HEROIC WORK ORDER

MANAGEMENT

FM Best Practices for

Table of contents

Best Practice 1: Control your WOM program ..............................4

Best Practice 2: Replace routine tasks with superhero work .......5

Best Practice 3: Automate your work order processes ................6

Best Practice 4: Your WOM solution must be mobile-friendly ......7

status of vendor payments. However, monitoring all of these tasks simultaneously across

geographically dispersed locations can take a toll on even the most formidable facilities

manager (FM).

For example: Imagine handling 378 work orders in a single day—that actually happened

to one FM last year! That might sound like a herculean task, but if that backlog was mostly

routine, simple automation could’ve resolved many of those open work orders.

There is a better way.

A work order management (WOM) solution can help you become your own FM superhero.

Control your WOM

program

Taking control of your entire program requires

visibility into your assets, facilities, vendors,

and every stage of your work orders. Any gaps

or blind spots can cause ineiciencies. Select a

WOM platform that can:

 Connect directly with service pros

 Obtain accurate vendor/technician times on-site

 Verify work completion

 Automate invoicing and remittance with your nancial systems

Complete control of your WOM also includes monitoring service requests from end to end and

ensuring repairs and maintenance are completed in accordance with service level agreements.

A major challenge for FMs everywhere is knowing when service providers are on-site and for

how long. A good WOM solution gives FMs and site managers the convenience of verifying job

status via GPS check-ins. The platform also maintains a complete, auditable history of service

requests to ensure accuracy and transparency. Having a record of who did what and when is

essential for vendor compliance and resolving disputes.

Replace routine tasks with

superhero work

Do your maintenance calls ever feel like a never-

ending series of disconnected one-o events? Your

WOM solution should be able to process, automate,

analyze, and optimize every task. The more eicient

your WOM is, the more value it delivers—and the

 See compliance with check-in/check-out procedures

 Display average job cost broken down by service provider, trade, asset, and geography

 Capture performance criteria separating your top vendors from the rest

You’ll never get to superhero work—the kind that boosts eiciency, asset performance, and

cost-savings—until automation and task routing take charge of routine, low-level tasks—and

do so at scale.

For example, a good WOM solution can manage hundreds of thousands of work orders per

day in real time, across a distributed footprint, and with visibility into each stage of the

WOM process. Triaging separates common tasks from emergencies, so you’re able to more

eiciently allocate resources and reach faster resolutions. You get your time back to devote to

more complex tasks and the heroic work that results in greater operating performance.

Automate your work

order processes

Few things are as frustrating as manually elding hundreds of work orders that could have been

managed and resolved through automation. A WOM platform should allow you to automate

recurring services and reactive repairs by routing them to your preferred technicians and

appropriate vendors. This means faster completion times and fewer repeat visits.

Automating low-level work creates more time for high-priority work orders for complex or

costly assets. Free from processing routine work orders, FMs have more time for higher-level

service expenses and judging whether they’re in line with market norms.

Small, consistent time- and cost-savings grow your bottom line. A dispatch board, for

example, provides building occupants with troubleshooting guidance before they create

a work order, which prevents needless service calls and ensures the right service provider

responds to each request.

Choose a mobile-friendly

WOM solution

FMs and their team members are rarely at their desks, due to the reactive and fast-paced nature

of their work. They may spend a good portion of their days at remote locations or on the road

and need to be able to initiate, assess, and document work orders without having to return to

their desks.

A mobile-friendly WOM solution is required for an eicient FM team to:

aer completion of the work

 Communicate with material/

equipment suppliers, service

providers, engineers, etc.

A mobile app must be intuitive and easy to learn for FM teams and their vendors in the eld.

During a busy week, the app becomes the default communication, transaction, and monitoring

channel for hundreds of open work orders.

A mobile WOM platform enables FM teams and other stakeholders to save time by managing

work orders on the go, using technologies that oer considerable convenience and eiciency. As

a result, they have more time to focus on business-critical tasks.

Employ warranty tracking

Keeping track of assets under warranty is vital to controlling costs, but it’s time-consuming

for managers of large or multi-site facilities. Warranty management is oen an ineicient,

Move from reactive to

proactive work

Your WOM system should save you time, so you can focus on forward-looking tasks, like

allocating resources for preventative maintenance. Plus, transitioning from reactive to

preventative maintenance can lead to major savings. A recent analysis revealed that an

average preventative maintenance work order costs $400 less than a reactive one.

A WOM platform can optimize your preventative maintenance spending down to the equipment

level. Maintenance records, costs, and dates are organized and readily available to help you

Preventative maintenance streamlines and extends the useful life of buildings, machines,

and equipment.