Parent, child, task and follow-up work orders in Maximo

Maximo gives us several ways to connect pieces of work. Parent, child, task and follow-up work orders can look similar on screen, but they describe different relationships.

The easiest way to choose between them is to ask what you are trying to express:

That last column is the useful bit. The relationship should describe how the work will be planned and managed, not simply the order in which someone noticed it.

Parent work orders coordinate a hierarchy

A parent work order sits above one or more child work orders. It gives the hierarchy a common point from which planners and supervisors can see the overall job.

For example, a parent called Annual compressor overhaul might coordinate separate mechanical, electrical and inspection work orders. The parent can carry the overall description, responsibility and schedule while the children hold the detail for each team.

A parent does not have to be an empty administrative wrapper. It can contain planned or actual work of its own, but it is often clearer to keep the parent focused on coordination when the real execution happens in the children.

Use a parent when you need to:

• group several work orders into one job or shutdown;
• view the work as a hierarchy;
• coordinate dates and responsibility across teams; or
• review costs for the current record and the records beneath it.

Maximo exposes costs for an individual work order separately from its View Hierarchy Grand Totals, which include records below it in the hierarchy. This makes the parent useful for oversight without hiding the detail held by each child.

Child work orders are jobs in their own right

A child work order belongs to a parent hierarchy but remains a work order of its own. It has its own work order number and can carry its own description, owner, plans, assignments, actuals and status.

Choose a child rather than a task when the work needs to stand on its own operationally. That might be because:

• a different team owns it;
• it needs a separate schedule or approval;
• it needs its own job plan, permits or attachments;
• its actual costs need to be visible separately; or
• people need to search, report on or integrate it as a distinct job.

A child has one direct parent, but it can also become a parent to another level of children. That lets you build a hierarchy for a large project without trying to fit every activity into one record.

Status behaviour deserves a check in your own environment. Maximo actions can offer to apply a status change to tasks or children, and some products and configurations enforce additional hierarchy rules. Do not assume that completing a parent will always produce the exact cascade your process expects; test the status transitions you intend to use.

Tasks are steps inside the job

A task represents an operation within a work order. Tasks are useful when the work should remain part of one managed job but the team still needs a sequence, responsibility or planned resources for each step.

A pump repair might contain tasks such as:

1. isolate and lock out the pump;
2. remove the coupling guard;
3. replace the mechanical seal;
4. align the coupling; and
5. test and return the pump to service.

Those steps contribute to the same repair. Creating five independent child work orders would add ownership and lifecycle overhead without necessarily making the work clearer.

Tasks are more capable than a simple checklist line. Maximo can hold task-level responsibility, assignments, labor, materials, tools, services and status information. Use them when that detail helps execute the work but a separate work order would be unnecessary.

If a step grows into a separately scheduled job, needs another team or must survive independently of the current work order, it is probably a child work order rather than a task.

Follow-up work orders capture newly discovered work

A follow-up work order records additional work discovered while dealing with an existing record. Maximo keeps an originator and follow-up relationship between the records, but the follow-up is not placed beneath the original work order in the same hierarchy.

That difference matters. A follow-up remains traceable to the work that revealed it, while its costs do not roll into the original hierarchy's parent totals. It can be planned and completed on its own timetable.

Use a follow-up when:

• the current job can finish without completing the new work;
• the new work needs separate review, prioritisation or scheduling;
• the discovery is related, but it is not part of the original scope; or
• placing it in the current hierarchy would distort that job's cost or progress.

For example, a technician replacing a pump seal might notice corrosion on a nearby support. The seal replacement can still be completed, so the corrosion repair becomes follow-up work. The relationship preserves how it was discovered without turning it into part of the seal-replacement hierarchy.

When Maximo creates a follow-up, it can copy useful context from the originator, such as the asset, location and general ledger account. The exact fields and available actions vary by Maximo version and application, so check the new record rather than assuming every value was carried across.

One example using all four

Imagine a planned shutdown to overhaul a cooling-water pump:

Parent: Cooling-water pump shutdown
├── Child: Mechanically isolate the pump
├── Child: Replace the pump seal
│   ├── Task: Remove coupling guard
│   ├── Task: Replace seal
│   └── Task: Align coupling
└── Child: Complete electrical safety tests
 
Follow-up: Repair corrosion on the adjacent pipe support

The parent coordinates the shutdown. Each child is a separately owned job. The tasks break the seal replacement into executable steps. The corrosion repair is linked as follow-up work because it was discovered during the shutdown but can be assessed and scheduled separately.

A quick way to choose

Ask these questions in order:

1. Is this another step in the same job? Use a task.
2. Does it need to be managed separately but remain part of the same overall job? Use a child work order.
3. Does it coordinate several work orders? Make it the parent.
4. Was it discovered from this work but belongs outside the current scope or hierarchy? Create follow-up work.

If the answer is still unclear, think about reporting. Decide whether its status, ownership and costs should appear as part of the current hierarchy or as a separately related job. That usually reveals the right relationship.

References

• IBM: Costs on tickets and work orders
• IBM: Assigning a parent to a work order
• IBM: Work Orders application
• IBM: Record relationships and work orders