Which numbers to track
Maintenance KPI examples: 12 KPIs with formulas and targets
Twelve maintenance KPI examples with the formula, an example target and the system behind each, from plant results down to the planner and technician.
Plant Floor · Practical maintenance management
Here are 12 maintenance KPI examples, each with its formula and an example target. Three are plant results: OEE, availability and cost per unit. Six are maintenance drivers, such as schedule compliance and MTTR. Three belong to one role each: the planner, the supervisor and the technician. Track the drivers weekly. They move before the plant results do.
- The formula for every KPI, in plain words.
- An example target and who owns the number.
- The trap that makes each KPI lie, and the worksheet that fixes it.
- Separate lists for technician KPIs and preventive maintenance KPIs.
About the targets. They are working bands from Ivan's experience, the same example targets the KPI Cascade uses. They are a place to start the conversation. Set yours against your own baseline.
The 12 KPIs at a glance
| KPI | Formula | Example target | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) | Availability × Performance × Quality | At least 85% | Plant |
| Asset availability | (Scheduled time minus downtime) ÷ scheduled time × 100 | At least 95% | Plant |
| Maintenance cost per unit | (Labor + materials + contractors) ÷ units produced | Trending down | Plant |
| Planned work percentage | Planned maintenance hours ÷ all maintenance hours × 100 | At least 80% planned | Maintenance department |
| Schedule compliance | Scheduled work orders done in their week ÷ work orders scheduled × 100 | At least 85% | Maintenance department |
| PM compliance | PMs done within the tolerance window ÷ PMs due × 100 | At least 90% | Maintenance department |
| Backlog in crew weeks | Estimated hours of ready backlog ÷ available crew hours per week | 3 to 5 weeks | Maintenance department |
| Mean time between failures (MTBF) | Total operating hours ÷ number of failures | Trending up | Maintenance department |
| Mean time to repair (MTTR) | Total repair downtime ÷ number of repair events | Trending down | Maintenance department |
| Job plan coverage | Scheduled work orders with a complete plan ÷ all scheduled work orders × 100 | At least 80% | Planner |
| Wrench time | Work-sampling observations with tools on the job ÷ all observations × 100 | At least 55% | Supervisor |
| First-time fix rate | Work orders not reopened within 30 days ÷ all completed work orders × 100 | At least 85% | Technician |
Plant results: the numbers the plant manager sees
These three are lagging. They tell you something went wrong weeks ago. They do not tell you what to change on Monday.
Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
Formula: Availability × Performance × Quality
Example target: At least 85%. Owner: Plant.
Where the losses hide: downtime, slow running or defects.
The trap: Reporting one OEE number without its three parts. The parts tell you which loss to chase.
Asset availability
Formula: (Scheduled time minus downtime) ÷ scheduled time × 100
Example target: At least 95%. Owner: Plant.
How much of the time production needed the asset, it could run.
The trap: Shifts that record downtime differently, or planned and unplanned stops mixed in one figure.
Maintenance cost per unit
Formula: (Labor + materials + contractors) ÷ units produced
Example target: Trending down. Owner: Plant.
Whether you get more output for each dollar you spend on maintenance.
The trap: Cutting the cost and not watching availability. The bill comes back later as breakdowns.
Maintenance drivers: the numbers that move the results
These six sit under the plant results. When availability drops, one of them usually moved first.
Planned work percentage
Formula: Planned maintenance hours ÷ all maintenance hours × 100
Example target: At least 80% planned. Owner: Maintenance department.
Whether you run the work, or the work runs you.
The trap: Counting every PM as planned, including the ones that were really firefighting on a calendar. Work on it with the planned maintenance percentage calculator.
Schedule compliance
Formula: Scheduled work orders done in their week ÷ work orders scheduled × 100
Example target: At least 85%. Owner: Maintenance department.
Where planning meets the floor. A schedule nobody keeps is a wish list.
The trap: Adding mid-week jobs to the count, or padding the schedule so the number looks good. Work on it with the schedule compliance tracker.
PM compliance
Formula: PMs done within the tolerance window ÷ PMs due × 100
Example target: At least 90%. Owner: Maintenance department.
Whether preventive work happens on time and to standard. A PM closed without the work does not count.
The trap: Measuring closure and never checking the quality of the work behind it. Work on it with the PM compliance formula and targets.
Backlog in crew weeks
Formula: Estimated hours of ready backlog ÷ available crew hours per week
Example target: 3 to 5 weeks. Owner: Maintenance department.
Whether the workload and the crew are in balance. This counts ready work only. Total open backlog runs higher.
The trap: Jobs with no hour estimate, or jobs still waiting on parts counted as ready. Work on it with the Backlog Aging Worksheet.
Mean time between failures (MTBF)
Formula: Total operating hours ÷ number of failures
Example target: Trending up. Owner: Maintenance department.
Whether an asset class is getting more reliable or less.
