Product Overview

Summary: This Work Order Management Standard Operating Procedure sets out a clear, end-to-end process for raising, prioritising, scheduling, completing and closing work orders across your organisation. It helps Australian businesses gain control over maintenance, repairs and service requests, improving asset reliability, accountability and WHS compliance through better planning and documentation.

Unstructured work requests lead to confusion, delays, and missed statutory maintenance, all of which can impact productivity, costs and WHS obligations. This Work Order Management Standard Operating Procedure provides a consistent, documented method for capturing, assessing, approving, scheduling and closing out all maintenance and service activities, whether they are reactive repairs, planned preventative work, contractor tasks, or minor works. It aligns your teams around a single way of working, whether you use a Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS), an ERP module, or a manual work order register.

Developed for the Australian regulatory environment, this SOP supports better governance over plant, equipment and building maintenance records, which in turn underpins your duty of care and demonstrates due diligence in the event of an incident or audit. It specifies the information that must be included in every work order, the roles responsible at each step, the documentation to retain, and how to integrate WHS risk assessments and permits into the workflow. The result is a robust, auditable process that reduces downtime, improves communication between operations and maintenance, and provides the data you need for smarter asset and safety decisions.

Key Benefits

• Streamline the entire lifecycle of work orders from request to close-out, reducing delays and confusion.
• Improve visibility and accountability for maintenance and service tasks across teams and sites.
• Ensure critical and safety-related work is prioritised appropriately using clear risk and urgency criteria.
• Support compliance with Australian WHS and maintenance record-keeping obligations through structured documentation.
• Enable data-driven decisions on asset performance, lifecycle planning and resource allocation.

Who is this for?

• Maintenance Managers
• Operations Managers
• Facilities Managers
• Asset Managers
• WHS Managers
• Production Supervisors
• Service Coordinators
• Administrative Support Staff
• Property Managers
• Engineering Managers

Included Sections

• 1.0 Purpose and Scope
• 2.0 Definitions and Terminology
• 3.0 Roles and Responsibilities
• 4.0 Work Order Types (Reactive, Preventative, Statutory, Improvement, Contractor)
• 5.0 Work Request Submission and Initial Logging
• 6.0 Work Order Review, Screening and Approval
• 7.0 Risk Rating, Prioritisation and Timeframes
• 8.0 Planning and Scheduling of Work Orders
• 9.0 Assignment to Internal Teams and External Contractors
• 10.0 Integration with WHS Requirements (Risk Assessments, Permits, Isolation Procedures)
• 11.0 Execution of Work and On-site Communication Requirements
• 12.0 Documentation of Parts, Labour and Costs
• 13.0 Quality Checks, Testing and Verification of Completion
• 14.0 Work Order Close-Out and Sign-Off Requirements
• 15.0 Record Keeping, Data Integrity and Audit Trails
• 16.0 Reporting, KPIs and Continuous Improvement (e.g. backlog, response times, compliance tasks)
• 17.0 Training, Competency and Access to the Work Order System
• 18.0 Review and Continuous Improvement of the SOP

Legislation & References

• Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) and mirror state and territory WHS Acts
• Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Cth) and equivalent state and territory regulations
• Safe Work Australia – Model Code of Practice: Managing the Work Environment and Facilities
• Safe Work Australia – Model Code of Practice: Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace
• AS ISO 55001:2014 Asset management – Management systems – Requirements
• AS/NZS ISO 9001:2016 Quality management systems – Requirements
• AS/NZS 4801:2001 Occupational health and safety management systems (superseded but still referenced in many systems)