Many Public Works and Utilities staff we have spoken with during this COVID19 crisis are staggering work days and only performing critical maintenance. Those with manual, paper processes for tracking Work Orders (including sticky notes and white boards) have resulted to emailing Work Orders to staff members. While this provides initial notification of work to be done, emails can quickly stack up and get lost in an inbox.
Recommendations for Work Order Management at Home:
Option 1: At a minimum, at least use a shared Google Sheet to track Work Orders. We created an example for your review and use if you want it. It should work fine on a tablet but it would be clunky on a phone. To use it:
- Click on the Google Sheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cWaT3fe7-jlj4shNV4xudtuD5n1iZC05iOmeTdzHHXw (it is View Only and you will need to make a copy – see instructions below)
- Login with a Google Account – this should display the Google Sheet.
- Click File (on the top menu) and then click Make a Copy. This will create a copy you can use in your Google Drive.
- Click Share (the green button in the upper right).
- Enter the Gmail email addresses of your staff (make sure they have permissions to Edit the Google Sheet (which is the default – the Pencil icon).
- Note: If they do not have a Google Account, they can create one for free.
- Once the staff members receive the email from you (in their Gmail email account), they can then click on the link you shared with them, login with their Google Account and update the spreadsheet.
- NOTE: I would recommend designating one or two people to ADD Work Orders. Having more than 1 or 2 people adding work orders at the exact same time can get messy (i.e. user 1 starts typing in new work order in row 33 at the exact same time as user 2). Updates are typically seen by other users within seconds.
- NOTE 2: It is also recommended that users install the Google Sheets mobile app on their Tablet.
Option 2: Ideally, use a real, web and mobile Work Order Software solution. Just for comparison, you can view our
ShareNet Municipal Operations Management Demo Video at:
The ShareNet Municipal Software is a robust, yet easy to use Asset & Work Order Management system.
NOTE: The Google Sheet referenced above can easily be imported into the ShareNet Work Order Software with the built in Import Wizard.
Contact Us to let us know if there is anything we can help you with during this time.
