WORK ORDERS AND REQUESTS
Contents |
Introduction
Work Orders are created to facilitate business relationships between service
organizations and customers. Customers describe specific requests for services
that are to be fulfilled by the service organization in Work Orders. Other details,
such as due dates, billing information and special instructions may also be
provided.
This module has been designed for use in conjunction with other business and
support modules in PPDM version 3.6. Important relationships with projects,
electronic information and product management, seismic, wells etc. are
described in this reference guide.
Business Process Overview
Purpose
The Work Order module provides a mechanism for describing work requests from customer to service organization.
Description
Increasing recognition of the value in business specialization has encouraged the
creation of a new generation of service organizations. Exploration and
Production (E&P) Companies now outsource many functions that for many years
were managed internally. For example, brokerage searches, seismic processing,
records management, tape copying and help desk support are all functions that
today are commonly supported by service companies.
Both customer and service provider require a mechanism for tracking the work
that is requested. This allows the customer to ensure that a request is
documented and fulfilled correctly, and gives the service provider backup for
billing purposes. Although these documents are referenced using many names,
Work Order is the most common. A Work Order is simply a document that
describes work or service to be provided, due dates, shipping information and
billing information. In many countries, a Work Order is actually a type of
contract and is legally binding.
The requirements of the Work Order for services may be called obligations; in
some business practices it is useful to list the obligations that are incurred by the
service provider (tasks to be done) or customer (fees to be paid). While most
organizations have an accounting package that tracks details of payments, it is
useful to provide a pointer from the Work Order into the accounting system (as
an AFE or cost center number).
From the service company’s point of view, the Work Order is used to initiate a
series of activities. In PPDM, these activities are grouped together as a project.
High-level project plans or templates can be designed to support each type of
Work Order; these plans are associated with specific projects created for each
Work Order.
Inter-relationships between service organizations can make fulfilling a work
order complex. For example, a service company handling tape-copying services
may not send a copied tape to the client, but to another service company for
additional handling. Capturing the relationships between Work Orders both
within an organization and with external organizations is consequently an
important component of service operations. In fact, many Work Orders are
fulfilled without any products ever reaching an employee of the client
organization.
In PPDM 3.6, the Work Order support module is not intended for stand-alone
implementation; many other components are necessary to provide robust support
for work order management.
