Understanding Your Historical Work Order Data

Every asset-intensive business is familiar with the struggles that come with improving operations reliability, reducing maintenance costs, and optimizing work efficiency. One of the ways that businesses can conduct better informed decisions about their maintenance operations is by analyzing their historical work orders. Historical work order data is useful in identifying the key areas of improvement in maintenance and reliability operations by analyzing previously documented issues, solutions, and actions taken on a business’ assets. This information allows maintenance professionals to effectively track the resources and expenditure that go into maintaining an equipment by looking at an equipment’s maintenance history, as well as provide the bigger picture in seeing which area of maintenance demands the most resources. But, how exactly does one accomplish this when the historical work order data is found to be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated?

Between the lines of a historical work order

In our previous blog post, we outlined some of the common causes of inaccurate work order data. Work orders allow you to capture essential information about a task, share it with your maintenance team, and utilize the information to complete maintenance work in a quick and efficient manner. The key is understanding the power of the information stored within your historical work orders, such as its ability to indicate which assets are costing the most to maintain, which equipment are failing the most unexpectedly, and which factors are affecting the productivity of your maintenance operations the most frequently. Each work order contains information about the asset that requires work, the scope of the work, a detailed description of the issue, the labour hours required to fix the issue, and the necessary measures needed to resolve the issue. When completed accurately, this can become a very powerful tool in evaluating the efficiency of your maintenance strategy and operations. Not only does it allow you to identify the areas that require the most time and resources based on previously documented data, but it also leaves a trail that can be analyzed for future improvements. Comparing historical work orders allows you to adjust your maintenance strategy and allocate resources where you really need them, reducing unexpected downtime in the long run.

​Making use of your work order data

Analyzing your historical work order data can be tricky, but transforming this information into useful insights can help you identify areas of improvement and take your maintenance strategy to the next level. A great deal of hidden information is often overlooked within your historical work orders, and an effective reporting solution that consolidates your data in one place can allow you to make informed decisions with the right goals and data in mind. If you’d like to learn more about how analyzing your historical work order data can improve your business’ maintenance strategy, click on one of our resources below, or book a demo with us to see how the NRX Work Order Analysis can help you make the most out of your historical work order data!