Technician uses a tablet in a room of computer monitors with maintenance metric tool icons.
Technician uses a tablet in a room of computer monitors with maintenance metric tool icons.

11 Important Maintenance Metrics and KPIs Your Facility Should Be Monitoring

Maintenance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) play a crucial role in providing maintenance and facilities managers with the insights they need to make informed decisions and optimize their organizations’ maintenance planning.

Recent insight by McKinsey & Company found that organizations that embrace advanced connectivity and analytics are bound to see efficiency that will positively impact maintenance costs. For example, it’s possible to reduce labor, downtime, parts, and other related costs by 30% by introducing a condition-based maintenance framework. Implementing a maintenance management system leverages key maintenance metrics and KPIs so you can unlock the full potential of your facility and contribute to its overall success.

Let’s delve into the world of maintenance metrics and KPIs, exploring their importance, their benefits, and the most critical metrics your facility should be monitoring.

What are maintenance metrics?

It’s essential to keep our facilities running smoothly and efficiently. This is where maintenance metrics and key performance indicators come into play. Understanding these concepts can help maintenance and facilities managers make knowledgeable decisions to improve their facilities’ performance.

Maintenance metrics are measurable values that assess the effectiveness of maintenance activities. These metrics allow institutions to evaluate and enhance their management performance. They provide valuable insights into how well your maintenance department is functioning, helping you identify areas of improvement.

KPIs, on the other hand, are different as they’re specific, quantifiable measurements that track progress toward achieving an organization’s strategic objectives. Maintenance KPIs are focused on the department’s maintenance goals and help ensure that the department’s activities align with the broader institutional objectives.

While both maintenance metrics and KPIs are essential in evaluating performance, they serve different purposes. Metrics are used to gauge the efficiency of various maintenance processes, whereas KPIs measure the overall success in achieving maintenance goals. The main difference lies in their scope and focus. Metrics are more granular and specific, while KPIs are broader and more strategic.

It’s crucial to understand how both can benefit your institution. By implementing a planned maintenance system that incorporates these measurements, you can ensure that your entire department is proactively addressing potential issues, reducing downtime, and minimizing costs.

Why track and monitor maintenance metrics?

Maintenance metrics hold the key to unlocking the full potential of your organization’s maintenance system. By tracking and monitoring these metrics, you can uncover invaluable insights that drive continuous improvement, enhance equipment reliability, and elevate the overall performance of your maintenance department.

A funnel graphic shows how data is collected and processed into metrics before it is used to create and measure key performance indicators (KPIs). This actionable information is then used to assist and improve plant management, operations management, and corporate management.

The purpose of tracking maintenance metrics is to identify trends, pinpoint areas of inefficiency, and make informed decisions based on data.

Many management teams consider there to be five primary objectives of a good maintenance system:

Ensuring equipment reliability

Monitoring metrics such as preventive maintenance completion rates can help ensure that assets remain in optimal condition, reducing the risk of unexpected breakdowns.

Optimizing resource utiliziation

By analyzing work order data and labor hours, you can identify opportunities to better allocate maintenance resources and improve workforce productivity.

Minimizing maintenance costs

Tracking metrics like maintenance cost per unit and the ratio of preventive to reactive maintenance can help you optimize your maintenance budget and identify cost-saving opportunities.

Enhancing safety and compliance

Regularly monitoring safety-related metrics, such as safety incidents and near-miss reports, can help create a safer working environment and ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations.

Prolonging asset life

Implementing an effective preventive maintenance program, supported by relevant metrics, can help maximize the useful life of equipment, resulting in lower replacement costs and a higher return on investment.

11 maintenance metrics you should be tracking

To optimize your maintenance department’s performance, it’s crucial to track a variety of maintenance metrics and KPIs. These measurements can help you identify areas of improvement, implement best practices, and make better decisions.

Here are some of the most important maintenance metrics that your organization should consider monitoring:

1. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): Measures the average time between equipment failures. By tracking MTBF, you can predict the likelihood of future breakdowns and schedule preventive maintenance to minimize downtime.

MTBF = Total Operating Time / Number of Failures

Formula for mean time between failure, where MTBF equals Total Operating Time divided by Number of Failures.

2. Mean Time To Repair (MTTR): Reflects the average time to repair equipment after a failure. It helps assess the efficiency of your maintenance team and identify areas for improvement in your repair processes.

MTTR = Total Repair Time / Number of Repairs

mean time to repair (MTTR) equals total repair time divided by number of repairs

3. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): Evaluates equipment utilization, considering availability, performance, and quality. Tracking OEE can help you identify inefficiencies in your production processes and optimize the use of your assets.

OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is found by multiplying Availability by Performance by Quality.

4. Maintenance Backlog (MB): Represents the total amount of outstanding maintenance work in the form of work orders. By monitoring your maintenance backlog, you can prioritize tasks, allocate resources more effectively and prevent a buildup of deferred maintenance.

MB = Number of Outstanding Work Orders x Average Time to Complete a Work Order

The maintenance backlog formula is found by taking Number of Outstanding Work Orders and multiplying it by Average Time to Complete a Work Order.

5. Planned Maintenance Percentage (PMP): Measures the proportion of planned maintenance activities compared to reactive maintenance. A high PMP indicates a well-structured maintenance schedule and an emphasis on proactive maintenance, which can reduce costs and improve equipment reliability.

