Book companion resource · Worksheet
World Class Maintenance Metrics: 8 KPI Benchmarks
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World class is the far end. Target is the goal.
World class maintenance metrics are the KPI levels the best-run maintenance programs hold. In Fix the System, that means PM compliance of 95% or more, schedule compliance of 90% or more, reactive work at 10% or less and MTTR under 2 hours. Most plants should aim for the target column first, and close one gap at a time.
- Eight KPIs, each with a world class level, a realistic target and an action threshold.
- A worksheet below to plot your plant and rank the gaps, printable as a PDF.
- The stage of the work cycle where each gap usually starts.
- A quarterly re-benchmark table, so you can see the shape of progress.
The eight benchmarks at a glance
| KPI | World class | Target | Act when |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM compliance | 95% or more | 90% | Under 85% |
| Schedule compliance | 90% or more | 85% | Under 75% |
| On-time completion | 95% or more | 90% | Under 80% |
| Reactive work | 10% or less | 20% or less | Over 30% |
| Backlog | 2 to 3 weeks | 4 to 6 weeks | Over 8 weeks |
| Inspection compliance | 95% or more | 90% | Under 85% |
| Availability | 97% or more | 95% | Under 90% |
| MTTR | Under 2 hours | Under 4 hours | Over 8 hours |
The bands come from Fix the System, Chapter 4. Where SMRP publishes a standard definition for the metric, the worksheet gives its SMRP metric number. Use the same definition every time you measure.
Read the three columns.
- World class
- The level the best programs hold. Treat it as the far end of the road, not this quarter's goal.
- Target
- The realistic goal for a well-run program. This is the number to plan against.
- Action threshold
- Past this line, the KPI is telling you one stage of the work cycle is broken. Find the stage before you change anything.
Close one gap, at its stage.
Plot your eight numbers. Rank the gaps by size. Then look at the stage of the cycle each one points to: identify, plan, schedule, execute or close out.
Move the weakest-stage KPI from its action threshold to target over 90 days. Leave the others alone for now. A plant that nudges five KPIs by a point or two has changed nothing. A plant that moves one KPI to target has installed a system that holds.
An example: two KPIs past the line.
Original fictional scenario. Created for this page to show how to read the worksheet. It is not a real plant or a real result.
A plant pulls its numbers from the CMMS. PM compliance is 82%. Schedule compliance is 70%. Backlog is 9 weeks. Everything else sits between target and threshold.
Three KPIs are past the action threshold. The worksheet points schedule compliance and backlog at the plan stage: jobs reach the schedule without complete plans, so they slip and pile up. PM compliance points at kitting and the frozen zone.
The team picks planning first, because two of the three gaps lead there. It leaves world class out of the conversation entirely.
Questions planners ask
- What is a world class PM compliance rate?
- 95% or more of scheduled PMs done within their compliance window, in the Chapter 4 bands. The realistic target is 90%. Under 85% means something in the cycle is broken, usually kitting or PM windows that keep getting displaced. Working harder on PMs is almost never the fix.
- Should every plant aim for world class?
- Not first. The step from the action threshold to target is the one a plant can make in about 90 days by installing one system. The step from target to world class is a longer project, and it needs that foundation in place. Aim at target, hold it, then decide.
- Can you compare your numbers with another plant's?
- Only if both plants use the same definition. Two sites can both report 90% schedule compliance and count it differently, for example by including jobs added mid-week. Write your definition down, keep it fixed, and compare your plant with its own baseline before anyone else's.
- What is world class MTTR?
- Under 2 hours in the Chapter 4 bands, with under 4 hours as the target. Compare like with like: a belt change and a gearbox rebuild do not belong in one average. Slow MTTR usually means missing job plans for common failures, or walking and hunting for parts during the repair.
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The PDF remains the blank worksheet. This web guide is excluded from printing so it does not add pages to the form.
Eight KPIs. World-class, target, and action-threshold numbers. Plot your plant against the benchmarks. The gaps are your installation priorities, ranked by magnitude.
