Work Requests: A Guide for MRO Teams

A work request is a formal document or digital entry used to notify maintenance of a problem or need for service within an organization. It serves as the first step in the maintenance workflow, ensuring that issues are recorded, tracked, and addressed systematically.

Work requests are used in many industries, including manufacturing, facilities management, and utilities. When paired with a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), work requests help streamline communication between different departments and maintenance. Together, this helps ensure that maintenance and repair tasks are identified and prioritized effectively.

Parts of a Work Request

The key features of a work request include:

• A detailed description that clearly describes the issue, service, or repair needed, including specific symptoms or observations.
• Requester information, such as the name and contact information of the person submitting the request.
• Location, so that the maintenance department knows where to go to in the facility to address the problem.
• Priority level, to indicate the urgency of the request. This helps maintenance personnel prioritize their workload.
• Attachments, which may include photos or documents that provide additional context or information about the problem.

You may hear these terms used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same.

A work request is an initial communication or document to notify the maintenance department when new work tasks are ready. It may come from maintenance or an employee in another department. This request communicates the details of a task they want completed. Maintenance personnel can use work requests to prioritize incoming work based on importance and urgency, weighing key factors such as safety and business impact.

A work order is the official document created once a work request is approved. It describes task details, assigns resources, and tracks task progress. The work order has specific details and instructions required to perform the task, such as equipment details, location (including facility and building), assigned workers, safety information, and cost. Work orders are specific to each individual task and usually have unique reference numbers to help track status and record progress.

While you’ll need a work order to schedule, assign, and complete maintenance tasks, a work request is the first step.

Work requests can vary widely depending on the nature of the issue and the industry. Here are five common types:

1. Corrective Maintenance Requests

Departments submit requests for corrective maintenance when equipment or systems fail or malfunction. This can include emergencies that require immediate attention. One example would be a request to fix a broken conveyor belt in a manufacturing plant.

Preventive Maintenance Requests

These are scheduled requests for routine maintenance tasks aimed at preventing equipment failures. A request for a monthly machinery inspection would be a preventive maintenance request designed to maintain quality and performance.

3. Predictive Maintenance Requests

Based on sensor data that predicts potential failures, these requests alert the maintenance department to address issues before failures occur. For example, a sensor could detect when a machine component operates at lower performance, indicating signs of wear. A predictive maintenance request would be generated for a technician to repair or replace the component while it still functions.

4. Facility Maintenance Requests

These requests pertain to the maintenance of the building or facility services. For example, requests for carpet repair, snow removal, or to repair a leaking roof would constitute facility maintenance requests.

5. Safety and Compliance Requests

Safety and compliance work requests are related to any issues regarding safety and regulatory compliance in a facility. This could be a request to clean up a chemical spill, replace worn-out safety signage, or conduct emergency repair of a safety barrier, for example.

Understanding the types of work requests helps maintenance departments categorize and prioritize maintenance activities, ensuring that they can support all aspects of the organization’s operations.

Filling out a work request accurately ensures that maintenance can find and fix problems efficiently. Every organization will have slightly different work request forms tailored to industry-specific needs and policies. But generally, a completed form will look like this:

• Requester information:John Doe, [email protected], 555-1234
• Date and time of request:March 10, 2025, 2:00 PM
• Location:Production Floor, Machine A-23
• Description of issue:The conveyor belt on Machine A-23 has stopped moving and is emitting a grinding noise. There is also visible wear on the belt.
• Priority level:High (Production Halted)
• Attachments:[Attached photo]

Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) teams rely heavily on work requests to manage and prioritize their workload. Here’s why work requests are essential:

1. Structured workflow:Work requests provide a structured way to capture, manage, and complete maintenance projects, ensuring technicians don’t overlook anything.
2. Prioritization:They help prioritize tasks based on urgency and impact, allowing MRO personnel to focus on the most critical issues first.
3. Accountability:Work requests create a record of reported issues and completed work, ensuring accountability and traceability.
4. Resource management:They aid in planning and assigning project resources, such as personnel, tools, and materials, efficiently.
5. Improved communication:Work requests facilitate clear communication between different departments, maintenance, and customers if applicable, reducing misunderstandings and delays.
6. Data collection:They provide valuable data for analyzing maintenance trends, identifying recurring issues, and improving preventive maintenance programs.
7. Compliance and reporting:Maintaining a record of work requests helps ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and supports reporting needs.

Overall, work requests are a fundamental tool for MRO teams, helping them manage maintenance activities effectively, communicate status updates, reduce downtime, and ensure the smooth operation of facilities and equipment.

Work requests and work orders are only as useful as the way you manage them. Clear communication and efficient task management matter for creating workflows that make sense for your whole organization. Here are the most important optimization tasks for maintenance projects:

1. Standardize work orders and requests. Design templates for use across all departments and projects. Make sure they’re easy to access and simple to fill out, as this will minimize miscommunications and make the process efficient for everyone.
2. Create a transparent prioritization system. Maintenance departments can lose time deciding how to prioritize each work request and work order. Create an official priority scale to save time and reduce pushback from customers and colleagues. Back in 2020, a natural language processing (NLP) tool achieved 78% accuracy when classifying facilities management requests, and the technology is only getting better.
3. Automate work assignments. Resource allocation doesn’t have to be a challenge. When you standardize and automate the way you assign resources to work orders, you’ll save time and simplify the process.
4. Use work request and work order management software, preferably a CMMS. With one centralized place to store, track, and prioritize work requests and work orders, your maintenance department can access all the project information they need from anywhere, anytime.
5. Audit your work request workflow regularly. New ways of working can emerge over time. Conduct regular audits and implement updates as needed for optimal operations.

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a software solution that significantly enhances the management of work requests by connecting and simplifying the entire process. Here are several key features that make a CMMS the ideal work request and work order management software:

• Centralized system:A CMMS centralizes all work requests, making it easy to track and manage them from a single platform. This capability ensures that maintenance departments don’t overlook any tasks and that they can monitor resources
• Automated workflows:The software automatically routes work requests to the appropriate personnel based on predefined rules. This speeds up response times and ensures that the right experts address each issue.
• Real-time updates:A CMMS provides real-time updates on the status of work requests, including completion and issuedocumentation. All stakeholders can be informed throughout the process, which enhances transparency and simplifies customer communications, too.
• Mobile access:Most CMMS systems come with a mobile app, which allows maintenance personnel to submit and update work requests via mobile devices. The result is increased flexibility and responsiveness, enabling quicker issue resolution.
• Integration with maintenance schedules:A CMMS integrates work requests with preventive and predictive maintenance schedules. This ensures that all maintenance activities are coordinated, reducing downtime and improving efficiency.
• Reporting and analytics:With a CMMS, stakeholders can generate detailed reports and analytics on work requests and work orders, including response times, completion rates, and common issues. These insights inform continuous improvement in the maintenance process and help leaders make data-driven decisions.
• Inventory management:The system tracks inventory levels and links work requests to necessary parts and materials. This ensures that required parts are available for maintenance tasks, reducing delays.

By using a CMMS, organizations can streamline the work request process, enhance communication, and improve overall repair and maintenance efficiency. This connected and simplified approach helps MRO teams respond to issues promptly, maintain high operational standards, and support the organization’s goals.

To learn more about what a CMMS can do for your team, speak to an eMaint CMMS specialist today.