All Member Open Forum

The CMMS Work Identification Process is a important foundation of an effective maintenance and reliability program; because it ensures that every problem, whether a deficiency, an abnormal condition, an improvement opportunity, or an issue discovered during PM, PdM, or operator care rounds, is captured, described, and prioritized in a consistent and actionable way.

The process begins the moment someone notices that an asset needs attention, but this simple statement raises a critical question: how well are operators and technicians trained to recognize a problem in the first place?

How does your team identify defects and problems?

------------------------------
Terry Alexander
Sr. Reliability Engineer
Life Cycle Engineering
Charleston SC
------------------------------

Work identification is the 1st step and trades are well trained to identify and be proactive for the next steps.

------------------------------
Parminder Bhalla
MAINTENANCE and Facilities MANAGER
Olam Food Ingredients
Brampton ON
------------------------------

Thank you for your response. I'm glad you have trained your team. You are absolutely correct as defect identification is the first step. Please take a look at my library posting for my full article. Having a process is place is a best practice. 

------------------------------
Terry Alexander
Sr. Reliability Engineer
Life Cycle Engineering
Charleston SC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-21-2026 06:11 AM
From: Parminder Bhalla
Subject: The CMMS Work Identification Process is a important foundation of an effective maintenance and reliability program

Work identification is the 1st step and trades are well trained to identify and be proactive for the next steps.

------------------------------
Parminder Bhalla
MAINTENANCE and Facilities MANAGER
Olam Food Ingredients
Brampton ON
------------------------------

Simple answer is they are trained as well as you trained them. The key is setting a culture where operators feel heard and technicians understand proactive approaches to maintenance. If you want silent operators make sure they never get responded too.  

------------------------------
VERNON WELCH
Midland TX
------------------------------

Greetings Vernon and thank you for your response. I fully agree, culture is very important to have a successful program. You noted one of the most important aspects that can impact cultural trends. Communication with the creator is so important. The planning team I lead took on the responsibility to ensure the creator of the work request was fully communicated with throughout the progression. Including, when the request was a duplicate or was previously corrected. The planning team would swing by the creator to verify the issue at hand was really the same as a duplicate or actually was a new problem. It really is amazing to see how operators and individuals will start to identify problems when they know that they are getting good feedback and support to correct those problems. 
thanks again. 
Terry 

------------------------------
Terry Alexander
Sr. Reliability Engineer
Life Cycle Engineering
Charleston SC
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 07-22-2026 07:46 PM
From: VERNON WELCH
Subject: The CMMS Work Identification Process is a important foundation of an effective maintenance and reliability program

Simple answer is they are trained as well as you trained them. The key is setting a culture where operators feel heard and technicians understand proactive approaches to maintenance. If you want silent operators make sure they never get responded too.  

------------------------------
VERNON WELCH
Midland TX
------------------------------