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Maintenance request form template

A maintenance request form is the sheet anyone in a plant fills in to ask maintenance to look at a problem. It records what is wrong, where, how bad and how urgent, so a technician can find it without a call back. This template has a one-page form with a requester side and a maintenance side, a page on writing a request and setting a priority, and an Excel log that works out how long each request waited for an answer and flags the late ones. A worked example is included.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the maintenance request formA requester section with request number, equipment, a box for what is wrong, machine state and priority tick boxes, a maintenance section with a priority guide and a decision, and a confirmation strip at the bottom.
Requester sideMachine state and riskPriority guideMaintenance answerWork order and target dateRequester confirmationExcel log and summary
Filled-in Maintenance request form template: thirteen requests in a week, three answered late
The same sheet filled in with the worked example (page 3 of the PDF, illustrative numbers). Open full size (opens the picture in a new tab)

When to use it

When to use a maintenance request form

  • When operators tell maintenance about problems by word of mouth, and some of them get lost or get told twice.
  • To give everyone the same way to raise a problem, whether the plant has a CMMS or not.
  • To show a requester that someone has seen the request, with an answer target for each priority.
  • To find out how long requests wait and which machines keep coming back.
  • For a planned job with parts and a job plan, open a work order once the request is accepted. The request is the first step, not the whole job.

How to fill it in

  1. 1

    Say who, where and which machine

    Request number, date and time, your name, the area or line and the equipment ID or tag. Use the ID that is on the machine so the technician goes to the right one.
  2. 2

    Describe what you saw, heard or smelled

    Write what is different from normal, since when and how often. 'Fill head 3 drips after every cycle, since Monday' can be found. 'Machine broken' cannot.
  3. 3

    Tick the machine state and any risk

    Running, running badly or stopped. If anyone could be hurt or a guard is missing, stop and tell your supervisor before you write anything else.
  4. 4

    Maintenance sets the priority and answers

    Use the guide on the form: P1 to P4. Answer within the target for that priority: accept it, ask a question, mark it as a duplicate or decline it with a reason.
  5. 5

    Give an accepted request a work order or a date

    Write the work order number, who it is assigned to and a target date. A five minute fix can be closed straight from the request.
  6. 6

    The requester confirms it is fixed

    Close a request only when the person who raised it agrees. If not, write what is still wrong and it stays open.
  7. 7

    Review the log once a week

    In the Excel file, look at the Summary: new, open and late, and the oldest open request. Ask why each late one was late.

How the answer target works

The priority guide in the Excel log

These are starting values on the Settings sheet. Change the answer days to match your own rules and every status recalculates.

  • P1 Emergency

    Use it when
    Someone could be hurt, or the line is stopped.
    Answer within
    The same day
  • P2 Urgent

    Use it when
    Running badly, or product quality is at risk.
    Answer within
    1 day
  • P3 Routine

    Use it when
    A nuisance now that will get worse.
    Answer within
    3 days
  • P4 Planned

    Use it when
    An improvement or a job that can wait for a planned stop.
    Answer within
    10 days

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example (illustrative): thirteen requests raised between 23 October and 9 November at a made-up plant, with the status shown as at 10 November 2026. The names, equipment and numbers are made up.

  • 13 requests: 5 Closed, 3 Open, 2 New, 1 Waiting for requester, 1 Duplicate and 1 Declined.
  • The answer targets are the same day for P1, 1 day for P2, 3 days for P3 and 10 days for P4. 9 requests were answered in time, 3 late and 1 is not yet due: 9 ÷ 12 = 75% answered on time.
  • The three late ones: request 1 (dock door, P3) was answered 4 days after it came in, request 5 (labeller, P2) after 2 days, and request 11 (aisle light, P3) has had no answer for 4 days.
  • All 3 P1 requests were answered the same day. 4 of the 5 P2 requests were answered in time, and 2 of the 4 P3 requests.
  • Request 4 is a duplicate of request 2 (fill head 3) and is closed against the same work order instead of being worked twice.
  • Request 12 is the second gate interlock request on L1-CONV-04 in 13 days (27 October and 9 November).
  • Request 1 has been open 18 days, the only one open for more than 14.

The weekly review starts with the three late answers and request 1, which is 18 days old, then asks why the interlock on L1-CONV-04 has come back.

Common mistakes

  • One request that covers three problems

    Raise one request per problem. Three faults on one sheet get one priority and one close date, and the two that matter less are lost.

  • 'Machine broken' and nothing else

    The technician has to walk over and ask. Write where, what you saw, since when and how bad, and a photo or a tag if you can.

  • Everything is P1

    If every request is an emergency the guide stops working. P1 is for someone at risk or a stopped line. A person who knows the machine can change the priority, and says why.

  • Answering only when the work is done

    The answer target is about telling the requester that someone has seen it and what will happen next. That is what stops the same request being written three times.

  • Closing a request without asking the requester

    The person who raised it knows whether the problem has gone. Ask before you close, and leave it open if the answer is no.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite a professional maintenance tag becomes a work order with photos, location and equipment ID attached, rules route it to the right technician and set its due date by priority, and the technician records the fix and the parts used when closing it.

See it in a 45-minute demo

FAQ

Maintenance request form template: common questions

  1. A form anyone can fill in to ask maintenance to look at a problem. It records who is asking, which machine, what is wrong, how urgent it is and what maintenance decided, so the request is not lost and does not depend on who was asked.

  2. The date and time, who raised it, the area and the equipment ID, what is wrong in specific words, the machine state, any safety risk, whether quality is affected and a suggested priority. A photo or a tag on the machine helps.

  3. A request says there is a problem. A work order is the plan to fix it, with a job description, parts, a technician and a date. A request that is accepted and needs more than a quick fix becomes a work order.

  4. Rank by risk first, then by what the problem does to the line and to quality. This template uses four levels: emergency, urgent, routine and planned. They are a starting point: set your own levels and answer times, and let a person who knows the machine change a priority and say why.

  5. It depends on the priority and on your site. This template starts at the same day, 1 day, 3 days and 10 days for P1 to P4. An answer means telling the requester what will happen, not finishing the job. Change the targets on the Settings sheet.

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