Patent ID: 6941514

Claim:
A system for managing work orders using priorities, comprising: a work-order entry computer for entering a plurality of work-orders; a database management system coupled to the work-order entry computer for storing work-order information related to the plurality of work orders; a work order management computer; a time estimation process executing on the work order management computer for assigning a time estimate to each work order entered, the time estimate corresponding to the time estimated to be required to complete the work order; a priority assigning process executing on the work order management computer which a user can use to assign a priority to at least one of the plurality of entered work orders, the priority assigning process allocating to each engineer a pre-determined number of priorities for a pre-determined number of priority levels; the priority assigning process tracking a remaining number of priorities at each priority level for each engineer, and when the remaining number of priorities for a particular priority level is zero, then the priority assigning process not permitting an engineer to assign another work order to that particular priority level; the priority assigning process permitting the engineer to borrow priorities from other engineers, wherein when the engineer has no remaining priorities in that particular priority level, then the priority assigning process permits the engineer to negotiate with the other engineers to borrow a priority in that particular priority level, the priority assigning process querying to determine whether another engineer may loan a priority; and a graphical user interface executing on the work order management computer in which a user can update at least a portion of the work-order information stored in the database management system.