Equipment tracking software and work orders

Work Order Management is a crucial part of any good equipment tracking software. It helps you keep business processes organized and nimble. A key reason for this is its ability to creating linkages between items, workers, and locations, so that people know who has to work on which items, and where. Not only does this take way a huge administrative load away, but also promotes efficiency and accountability throughout the organization.

Even smaller scale companies can go through hundreds of tasks a week! This could be anything from ordering inventory, undertaking quality checks and item audits, and carrying out countless compliance and maintenance tasks. It can be a hassle to keep these tasks straight. People have to be notified about their jobs, equipment downtimes have to be scheduled well in advance, and coordination needs to take place across different locations and departments. An equipment tracking software can help you stay on top of these tasks and projects through the use of work orders. Below, we’ll outline 4 great reasons to use work order management within your organization!

Stay up to date on tasks by tracking progress

This is one of the most obvious benefits of using work orders. Say you want to perform an annual light inspection for all your factories in a certain state. This is a huge operation, that requires the coordination of many factory managers, the maintenance crew, as well as various department heads. Not just this, but the workers would probably require documentation and picklists to ensure they are able to carry out their tasks properly. Not only can work orders help organize all of these different elements, but the relevant teams can keep track of the light inspection project and see if it’s on track to be completed.

All lines of authority relating to a project can be clearly laid out in a work order.

Establish clear staff roles for specific jobs

Work orders are also a great way to ensure that everyone on a team knows what project they’re working on, and which specific component they will be contributing to. If all office equipment needs to undergo monthly maintenance, the people in charge of planning for downtimes could look at a drafted work order to see when the project is expected to start, for example. Similarly, the different crew members responsible for the servicing of industrial and administrative equipment would have no confusion about which specific items they need to be working on, as they can just pull up the work order online through their equipment tracking software.

Implement more efficient workflows

Work orders aren’t just a way to document business activities in a static way. If used correctly, they can be used to identify bottlenecks, areas of poor performance, or employees with low efficiency. This is because you have all the data relating to a task right in front of you. For example, you can see which tasks took longer to complete than expected, and then pinpoint the reasons for it. It could be that some of your workers didn’t have the tools they required to complete a task, or that there were problems around accessing certain locations. You could also run reports on work orders and filter them according to the data points that interest you specifically for more actionable insights.

Work orders can serve as picklists for crew members working on a task.

Bolster accountability through project reviews

Certain business tasks somehow become isolated pockets of activity that are to difficult to uphold to quality or compliance standards. This is why it is imperative to try to make all jobs as inclusive and participatory as possible. Work orders can be a great way of communicating the progress of tasks in different departments or locations to other members. This kind of instant access can ensure smoother workflows and can bolster accountability through increased transparency. Any good equipment rental software would have a review process for specific work order tasks, so that people can have feedback as well as a different perspective on the task itself. This encourages people to do a good job and see the tasks they are performing as connected to broader business processes.

Conclusion

Work order management can help you stay up to date on tasks, establish clear lines of authority, ensure project quality through stringent reviews, and implement more efficient workflows. A good equipment tracking software won’t just have work order management modules, but will enable you to use these work orders in conjunction with a lot of other handy features, such as purchase orders, preventive maintenance, and mobile audits. So if you’re looking to make business processes more efficient (and who isn’t?), placing your bets on a sturdy and flexible asset tracking software is a great starting point!

Want to learn more about our equipment tracking software?

EZOfficeInventory is empowering SMBs from all over the globe to cut costs, increase ROIs, and improve operational efficiency. Through constant feature releases – a lot of which are suggested by our small business customers – we aim to improve business workflows and help organizations leverage their assets for increased profits! You can try out our asset tracking software by signing up today for a free 15-day trial.

For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.