How to Track Work Orders the Easy Way: Your Solutions
Are you having trouble tracking work orders?
Work management and organization skills are important in keeping any company afloat. Taking these for granted is a surefire way of making a business fall behind its competitors. It’s why you see many business owners keep on top of everything in their company.
Work orders are among the most important ones to supervise. Whether it comes from a customer or within the business, tracking them is essential to keep company processes flowing. How do you go about order management, though?
Track work orders with ease using the guide we’ve prepared below. Read on and keep everything organized as much as you can today!
Request Formal Submissions
As mentioned above, work orders come in many forms. They can come as customers’ or internal requests, incoming audit and/or inspection follow-ups, or product orders. Regardless, never act on one made without a formal request.
Formal requests allow you to know the details of each work order. It helps you and other workers to understand the elements of each order. Doing so ensures everyone agrees on how to go about fulfilling each work order.
Informal requests made in conversation will cause chaos in the workplace. Some will forget that a customer made an order until the deadline is near. It will then cause you to use more resources to finish that order before it expires.
These will only disrupt the flow of other tasks and will also cause them to become rushed. Rushed orders will have decreased quality, failing both the company’s and client’s standards.
Keep Incoming Orders Organized
Organize incoming and incomplete work orders to know what everyone should expect. Doing so allows you and everyone else to collaborate by assigning incoming tasks to themselves or others. It’s a great way to make sure everyone’s doing their part and getting the job done faster.
Place incomplete and incoming orders somewhere everyone can see. Whiteboards and tack boards hung around the workplace work well for this. If you’re operating alone, place a sticky note in an area visible from your workplace.
When doing so with other people, keep all information in sync. Update the sheets and boards after fulfilling work orders. Inform everyone after doing so to ensure no one wastes their resources by redoing it.
It’s also best that all orders go through one department. Doing so avoids duplications and helps in distributing customer requests to departments.
Streamlining the Approval Process
To keep work orders coming, orders must go through your approval process. It ensures all orders are final and as detailed as they can be. Streamlining your approval process hastens the acquisition of orders so all can work on it as soon as possible.
Tell the people in charge to note all details given by the clients. Information like time of acquisition can go a long way in verifying the authenticity of an order.
Personnel should also detail specific requests made by clients or co-workers. If it’s an order for products or follow-ups, enter details like the expected time of arrival. Doing so is a great way to keep everyone on track with expected events and such.
The approval process should also include confirmation on the customer’s side. It should be the last step before personnel sends notifications to the suitable departments.
Create a message template when sending to both customers or co-workers. Doing this is a great way to streamline the work and order management process. It also helps avoid offense via miscommunication between all parties.
Prioritize Work Orders
Now that you know how to keep track of orders, it’s time to keep track of which ones to do first. You can perform work management in different categories. Put up different classifications such as “closest deadline” or “longest overhead time”.
Doing so allows everyone to sort through orders by priority. You can also offer clients a “rush” option to let everyone know what to prioritize. Otherwise, you can set a “first come, first serve” policy to keep everyone on track.
To avoid conflicts with scheduling, set a reasonable deadline for each customer order. Consider all factors, such as company downtimes and employee output speed when doing so. Downtimes of the machines you use in essential processes should also be in consideration when setting deadlines.
Use Mobile Technology to Better Track Orders
Order management need not be difficult and stressful. One way you can take the work out of work order management is by using different software and apps. Using them will make the supervising process much easier for everyone involved.
Use online solutions and make them accessible to everyone. There are tons of tools online that you can use for job sequencing and scheduling. What’s great about most of them is that everyone can make edits to update the sheet after finishing an order.
This way, everyone stays in sync, even when working at home. It’s also a great idea to invest in a maintenance app to keep the workflow going. Such apps are great to avoid crashes during crucial work hours.
Resolve Payments ASAP
Receiving payments at the end is often the hardest part of the process. One way to streamline this is by digitalizing the payment process. Create an invoice that customers can access in the order sheet.
The invoice should have a link that leads customers to an online platform where they can pay. Invest in the site’s security to avoid information leaks.
Doing all this expedites the payment process. It also cuts back on repetitive labor that’s prone to human error. This also improves the tracking process by automatically marking resolved orders.
Learn How to Track Work Orders Today
Work orders can vary in purpose and importance. Keeping track of them is essential no matter what they cover. Track work orders and ensure the work process flows smoothly with our help today!
Are you looking for more ways to improve your order and work management skills? Check out our other guides and articles to help improve your work ethic. Keep yourself updated on the newest trends in the business industry today!