A practical application of methodologies to determine asset criticality and work order prioritization

Abstract

The ability of a company to prioritize work orders is an essential part of managing work which in turn is vital when it comes to delivering maintenance services. The authors have drafted a tutorial paper that outlines a real-world application of practices which determine asset criticality and work order prioritization. The paper initially provides a background on the estate of the featured facilities department. An approach is then provided to determine asset criticality across an asset register which factors in the importance of each site in relation to the overall mission of the estate. The final step is to use asset criticality, work urgency and a time factor to address work order prioritization. If a company wishes to adopt the approach in this paper but does not possess a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) with the required functionality, they could instead utilize a spreadsheet-based approach incorporating data exports from their resident CMMS. While this paper features data from the facilities management industry, the approach is agnostic and can be implemented by maintenance departments regardless of the industry.