Work orders

A work order is the parent record for the warehouse job. It carries a record number, subject, due date, planned hours, organization, team member owner and asset. Its status moves from Draft through planning, assignment and review to acceptance and closure. The revision gives a reviewer a way to identify the version being considered. Work evidence, assignments, attachments, decisions and operation receipts all point back to this parent.

For example, a distribution center needs a pick-cell reset before tomorrow’s outbound wave. Shift Supervisor creates the job against the cell asset, gives it a subject that the floor can recognize, estimates labor hours and assigns the owner. Warehouse Manager can compare its due date with other open work. The team should review the estimate before submitting zone coverage, since the assignment also carries planned hours.

• Planning. Draft and Planned states separate an initial job from work ready to staff.
• Execution. Assigned and Review states show the job being carried out and then checked.
• Closure. Accepted and Closed preserve the manager’s acceptance and the completed work history.

Agree who can create a work order, who owns it and what makes a subject specific enough for a worker to recognize the task. Choose a consistent convention for record numbers and asset locations. An asset link identifies the facility or handling asset; the location text can give more precise floor context. Decide whether the owner remains accountable through close or whether ownership transfers at a shift change.

Planned hours should represent the expected labor for the job. The actual hours live on work evidence lines, so the team can see changes without overwriting the original plan. Due dates need to be read in the organization’s time zone. Define when a job moves to Review and who is allowed to mark it Accepted. Cancellation is a distinct status and needs a recorded operational reason in the team’s own practice.

Walk a cell reset from Draft to Planned. Confirm the organization, asset, owner and due date before adding an assignment. Move it to Assigned only after the shift coverage is understood. Ask the worker to add evidence with actual hours and a source reference. Compare the sum of those hours with the planned hours. If the job took longer, the evidence should make the variance visible to Warehouse Manager during Review.

Have Warehouse Manager read the attachments and decisions linked to the work order before accepting it. Check that the manager is looking at the current revision. After acceptance, close the job and verify that the evidence and decisions remain attached to the same record number. Repeat with a cancelled job to make sure open queues do not mix it with work still awaiting staffing.

• Work order queue — Open work sorted for planning and follow-up.
• Work awaiting review — Jobs the manager needs to inspect before acceptance.
• Due work — Jobs whose due date has arrived.

See plan work, record work and accept work for the handoffs around the parent record.