Creating Recurring Work Orders (RWO's) in Facilitron Works

This article will assist Primary Users with submitting RWO’s for preventative maintenance and other recurring maintenance tasks.

About Recurring Work Orders (RWO)

Recurring Work Orders (RWO’s) and Preventive Maintenance (PM’s) work orders are essentially the same. In Facilitron Works, they are referred to as RWO’s to clarify that these types of auto generated work orders are simply recurring, and can be used for any kind of maintenance - not only preventative maintenance. An RWO can also be created for any inspection (e.g., quality of service reminders or a task list to be performed at a certain time of year).

RWO’s may also have Tasks added to them, enabling you to create multi-point inspections. We will go through this below as well.

The recurring work order setup process is broken down into two steps below. The second step is optional, however it may be beneficial to use according to your preferences.

Step 1: Inspection Profile Setup

General Information and Frequency

From the navigation bar at the top, go to Work Orders and select the Recurring drop down, then select Add/Edit Inspection Profile. To create a new Recurring Work Order profile, click + Add Profile.

Within this profile, you may designate an RWO’s frequency - weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.

Click the blue link button titled Add Profile to start creating a new RWO.

Next, fill in the blanks on the form.

The highlighted fields above are explained below:

Profile Name: This populates in the “Description” box when a WO is generated from the profile.
Profile Type: This names the kind of work order being scheduled.
Inspection Standard: If your RWO has a Standard (see Manage > Web Site Configuration > Inspection Standards & Ratings), this can be chosen here, otherwise you can default to “Not Set”.
Scheduled/Inactive: This setting hides the RWO profile from the list of RWO’s. This can be changed at any time or set later.
Unpaused/Pause: This stops Work Orders in an RWO profile from auto-generating. This can also be set later.
Frequency of Recurrence: This sets the date parameters upon which the RWO will be set.
Duration: This is the estimated time it will take to complete the RWO.
Lead Time: This is the number of days prior to the upcoming scheduled date to create the Work Orders or inspections.

Properties and Elective Settings

Once the general information and description of the RWO profile has been filled out, and the frequency has been set, you can move on to selecting the Properties the RWO should take place at, as well as other elective settings.

+ Select Property: Click this button in the top right to add one or more properties.
Default Worker: Selecting a Worker here auto-assigns the RWO to that Worker upon creation.
Default Contractor: Selecting a Contractor here auto-assigns the RWO to that Contractor upon creation. This setting functions like the Default Worker setting, however for Contractors instead.
Locations/Assets: This is the site for which maintenance is being requested.
Priority: Here you may designate if an RWO is Low, Medium, or High Priority.
Status to Assign: Work orders can be assigned to a relevant status from this dropdown.
Requestor: This dropdown allows for a specific person to be listed as the RWO’s requestor if the work orders are being requested on behalf of someone else.
Budget: This dropdown lists available budget lines to assign to the work order.
Purpose: For RWO’s the purpose is usually preventative maintenance. This dropdown includes other pre-configured purposes to choose from to fit a wide array of maintenance needs.
Trade: Assigning a trade allows all Workers assigned to the selected trade to access the RWO if needed.

If no Workers or Contractors were selected, set the Status to Assign to Approved for the newly created RWO's to populate in the Receive screen. Options in the Receive screen can also be used to add further dimension to work orders, e.g., assigning to a site’s supervisor. You may also set RWO’s to an Approved status so they appear on the Receive screen or in the Dispatcher inbox where the supervisor can assign as needed.

The Status to Assign can be set to Received to have the work orders directly sent to the Worker or Contractor if a Default Worker or Contractor was selected.

Note: NEVER set Status to Assign to Received or Assigned with no Workers or Contractors. If this happens, no one will be assigned to the work order, and it will not be completed.

Status to Assign can also be set to Approved to have the work orders still populate in the Receive screen with the Worker pre-selected.

Click Save Profile and Add Tasks.

Creating a Multi Point Inspection

In the Inspection Tasks area, click Add New Task.

The following window will pop open:

Fill in the fields described below:

Task: This is where you can put a brief description of the work that needs to be completed. For example, “Check light bulbs”.
Task Description: Here you may add further details regarding the task, such as saying, “Assess all overhead and lamp light bulbs for brightness”.
Details (tooltip): This is a short form of the task description. For example, saying, “Change out dead light bulbs.” This tooltip is visible to the Worker/Contractor on the work order detail page.
Action if Out of Range: These are the next steps if the task is not within an acceptable range or cannot be completed.
Code Description: This does not show on the work order itself, only on the profile. Its function is to record the governing agency and regulation. An example would be “NFPA, Section 10, Chapter 7”.
Inspection Standard: Select one inspection standard per task. These are configured in Manage > Web Site Configuration > Inspection Standards and Ratings.

Next, click the blue Save/Update Profile button. Continue to add tasks as needed until your multi point inspection has been fully built.

The tasks for the inspection will show in a Created Task List.

Step 2: Scheduling the Work Orders

Scheduling can be automated (triggered nightly) or manual. By default, Works will create RWO’s as they are due based on a set Frequency of Recurrence schedule as outlined below. However, if you would like to manually schedule RWO’s so as to create months of RWO’s in advance so that you may make minor adjustments to the individual RWO’s, check the Pause (pause automated RWO creation) box during the setup process. Paused RWO profiles convey that this profile is manually scheduled.

Please note that RWO’s are auto-generated nightly for Works.

From the navigation bar at the top, go to Work Orders and select the Recurring drop down, then select Schedule/Create Recurring Work Orders.

First, select an inspection profile from the drop-down list to choose an RWO.

Next, fill out the highlighted fields. You may select on Optional Start Time if you would like the RWO's to show on the calendar at a specific time

At Select Properties, check the box next to each property where work orders should be created.

Next, select a starting/ending date range in the Effective Dates section. We recommend to create RWO’s for only one year at a time in case the inspection process changes.

Click Create.

Works will next display a list of the newly created work orders. These may only be undone at the time of creation. RWO’s may be individually deleted later, however this current screen is your golden opportunity to remove multiple new work orders if you notice any mistakes or decide to refine the profile to include more details. This option is scheduled to be phased out in a future release.

When adjustments need to be made to an existing RWO profile, it is recommended to delete associated future work orders that have been scheduled out (using the View/Edit option, shown in the screenshot above) then modify the profile to include any additional updates. If you choose to delete these work orders, you will have to re-schedule any/all future work orders to include those updates. If such rescheduling is required, be sure to select future dates when scheduling the RWO to avoid duplicating previously created work orders.