Fleet maintenance software, CMMS and all industrial or facilities management operations should support some form of unplanned work reporting. The exact format of fleet maintenance software will be dependent on local requirements but it may allow production personnel access to an input screen through which they would report defects or breakdowns.
The inputs that are required during this process must be clearly defined so that the reporter is prompted for each specific piece of information required. Typically this will include the asset number of the equipment or vehicle, the reporter’s name, the time of the breakdown and brief details of the fault, all within the fleet maintenance software program.
Fault details are better selected from a standard list. As well as limiting the amount of typing required, this facilitates the selection of reports for specific faults. When users are allowed "free text" input to report defects there will be too many ways of telling the same story to allow good reports to be compiled.
Some users may prefer that a third party maintenance controller raises the defect report, after having been notified of this by production personnel.
This is common in fleet maintenance software situations where production personnel may be your vehicle drivers. In either case the system will facilitate the listing of all outstanding breakdown work, allowing this to be allocated and actioned accordingly. This may require no more than a single user software package, installed on a PC. All incoming and outgoing work would require to be handled by a maintenance controller who would be responsible for all data input to and output from the system.
The above scenario is really only practical in a small organization with low work order traffic. Nowadays, in any medium to large company, (whether this involves manufacturing, facilities or fleet maintenance), it is more likely that a networked multi-user CMMS will be selected. With these it is better to train all personnel to raise their own work orders.