Although work management is a cornerstone of world-class maintenance and reliability programs, many organizations still struggle with reactive work, high costs, and uncontrolled backlogs. This article demystifies the six essential elements of work management, offering a practical, computerized maintenance management system-based road map aligned with the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) Body of Knowledge. From this information, you will gain actionable insights into work identification, planning, scheduling, execution, observation and feedback, each calibrated to enhance asset health, workforce efficiency, and operational performance.
Why Work Management Still Matters
Despite advances in digital tools and predictive technologies, maintenance programs often fail to meet expectations. Common symptoms include:
- Low asset availability;
- Backlog chaos;
- Poor schedule compliance;
- High inventory holding costs;
- Missed regulatory inspections;
- Unutilized labor capacity.
The root cause? Fragmented or poorly executed work management. Effective work management, grounded in the following six foundational elements, is not just a technical function, it’s a business strategy. When well-implemented through an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, enterprise asset management (EAM) system, or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), work management becomes a driver of safety, reliability and bottom-line results.
The Six Elements of Work Management
1. Work Identification
Identifying work is the foundation of reliability. It must be standardized, value-driven, and linked to asset criticality. Sources include:
- Work Requests: From inspections and operations walkdowns to incident observations, these must be asset-specific and event-based (not solution-based).
- Safety and Environmental Actions: These are derived from audits, compliance reviews, or risk assessments.
- Preventive Maintenance (PM): Calendar- or performance-based (e.g., run hours, miles, tons, cycles, etc.), the PM must include detailed task lists (i.e., activities), application parts lists (APLs), permits, and drawings.
- Predictive Maintenance (PdM): These tasks are based on real-time condition monitoring, such as vibration, thermography, oil analysis, etc.
- Improvement Work: Redesigns, fabrications and process upgrades must be tracked separately from corrective work.
- Backlog: These are valid, but incomplete jobs. The backlog should be aged, prioritized and kept within a site-specific target. A healthy backlog reflects proactive control, not reactive clutter.
2. Work Planning
Planning transforms requests into ready-to-execute job packages. Effective planning involves:
- Request Screening: Is the work valid? Is it a duplicate? Does it require field verification?
- Prework Analysis: Isolation needs? Access constraints? Cleanup requirements?
- Job Instructions: These include skill requirements, quality standards, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) documentation, and safety tolerances.
- Resource Identification: This involves labor mix, tooling, support equipment, and permits.
- Material Control: This encompasses stocking strategies, such as economic order quantity (EOQ), consignment, and reorder point (ROP), staging, and shelf life PMs.
3. Work Scheduling
If planning is about "what" and "how," scheduling is about "when" and "who." High-performing teams ensure:
- 100 percent labor utilization;
- 20 percent contingency for emergencies;
- Supervisor ownership of every task.
Use visual scheduling software tools to sequence jobs, issue final schedules, and print job packs.
4. Work Execution
Execution is where work becomes reality. Supervisors play a central role in:
- Assigning work based on skill sets;
- Communicating plan deviations;
- Recording feedback (e.g., time, risk, material usage)
- Handing over equipment post repair;
- Closing out work orders in the CMMS.
5. Short Interval Control (SIC) and Planned Task Observation (PTO)
These two mechanisms enable real-time oversight. SIC monitors critical path work, like shutdowns and capital projects. PTO focuses on routine tasks and technician behavior.
Planners or supervisors lead both and should assess:
- Hazard controls;
- Personal protective equipment (PPE);
- Compliance;
- Permits;
- Procedure deviations;
- Execution-to-plan gaps.
6. Feedback and Reporting
Post-work feedback is critical to asset history, optimizing planning and root cause analysis (RCA). It should include:
- Actual vs. estimated duration;
- Steps skipped or added;
- Delay causes, material issues, etc.;
- Tradesperson competence.
For reporting, use CMMS data to generate key performance indicators (KPIs) that inform strategic, planning and execution-level decisions.
Conclusion
Work management is not just a maintenance task, it's a competitive advantage. Organizations that adopt a structured, disciplined approach to all six elements consistently outperform their peers in terms of safety, cost, availability and culture.
By embedding these principles into daily practice and enabling them with technology, organizations position themselves for reliability excellence both today and in the future.