Glossary

Work-order tracking

Work-order tracking is the monitoring of production or maintenance work orders from release through completion.

Core Aerospace Operations Execution Aerospace MES and Digital Travelers (Execution Control)Digital Travelers and Routing

Work-order tracking is the process of monitoring a production, repair, or maintenance work order as it moves from release through completion. It records the current status of the work, where it is in the workflow, what operations have been completed, and what remains open.

In manufacturing systems, work-order tracking is commonly handled in an MES, ERP, CMMS, EAM, or related execution system. Typical tracking data includes order number, routing step, quantity started and completed, labor or machine activity, material consumption, timestamps, holds, nonconformances, and completion status. This information supports production control, traceability, schedule visibility, and coordination between operations, quality, planning, and maintenance.

Work-order tracking should not be confused with a work order itself. The work order is the authorization or record of work to be performed; tracking is the ongoing capture and review of its progress. It is also different from a schedule, which plans when work should occur, although tracking data is often used to compare actual progress against the schedule.

The execution layer (typically MES, digital travelers, and associated shop-floor systems) does not in itself make you AS9100 compliant, but it is where most of the real traceability evidence is generated and linked. Its role is to enforce data capture, link materials, processes, and people to each serialized unit or lot, and feed trustworthy records back to the QMS and ERP. Its effectiveness depends heavily on integration quality, procedure design, and disciplined use in a brownfield environment.

How should aerospace teams measure work-order aging?

Aerospace teams should measure work-order aging with defined clock rules, aging buckets, and reason codes, not as one generic “days open” metric. The useful view separates queue time, active work, holds, nonconformance, material shortages, engineering delays, and closure latency.

Is MES required for predictive maintenance?

No, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is not strictly required for predictive maintenance. Predictive models can run from sensor, historian, or CMMS data alone. However, without MES integration you lose context such as product, route, operator, and schedule, which limits root cause analysis, prioritization, and traceability in regulated environments.

Which aerospace machines should be connected to MES first?

Connect the machines that create the most execution risk first, not simply the newest or most automated assets. Good first candidates are bottleneck, quality-critical, or traceability-heavy equipment with reliable interfaces, stable data definitions, and manageable validation impact.

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