In this guide 6 sections
A work order is an instruction. It names the item, quantity, due date, material to issue and operations to run, collects labour and material as the job proceeds, and closes with an actual cost. A sales order is the customer’s request, not the shop’s instruction. They are different documents.
What a work order is, and what it is not
A sales order records the customer’s wish, while a work order sets out what the shop will do about it, and the two rarely match line for line. One quotation line can spawn a fabrication job, a powder-coating job and an assembly job, while a replenishment job refills the rack with no customer attached at all.
The old paper job slip held a part number, a scribbled quantity and a supervisor’s signature, and little else that anyone could trust a month later. The electronic record holds far more, because months later it has to explain why the job cost what it did and who touched it along the way. Paper cannot explain that.
The fields a production work order carries
At release the order carries an order number, item code, drawing revision, quantity, due date and priority, and behind it sit the bill of materials and the routing. The routing lists operations in sequence. A quality plan adds first-piece and final inspection points, each with a gauge and a tolerance to check against the drawing revision on the traveller.
Each operation, such as milling, deburring or powder coating, carries a standard setup time and a run time per piece, which the planner uses to load each work centre. Material lines show quantity per unit and bin. Operators scan or key a badge number against these lines, so the traveller can show how far the job has really got without anyone walking the floor. Nobody guesses.
- Item code, drawing revision and batch size
- Bill of materials with scrap allowance
- Routing with work centre and standard time
- Linked sales order or stock replenishment reason
Service work orders look different
A service job has no routing. It has a customer site, an asset or serial number, a fault description, an assigned technician and a parts list drawn from van stock or the store.
Labour is booked as hours on site plus travel, and spares are tied to a warranty claim or an annual maintenance contract where one applies. Warranty status decides who pays. The closing fields are the work done, the parts fitted and the customer’s sign-off, and a service report can print straight from them without retyping a word.
States from draft to closed
Every order moves through states. Draft, released, in progress, on hold, completed and closed is a common set, and each change should record the user and the timestamp so no edit is silent.
Release is the moment material may be issued against the order, by kit or by backflush when the finished goods are reported. Completion is when finished goods enter stock. Closure is a separate step, and it locks the order after costs are posted so nobody can quietly book hours to an old job. That matters at audit time.
- Draft: planned, nothing issued
- Released: material may be drawn
- On hold: reason code required
- Closed: costs posted, edits locked
Costing is what closes the order
At the end, the system adds issued material, booked machinist and fitter hours at their rates and any outside processing such as plating or heat treatment. The total divides by good units to give an actual unit cost, and you compare that with the standard cost to see which operation drifted.
One variance is a question, not a verdict. Ask the supervisor whether it came from scrap, a slow setup, a tool breakage or a wrong standard time, and check the lot numbers of the bar stock. Pick one open job and trace its slip from release to final cost today, then compare each posted hour with the routing. Walk it through.
Work order field map
Production and service sit as two columns on a printed sheet, with rows for identifiers, quantities, material lines, labour lines, states, the completion check and the costing summary. Blank cells let a supervisor tick which fields the paper slip already records, and the unticked gaps show what to add before any software is chosen.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Is a work order the same as a job card?
Often yes. Shop-floor names: job card, traveller, route sheet. The difference is that a work order kept in software links to stock and cost, while a laminated card only records what someone chose to write with a marker.
Can one work order cover several customers?
It can when you build for stock, such as a batch of fifty standard gearboxes, but made-to-order jobs need one order per customer line to keep traceability intact. Two customers can hold different specifications.
Who closes a work order?
A supervisor or planner closes it after checking that every material issue, return and labour hour is booked against the right operation. Closing is a person’s decision. It should never be automatic.
What happens if material is issued but not used?
Return the leftover coil, casting or reel to the store against the same job with its lot number and bin location, which lowers job cost and restores stock. Job cost and stock count both stay honest.