PMP = (Planned Maintenance Time / Total Maintenance Time) x 100

The planned maintenance percentage formula takes the Planned Maintenance Time, divide it by the Total Maintenance Time, and multiply it by 100.

6. Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC): Tracks the percentage of preventive maintenance tasks completed on time, ensuring that your organization adheres to its maintenance schedule. High PMC rates demonstrate a commitment to maintaining assets and reducing unplanned downtime.

PMC = (Number of Preventive Maintenance Tasks Completed On Time / Total Number of Preventive Maintenance Tasks) x 100

Preventive Maintenance Compliance is found by taking the Number of Preventive Maintenance Tasks Completed On Time, dividing by the Total Number of Preventive Maintenance Tasks, and multiplying by 100

7. Equipment Downtime: Quantifies the total amount of time a piece of equipment is out of service due to maintenance activities. You can use equipment downtime software to identify trends and work to minimize the impact of maintenance on your operations.

Equipment Downtime = Total Time Equipment is Unavailable Due to Maintenance

Equipment Downtime is the Total Time Equipment is Unavailable Due to Maintenance.

8. Mean Time Between Unscheduled Maintenance (MTBUM): Measures the average time between unscheduled maintenance events. A high MTBUM indicates that your maintenance team is proactive and is able to identify and correct potential issues before they become serious problems.

MTBUM = Total Operating Time / Number of Unscheduled Maintenance Events

Mean Time Between Unscheduled Maintenance (MTBUM) is found by taking the Total Operating Time and dividing it by the Number of Unscheduled Maintenance Events.

9. Maintenance Cost as a Percentage of Asset Value: Compares your maintenance expenses to the total value of your assets, helping you evaluate the cost-effectiveness of your maintenance activities. Lower percentages indicate that your maintenance practices are efficient and well-aligned with the value of your assets.

Maintenance Cost as a Percentage of Asset Value = (Total Maintenance Cost / Total Asset Value) x 100

The Maintenance Cost as a Percentage of Asset Value formula is the total maintenance cost divided by the total asset value multiplied by 100.

10. Mean Time To Failure (MTTF): Calculates the average time it takes for a piece of non-repairable equipment to fail. MTTF helps you understand the reliability of your assets and make informed decisions about replacements or upgrades.

MTTF = Total Operating Time / Total Number of Assets in Use

MTTF equals total operating time divided by total assets in use

11. Asset Utilization: Asset utilization measures the percentage of time that your equipment is in use, highlighting inefficiencies in your operations and guiding you in optimizing your resources.

Asset Utilization = (Total Operating Time / Total Available Time) x 100

Asset Utilization is the Total Operating Time divided by the Total Available Time multiplied by 100.

It’s also essential to establish a comprehensive maintenance strategy that includes preventive and predictive metrics. Predictive maintenance uses advanced technologies like sensors, internet of things (IoT) devices, and data analytics to monitor equipment conditions in real-time, allowing you to perform repairs only when necessary. This approach can help you further optimize maintenance work, reduce costs, and improve asset reliability.

The challenges of predictive maintenance

Many maintenance teams have implemented predictive maintenance algorithms into their procedures, sometimes relying too heavily on technology to make maintenance decisions.

Although these algorithms can be highly accurate, they’re still imperfect.

False positives can occur when the algorithm predicts a breakdown that would not have happened, leading to unnecessary equipment shutdowns and maintenance costs. In some cases, the expenses associated with false positives can outweigh the savings from accurate predictions, undermining the value of predictive maintenance programs.

A misconception that predictive maintenance is the only advanced, analytics-based use for data can lead to the loss of value and missed opportunities for companies to explore other maintenance strategies. Two such alternatives that use data gathered from KPIs and metrics are condition-based maintenance (CbM) and advanced troubleshooting (ATS), as mentioned by McKinsey & Company.

CbM involves monitoring the ongoing condition of an asset and determining its maintenance needs based on KPIs. This approach requires equipment to shut down for maintenance only when necessary, increasing the time between repairs compared to traditional preventive maintenance.

In contrast, ATS uses machine data and information about previous failures to identify the root cause of an issue when a piece of equipment breaks down or experiences a problem. This enables faster resolution and improved uptime.

Tracking and optimizing metrics with maintenance management software: the key to peak performance

Utilizing maintenance management software such as FMX can significantly enhance your ability to track and optimize maintenance metrics. By streamlining and automating processes, these software solutions empower your maintenance team to make data-driven decisions and elevate overall performance.

One of the primary benefits of using a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) like FMX is the ease with which it allows you to collect and analyze data.

Two graphs show the trend of work requests created per month and trends of all requests per month, both overdue and on time, in FMX maintenance management software.

By centralizing all your maintenance information in one place, you can efficiently monitor the performance metrics of your assets and equipment. This comprehensive overview enables you to quickly identify trends, pinpoint areas of inefficiency, and implement targeted improvements.

Furthermore, maintenance management software can help automate work orders and streamline communication within your maintenance team. This increased efficiency not only reduces the likelihood of errors and miscommunications but also frees up valuable time for your team to focus on more strategic tasks.

To get the most out of your maintenance management software, it’s essential to establish a consistent process for tracking and monitoring your maintenance metrics through reporting features. Regularly reviewing these metrics lets you stay informed about your department’s performance and proactively address any issues. Setting targets for each metric and monitoring progress toward these goals ensures that your maintenance team remains aligned with your organization’s broader objectives.

Ready to start tracking your maintenance metrics? Sign up for your demo today.

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