Managing Job Requests

A maintenance job request is simply a request for some form of repair work, modification or complaint to do with an asset, infrastructure or service. There are many ways in which to manage these maintenance requests, the two most common being:

• A paper based system
• Or a computer based system

All Requests are usually made to the maintenance department to carry out the work. Some are major faults, and others a tiny niggling issues. Regardless you must have some form of job list. Otherwise you will constantly have people on your back. Let’s call it a monkey on your back. Everywhere you go, someone will throw one of their problems at you, and constantly ask you when you will get to it. Because of this managing the requests becomes a challenge because of the impromptu way they are given to the maintenance personnel.

Some organizations can underestimate the volume of job requests coming through. Ask yourself, what’s the job of the maintenance person when the job comes through? Keeping in mind the volume of requests. People forget that maintenance personnel have to attend to other more pressing issues such as repairs, breakdowns, servicing, preventative maintenance etc… and that the vast majority of their requests they make are of a low priority.

One thing that maintenance departments lack is the fact that we don’t communicate to people and advise them of the status of their requests. Because of this requestors tend to pull maintenance staff aside any chance they get because there is no communication on what’s being done to their request. Communication is key. Letting customers know what the request status will get people off your back. Whether or not it will be done or the timeframe of work. Communicate back to the user so that they at least know that something is being done.

As a rule of thumb, if you have a list of jobs, stick to the queue. Employ a working system, whether it is First In First Out (FIFO) or priority based. Don’t set a precedence of jumping to random jobs just because the user that submitted it is jumping up and down. Stick to your list and work through it.

In maintenance you have the resources to do requests. It’s up to your operation to decide whether or not a requests should be completed. Do this by putting in place an approval process. Add management or key decision makers to this list and have them decide if some of the more major request should be completed. Then work out who will cover the costs. Will it go under the maintenance department’s budget or you can put the request onto the budget of the requestors department? Ask these questions and create a streamlined process.

Be sure that you will get hundreds of requests, as you most probably do already. How do you review them all? Do you have the time or resources to review all requests? As stated earlier maintenance personal have more pressing jobs to take care of. Administering requests is a time consuming process, so come up with a plan of attack. Start at 1 and work your way forward. Don’t schedule and keep it simple. Forget committees and management meetings on each one. The sole purpose of requests meetings are some person trying to push request that benefit them up the list.

By simply having an organized list of requests, a company can immediately highlight a lack of resources to complete tasks. A list showing a long backlists and impossible timelines puts up a red flag. Companies can then assess whether more funding is required to carry out these request, or if more resources are needed to get the job done.

We join MEX Maintenance Software GM Steve Ninnes (Google+) as he takes us through Job Requests.