Work Orders
Create, assign, and track corrective, preventive, and emergency maintenance work orders using a visual Kanban board.
Overview
The Work Orders screen is a Kanban-based board that gives your maintenance team a real-time view of all outstanding repair and servicing tasks. Work orders flow through four columns — Open, In Progress, On Hold, and Completed — and can be dragged between columns as work progresses. Each work order captures the asset being serviced, the type of work, the assigned technician, estimated hours, and priority level.
Data Persistence
All work orders are stored in your tenant's server-side JSON file (maintenance-work-orders.json) and loaded on every visit. Changes persist across page refreshes and sessions.
Work Order Types
🔧 Corrective
Reactive repairs triggered after a breakdown or fault detection. Typically urgent and assigned to the first available technician.
📅 Preventive
Scheduled servicing generated from the Preventive Maintenance module or created manually to reduce the likelihood of future failures.
🚨 Emergency
Critical repairs where equipment failure poses a safety risk or production stoppage. Always displayed with high-contrast priority indicators.
Quick Start
Work Order Fields
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Text (required) | Short description of the work to be done (e.g. "Replace conveyor belt bearing") |
| Asset | Text | Name of the asset being maintained. Populated from the Asset Registry when possible. |
| Type | Select | Corrective, Preventive, or Emergency |
| Priority | Select | Low, Medium, High, or Critical — displayed as a coloured badge on the card |
| Assignee | Text | Technician responsible for completing the work order |
| Estimated Hours | Number | Expected labour time in hours |
| Due Date | Date | Target completion date; overdue cards are highlighted in red |
| Description | Text area | Detailed instructions, fault description, or parts required |
| Status | Kanban column | Open / In Progress / On Hold / Completed — updated by dragging the card |
Kanban Board Layout
The board is divided into four status columns. Work order cards can be dragged horizontally to advance their status. Each column shows the number of open cards in a badge at the top.
| Column | Meaning | Typical next action |
|---|---|---|
| Open | Newly created, not yet started | Assign a technician and drag to In Progress |
| In Progress | Work actively being performed | Log progress; drag to On Hold if waiting for parts |
| On Hold | Blocked — waiting for parts, approval, or access | Resolve blocker; drag back to In Progress |
| Completed | Work finished and verified | Used for reporting; feeds into the Reliability Dashboard |
Drag-and-Drop
Click and hold any work order card to drag it to a new column. The target column highlights in cyan when your card is over a valid drop zone. Release to drop.
Creating a Work Order
- Click the + New Work Order button in the top-right of the screen.
- Enter a descriptive Title (required — the Save button remains disabled until this is filled).
- Select the Type: Corrective, Preventive, or Emergency.
- Choose the Priority level.
- Enter the Asset name and Assignee.
- Set an Estimated Hours value and Due Date.
- Add any additional notes in the Description field.
- Click Save. The new work order appears in the Open column.
Priority Badges
Each work order card displays a colour-coded priority badge. Use these to quickly identify urgent tasks on the board.
| Priority | Badge Colour | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Grey | Routine tasks with flexible scheduling |
| Medium | Amber | Should be completed within the current week |
| High | Orange | Important repairs affecting throughput or quality |
| Critical | Red | Safety-critical or production-stopping failures |
Filtering Work Orders
Use the filter bar at the top of the Kanban board to narrow the cards displayed:
- Search — filters by title and asset name in real time.
- Type filter — show only Corrective, Preventive, or Emergency work orders.
- Priority filter — show only the selected priority level.
- Assignee filter — show work orders assigned to a specific technician.
Active filters persist while you navigate within the screen. Use the Refresh button to reload from the server and reset filters.
Editing and Deleting
Click any work order card to open its detail view. From there:
- Click Edit to modify any field and save changes.
- Click Delete → confirm to permanently remove the work order.
- Drag the card to a new column to update status without opening the detail view.
No Undo
Deleted work orders cannot be recovered. Completed work orders are used to calculate MTBF and MTTR in the Reliability Dashboard — delete them only if they were created in error.
Connection to Preventive Maintenance
When a PM task is marked as due and you click Generate Work Order from the Preventive Maintenance screen, a work order of type Preventive is automatically created in the Open column with the task's asset, description, and scheduled date pre-filled. You can then assign a technician and adjust the estimated hours before saving.