Maintenance Key Performance Indicators: Tracking KPIs
Paweł Bęś, Logistics and Maintenance Marketing Expert, QRmaint
Posted 1/28/2025
Tracking KPIs
Tracking KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) is crucial for maintenance operations. With vast data at our disposal, we’re able to calculate the performance of our maintenance teams to narrow down all stats from Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Repair (MTTR), Mean Time to Failure (c), and others. It is always challenging to have all the data at your fingertips.
KPIs for maintenance are often converted into time devoted to certain tasks performed by maintenance workers. For example, the percentage of maintenance time dedicated to proactive work (AMP + AMP-initiated corrective) should aim for a range of 75-80%. This is a world-class outcome that allows for a 5-10% allocation for improvement activities and a 10-15% allowance for reactive maintenance. Well, this is one of the many things we can point out when we know how to measure your KPIs in maintenance clearly.
There are plenty of methods and tools to capture essential KPIs for maintenance operations. The more profound organizations go into digitalization, the greater the need to keep data more accurate and track more factors to make more relevant forecasts. One of those offered on the market is CMMS systems, which allow measuring metrics like MTBF, MTTR, MTTR, spare parts usage, and many others. In this article, we share with you what these three major KPI indicators mean for maintenance and certain functions of CMMS systems that allow tracking and tracing them to improve your maintenance performance.
What are Maintenance KPIs?
Maintenance KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measurable values that reflect the effectiveness of a maintenance program. Results gained from KPIs help organizations track progress toward their maintenance goals, such as reducing downtime, minimizing costs, or, most importantly, improving equipment reliability.
I built my personal experience in supply chain solutions working for the biggest logistics company in the world, UPS, in its Netherlands EMEA region. Being responsible for 14 locations for UPS customers in EMEA regions, I’ve learned about KPIs in the supply chain that companies should focus solely on continuous improvement. This trend never felt different from any organization, especially those that operate on narrow margins. In this case, no logistics or production facilities can allow them to let go of control over their internal operations.
So, when we want to explain KPIs in maintenance, it will convert into the data we can gather and use to improve. However, to do this correctly, we need a sound system or a program that allows us to minimize the negative impact on operations and help with data collection. For this purpose, companies are using CMMS systems, which we will discuss in this article.
Here are some common examples of Maintenance KPIs:
- Equipment Uptime:Â Percentage of time equipment is operational and available for use. Â Â
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF):Â Average time between equipment failures.Â
- Mean Time to Repair (MTTR):Â Average time to repair a failed piece of equipment. Â Â
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE):Â Measures the overall effectiveness of equipment in producing output. Â Â
- Maintenance Cost per Unit of Production:Â Tracks the maintenance cost relative to output. Â Â
- Preventive Maintenance Compliance:Â Percentage of scheduled preventive maintenance tasks completed on time. Â Â
- Work Order Completion Rate:Â Percentage of work orders completed within the target timeframe. Â Â
- Safety Incidents:Â Number of safety incidents related to maintenance activities. Â Â
Examples of Maintenance KPIs
We measure KPIs for several reasons. One of those is that we need data on performance. Whether the reason behind this is to avoid costly downtime or excessive spare parts expenses, we really want to know maintenance costs.
It is quite important to do the right job at the right time and not spend too many hours on easy tasks that should be resolved within the required timeframe. All that time should be measured, registered, and added to the KPI sheet to check if we have issues with certain work orders or other activities.
For example, since I work with a CMMS provider, I interview many maintenance engineers and production managers to get a clear perspective on their struggles with maintenance operations. One of the cases I recall was that maintenance workers very often went to do jobs like checking tension belts or gaskets, and the job was always not registered. So, they could spend over 4 hours doing a job that required 20 minutes. Lost capability is evident here; therefore, for many companies, it was clear that they need a dedicated program to measure proper performance, especially since they have even up to 40 maintenance employees.Â
The number of hours we’re talking about here is tremendous. But there is no doubt that maintenance involves taking action before equipment fails. This is why companies are implementing preventive maintenance. And you cannot proactively manage your maintenance without having historical data. It is another reason you need to measure your KPIs in maintenance.
We need data to proactively address potential issues like a failing pump bearing, catastrophic failures, and subsequent damage to components like the casing or wear rings. Moreover, this again helps us avoid costly and time-consuming rebuilds. So, money repeatedly comes up because KPIs are meant to lower overall maintenance expenses significantly.
We can split maintenance costs among these:
- General: The target maintenance cost varies depending on the specific resource and how it is used in the operating environment.
- Maintenance cost per output unit: Here, we discuss a metric influenced by the resource and its operational context.
- Maintenance cost as a percentage of the asset’s replacement value: Here, we refer to a benchmark that is valuable at both the plant and enterprise levels. levelsd-class performance is typically in the 2-3% range.
- Maintenance cost as a percentage of total production costs: Another benchmark helps assess plant and enterprise performance. Thus, there are much larger plants and a much larger number of them. World-class benchmarks typically range from less than 10% to 15%.
- Maintenance costs as a percentage of total sales: We validated costs against the benchmark at both the plant and enterprise levels. World-class benchmark results are typically in the 6-8% range.
CMMS KPIsÂ
It’s time to talk about the solution to measure KPIs effectively. For this, modern production facilities should go further with digital transformation. Today, there is no better solution than using a CMMS system for KPI measurement in maintenance departments. So, basically, we can elaborate more on the CMMS system and tell you what are the key features that support the KPI measurement:
Key features of the CMMS system for measuring KPIs include:
- Asset Tracking:Â Cataloguing and tracking all equipment and machinery.
- Work Order Management:Â Here, we are scheduling, assigning, and tracking maintenance tasks.
- Inventory Control:Â Managing spare parts and consumables.
- Preventive Maintenance Scheduling:Â Planning and executing regular maintenance to prevent equipment failures.
- Data Analysis and Reporting:Â Generating reports on maintenance costs, equipment performance, and other key metrics.
What are the benefits of Measuring CMMS KPIs?
- Improved Equipment Reliability:Â Reduced downtime and increased equipment lifespan.
- Reduced Maintenance Costs:Â Optimized maintenance schedules and efficient resource utilization.
- Increased Productivity:Â Minimized equipment downtime leads to increased production output.
- Enhanced Safety:Â Reduced risk of accidents and injuries during maintenance activities.
- Data-Driven Decision Making:Â Informed decisions based on real-time data and performance analysis.
Summary
Measuring and analyzing maintenance KPIs is crucial for any organization seeking to optimize its maintenance operations. We can honestly say that leveraging data collected through CMMS systems can give organizations valuable insights into equipment performance. For this purpose, using CMMS helps identify areas for improvement and, therefore, reduces downtime. This is what ultimately enhances overall operational efficiency and profitability.
KPIs provide valuable data to track maintenance performance and achieve goals. You should know now that accurate data collection and analysis are essential for effective KPI measurement. I advise considering CMMS systems as critical tools for tracking and analyzing maintenance KPIs.
Paweł Bęś
Paweł Bęś, Logistics and Maintenance Marketing Expert for QRmaint. He is a B2B marketer with 8 years of experience in the logistics industry in the Netherlands. His work included business analysis of distribution and supply chain operations of high-tech companies in EMEA and APAC. He was responsible for directing, coordinating, planning and supervising transportation tasks and internal operations. He is currently responsible for marketing activities at QRmaint, a company that provides CMMS systems for various industries.