A maintenance kpi is only useful if it comes from records the team actually keeps and if somebody changes something when it moves. This page lists the maintenance kpis a manager reads, in the order they matter, says where each is calculated from in the work order history, and gives maintenance kpis examples from this site's worked figures. It also names the maintenance kpi's that mislead, because a dashboard full of numbers nobody can act on is worse than three that somebody does.
The reactive share
Reactive work orders as a share of all work orders in the month, with hours as well as counts. It is the first KPI because it says whether the site is ahead of its equipment or behind it. This site's worked example is 240 work orders with 35% reactive. It comes from the work order type field, which is why that field is compulsory. Read it monthly, by site and by line.
Schedule compliance
Preventive work orders completed by their due date as a share of those due. It says whether the programme is real. It comes from the due date and the completion date on preventive work orders. A falling figure with a rising overdue list is a schedule the team cannot carry, and the fix is in the schedule.
MTBF, MTTR and downtime by asset
Mean time between failures from run hours and reactive work order counts; mean time to repair from reported and returned times; unplanned downtime as the sum of those times. All three by asset, because site averages hide the asset that matters. They come from the reactive work orders recording the asset and the times, and they move slowly, so read them quarterly and act on the assets at the top of the list.
Cost, findings, and the KPIs that mislead
Maintenance cost split planned against reactive, as hours times a loaded rate: the example's $3,168 of preventive hours against $9,273.60 of avoidable reactive hours. Corrective work orders raised from inspections, as the sign that inspections look. The misleading ones: total work orders closed, which rewards closing rather than doing; technician utilisation, which rewards being busy rather than being ahead; and any figure with no trend. Three or four KPIs on one page, read monthly, with a change made from each, is the whole discipline.
Questions people ask about maintenance kpi
What is the single most important maintenance KPI?
The reactive share. Every other figure improves when it falls, and it is the one a plant manager understands without explanation.
How many KPIs should a maintenance dashboard show?
Three to five, each with a trend. More than that and the dashboard is read by nobody.
Can a small team measure KPIs without a CMMS?
Yes, from the maintenance log worksheet on this site: the type, the asset, the due and done dates and the hours are the columns every KPI above is built from.
How often should maintenance KPIs be reviewed?
Monthly for the share and compliance, quarterly for the asset figures. Weekly is too noisy for anything except the overdue list.