A repair order template is the work order for a reactive job: something failed and a technician is repairing it. It differs from a request form in that it records the repair, not just the complaint, and it differs from a preventive work order in that there is no checklist to follow, only the fault to find and fix. This page says what a repair work order template records, why the findings and the times on it are the most valuable lines on any form the maintenance team fills, and how each repair order feeds the asset's history and the site's figures.
The fields a repair order records
Asset and location. Reported at, by whom, with the symptom as described. Priority from the consequence. Started at, after isolation and lockout, with the technician's confirmation. Fault found: the cause, not the symptom. Repair done. Parts replaced by number. Hours, including waiting for parts, noted as such. Returned at, with the test run. Follow-up raised: a corrective work order for a related issue, or a preventive task to add. Closed by.
Why findings and times matter most
The fault found is what the next technician reads when the same asset fails again, and it is what turns a repeated fault into a preventive task. The times are where MTTR and downtime come from: reported to started is waiting, started to returned is repair. This site's worked example prices a breakdown at 3.4 hours against 1.1 for the same work planned, and that comparison is only possible on a site whose repair orders record the times honestly.
Repair order against request form
A request form is the operator's half: what is wrong, where, how urgent it feels. The repair order is the technician's half and the supervisor's close. Some sites use one form for both; the important thing is that the technician's half exists and is filled, because a site that only keeps requests knows what broke and not what was done. The maintenance work order template worksheet on this site carries both halves.
Feeding the history
File or store the repair order against the asset. Monthly, sort the repair orders by asset and count: the assets at the top are the repeaters, and each deserves a preventive task or an inspection with an interval taken from how often it fails. That is the loop from repair to schedule, and a repair order that records the fault found is the only thing that makes it possible.
Questions people ask about repair order template
Is a repair order the same as a work order?
A repair order is a work order of the reactive type. Most CMMS products use one form with a type field; the paper world often keeps a separate repair sheet.
Should a repair order have a checklist?
Not usually; the fault is unknown until found. It should have the isolation steps and a findings line, which are what a repair needs.
Who fills in the fault found?
The technician, at the machine, in a sentence. A fault written from memory at the end of the shift is half the value.