EAM work orders outline upcoming maintenance. After the work is complete, the system or users update the work order with summary information. By the time it closes, a work order contains valuable data for historical reporting and analysis.

Work orders can contain information on the equipment ID, a statement of work to be done, any precautions, the employees responsible for doing the labor, the scheduling information, the expense accounting structure, and the recipient of the expense.

When the work is complete, technicians can record the type of failure that caused the event and the type of repair made. They can associate it with specific systems or assemblies on the piece of equipment for clearer definitions of where the problem occurred. They can record the amount of downtime that was associated with the event and the amount of labor that was required to repair the problems.