A detailed turnaround Work Order is the basic building block of a good turnaround plan. ATC Professional organizes turnaround projects by work order. Planners using other project management software would find sub-projects to be the closest analogy to what we will refer to as a Work Order. A turnaround Work Order should contain the following information:

• Owner name, plant / unit name, location
• Turnaround date (month/year)
• Work Order number (a unique alphanumeric identifier, preferable no more than eight characters in length)
• Equipment tag (equipment identification or inventory number)
• Equipment name (from the equipment list or P&IDs)
• A unit/area/system code to specify where this equipment is
• An equipment class code to group it with other related equipment
• Activities (tasks for every step required from start to completion of the work order)

Every activity should contain the following information:

• Activity description (i.e., "INSTALL BLINDS")
• Duration
• Resources (Manpower and major equipment. Do not exceed three different labor crafts for any given activity. If more than three different labor crafts are required, the activity may be poorly defined and should be split up)
• Number of craftsmen (usually an even number as crews are assigned to the work. Usually a craftsman and a helper are involved in most work)
• Tools required to perform the work
• Materials
• Equipment
• Permits
• Procedures
• Remarks
• Photographs, digitized drawings, isometrics, etc.

You should prepare a Work Order for every piece of equipment, piping item, valve, etc. Never group several pieces of equipment into one work order, even if the equipment is identical. Otherwise you will not be able to schedule, report, etc. each item individually, making your task more complicated instead of easier, and scheduling and progress reporting more difficult and unreliable.

For instance, if you have a group of six identical heat exchangers, E-100 A, E-100 B, E-100 C, E-100 D, E-100 E and E-100 F, each one should be on a separate work order.