The trap: No shared definition of a failure, or one average across machines that have nothing in common. Work on it with the MTBF and MTTF calculator.
Mean time to repair (MTTR)
Formula: Total repair downtime ÷ number of repair events
Example target: Trending down. Owner: Maintenance department.
How fast the plant gets an asset back. The parts of the clock show why.
The trap: Treating it as a speed contest. Split diagnosis, access, parts, repair and restart first. Work on it with the MTTR Clock Analysis.
Role measures: one number per person who can change it
A KPI with no owner is a report. These three give the planner, the supervisor and the technician a number they control.
Job plan coverage
Formula: Scheduled work orders with a complete plan ÷ all scheduled work orders × 100
Example target: At least 80%. Owner: Planner.
Whether the schedule holds planned jobs or just requests with a priority code.
The trap: A plan that is a title and a priority. Complete means steps, parts, tools, permits and hours. Work on it with the job plan template.
Wrench time
Formula: Work-sampling observations with tools on the job ÷ all observations × 100
Example target: At least 55%. Owner: Supervisor.
How well the system supports the people doing the work.
The trap: Using it as a whip. Low wrench time points at travel, waiting and unclear scope. Work on it with the Wrench Time Benchmarks.
First-time fix rate
Formula: Work orders not reopened within 30 days ÷ all completed work orders × 100
Example target: At least 85%. Owner: Technician.
Whether jobs are done right on the first visit.
The trap: Blaming the technician for rework that started with an incomplete job plan. Work on it with the Crew Skills Matrix.
KPIs for a maintenance technician
Give a technician numbers they control, not plant results they cannot move.
- First-time fix rate. Work orders not reopened within 30 days ÷ all completed × 100. Example target: at least 85%.
- Work order feedback quality. Audit a sample of closed work orders. Score each for failure code, cause code, action taken and conditions found. Example target: at least 90% scored complete.
- Safety observations submitted. Near misses and hazard reports per technician per week. Example target: at least 1 per technician per week. Watch the trend, not the count.
Feedback quality is the one most plants skip. "Fixed it" in the notes leaves the reliability engineer guessing. The close-out notes guide shows what a useful note looks like.
Preventive maintenance KPIs
- PM compliance. PMs done within the tolerance window ÷ PMs due × 100. Example target: at least 90%.
- PM tasks reviewed. PM tasks changed, added or deleted after a review, counted from the CMMS. Example target: at least 20 per month.
- Planned work percentage. Planned maintenance hours ÷ all maintenance hours × 100. Example target: at least 80% planned.
Track compliance and review together. High compliance on a PM list nobody has looked at in years means you are on time with the wrong work.
A worked example: one week of schedule compliance
Original fictional scenario. Created for this page to show the arithmetic. It is not a real plant or a real result.
The planner freezes 40 work orders for the week. By Friday, 32 of them are done. Three emergency jobs came in on Wednesday and got done too.
Schedule compliance = 32 ÷ 40 × 100 = 80%. The three emergency jobs stay out of the count. They were never on the schedule.
80% is under the example target of 85%, so the planner opens the 8 misses. Four were waiting on parts. Three were bumped by the emergency jobs. One had no access to the machine.
Now the number points somewhere. Four of eight misses were parts, so the next fix is kitting, not a talk with the crew.
How to pick which KPIs to track
Start from the result the plant cares about most. Pick the two or three drivers under it. Then give each role one number it controls. That is a cascade, and it keeps a dashboard to a size people will read.
The KPI Cascade does this for you: pick a plant result and it traces the drivers and role measures under it. To lay out the board itself, use the maintenance KPI dashboard builder.
Questions planners ask
How many maintenance KPIs should you track?
Fewer than you think. One plant result, the two or three drivers under it, and one number per role. A board of 30 KPIs gets read by nobody. If a KPI has no owner who can act on it this week, take it off the weekly review and keep it in the monthly one.
What is the difference between leading and lagging maintenance KPIs?
Lagging KPIs report the outcome: OEE, availability, cost per unit. Leading KPIs move first: schedule compliance, PM compliance, job plan coverage, backlog. If you only watch the lagging ones, you find out about a problem after it has cost you. Review the leading ones every week.
What is a good KPI for a maintenance technician?
First-time fix rate, work order feedback quality and safety observations. All three are numbers a technician controls on their own shift. Avoid giving technicians plant results such as OEE. They cannot move them alone, and a number you cannot move teaches people to ignore numbers.
Where do the example targets come from?
They are working bands from Ivan's experience, used in the KPI Cascade. Standard definitions for many of these metrics are published by SMRP, the Society for Maintenance and Reliability Professionals. Write down your definition, measure a baseline for a few weeks, then set a target you can defend. For benchmark ranges, see the world class maintenance metrics worksheet.
Related reading
Want to see why one KPI is red? The KPI System Map traces it back to the systems behind it, in the order you can fix them.
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