be scheduled, waiting on parts)
Shift	What shift or time of day you scheduled the work order for.
Type	Type of maintenance needed. Possible options can be created in the work order Lookup Lists.
Source ID	This is Used when a Work Order is Sourced from Preventive Maintenance
Description	Details about the work you would like completed
Down Required	When Checked this indicates the Asset must be Down for the work to be completed
Priority	This is the degree of risk associated with the asset you would like the work to be done on and the potential consequences there may be if the work is not completed.
Account	Account the work is charged to
Charge To	The asset ID you would like the work to be done on.
Charge To Name	This is the name of the asset and updates automatically when you edit the Asset ID under the field "Charge To"
Required	Required Date that this work be completed by
Source Type	SOMAX Source Type for Work Order Ex: Work Request (when you create a Work Request), Preventive Maintenance(Generated from PM Master), Unplanned Work Order (when you create an Unplanned Work Order) or Follow up Work Order (when you create a Follow-Up Work Order)
Status & Completion	These fields include information about the order once it is scheduled, such as the date, duration, and failure code. For more help, see Creating a Work Order.

For more help editing work order form fields, see Editing a Work Order.

Costs Tracking Widget

The costs widget describes the total estimated and actual costs of your work order. There are 3 sub-sections for each total estimated and actual cost:

costs of parts
costs of labor
any other costs

The costs are calculated once information about the parts costs and labor rate and duration are entered. The actual costs of the work order will be displayed in the printed work order report once completed.

For more help estimating and adding costs or printing a work order report, see Adding and Viewing Work Order Costs or Printing a Work Order.

Work Order History

This widget shows any activity that has been done to the work order such as its approval, creation, scheduling, and completion. In SOMAX, work order activity will show its approval date whether or not the work order started off as a request.

For more help with acting upon work orders, see:

Work Order Tasks & Other Details: The Left Menu

The left menu shows where you may view, add, or edit work order photos, tasks, downtime, attachments, and estimated/actual costs.

For more help with any of the above, see:

On Request/Order Listing

This portion of the Work Order lists any Open Purchase Request or Purchase Order with a line item charged to this work order.