Using Maximo Work Order Hierarchies to Manage Projects
Mack Parrott, Projetech
November 28, 2023
Welcome to our new blog series, where we uncover the lesser-known capabilities of Maximo in managing unique processes.
In our inaugural post, we're diving into the use of work order hierarchies for efficient project management. This approach is also applicable to scenarios like outages or scheduled downtime events.
Fundamentals
First, some fundamentals related to work order hierarchies in Maximo.
A work order hierarchy is a batch of work orders grouped in a parent-child relationship. They can be any number of levels deep.
Even though there is typically a common theme, there is no required relationship between locations, assets, or status of the work orders in the hierarchy.
For the children, you can choose whether they inherit the status changes of the parent.
Labor hours and costs, as do material and service costs, accumulate and roll up the hierarchy.
Work order hierarchies can be created in one of three ways in Maximo
On the plans tab of Work Order Tracking
From a PM Hierarchy
From the Create Work Package command on the list tab
Sample work orders grouped in a parent-child relationship
Sample use cases for work order hierarchies
A construction project that is performed semi-frequently
Total costs are managed to budget
Multiple resources are involved that require planning and scheduling
The hierarchy can be duplicated on an as-needed basis (or set up as a zero-frequency PM hierarchy where you force-generate work orders as needed)
An outage that involves multiple locations, assets, and crafts
Work order hierarchies bring definition and order to the project and enable efficient scheduling
The total outage costs are managed to budget
Plans versus actual costs can be measured at any level
The hierarchy can be exported to Maximo Scheduler for CPM scheduling
An example hierarchy as viewed in Maximo
Using work order tasks
Planning and recording labor and materials are typically done at the task level.
For greater independence between work orders and the hierarchy, you control
Whether child work orders inherit the status change the parent
Whether child work orders accept charges
The entire plan
It’s easy to see the entire plan of planned crafts, materials, services, and tools.
More Actions -> View -> Entire Plan
Estimated and actual material, service, and labor costs
Costs and labor hours roll up the hierarchy
More Actions --> View --> Costs to see Estimated and Actual hours and costs for the selected work order or the work package (total hierarchy)
Reporting
The out-of-the-box Work Order Hierarchy report displays the hierarchy with a link to each work order.
More Actions -> Run Reports -> Work Order Hierarchy
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