Companion to: Fix the System, Chapter 4. Prerequisite: the Maturity Self-Assessment (also Ch4 companion). This worksheet gives you the KPI gaps; the self-assessment gives you the stage of the cycle. Use them together. How long it takes: one hour to pull the data from your CMMS the first time. Fifteen minutes for re-scoring quarterly. What you'll produce: a ranked list of your largest KPI gaps, each mapped to the stage of the cycle where the installation should happen.
The eight KPIs
Benchmarks below draw from SMRP's published best practices metrics, ISO 55000 asset management guidance, and Terry Wireman's benchmarking work. The numbers have been stable across decades and are industry standard.
For each KPI:
- World-class = fewer than 5% of North American plants reach this
- Target = the realistic goal for a well-run program (Tier 3 plants)
- Action threshold = below/above this, the KPI is signalling a specific cycle stage is broken
- Source = the published best-practice reference
KPI 1 — PM Compliance
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≥95% | 90% | <85% | SMRP 5.4.14 |
What it measures: the percentage of scheduled preventive maintenance work orders completed within the allowed compliance window.
My plant's current value: _______ % Gap to target: _______ % Stage of the cycle where the install happens: Identify (kit restock discipline), Plan (PM kitting), or Schedule (frozen zone for PM windows). Almost never "work harder on PMs."
KPI 2 — Schedule Compliance
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≥90% | 85% | <75% | SMRP 5.4.4 |
What it measures: the percentage of scheduled jobs actually completed in the week they were scheduled for.
My plant's current value: _______ % Gap to target: _______ % Stage of the cycle where the install happens: Schedule (frozen zone policy) or Plan (schedule compliance usually fails because plans were incomplete).
KPI 3 — On-Time Completion
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≥95% | 90% | <80% | Fix the System, Ch4 |
What it measures: the percentage of work orders closed within the estimated hours or by the due date.
My plant's current value: _______ % Gap to target: _______ % Stage: Plan (poor hour estimates produce late jobs) or Execute (interruption and walking time).
KPI 4 — Reactive Work %
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≤10% | ≤20% | >30% | SMRP 5.4.1 |
What it measures: percentage of total work orders classified as reactive / unplanned / emergency.
My plant's current value: _______ % Gap to target: _______ % Stage: Close-out (repeat failures with no RCA → reactive work re-emerges), or Identify (operator anomalies not captured → surprises).
KPI 5 — Backlog
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-3 weeks | 4-6 weeks | >8 weeks | SMRP 5.4.8 |
What it measures: ratio of total estimated hours in open backlog to available weekly crew hours.
My plant's current backlog (weeks): _______ Gap to target: _______ weeks Stage: Identify (if growing due to input overload), Plan (if growing due to planner firefighting), or Execute (if growing due to wrench-time collapse).
KPI 6 — Inspection Compliance
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≥95% | 90% | <85% | ISO 55000 |
What it measures: percentage of scheduled inspections (regulatory, safety, condition-based) completed on time.
My plant's current value: _______ % Gap to target: _______ % Stage: Schedule (inspections get displaced by break-in work) or Identify (inspection findings not translating to work orders).
KPI 7 — Availability
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≥97% | 95% | <90% | SMRP 2.2 |
What it measures: (equipment scheduled runtime − downtime) ÷ scheduled runtime.
My plant's current value: _______ % Gap to target: _______ % Stage: the cycle is a whole — availability is the last-stop indicator, usually the result of close-out discipline and identification quality combining across months.
KPI 8 — MTTR (Mean Time To Repair)
| World-class | Target | Action threshold | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| <2 hours | <4 hours | >8 hours | SMRP 3.5.2 |
What it measures: average time from failure notification to equipment return-to-service.
My plant's current value: _______ hours Gap to target: _______ hours Stage: Plan (slow MTTR often reflects missing job plans for common failures) or Execute (walking and parts-hunting during the failure).
Rank your gaps
Transfer your gap values from each KPI above into the table below, sorted by size. The top 3 gaps are your priority order — but weight them by the stage of the cycle they point to, not just the gap size.
| Rank | KPI | Current | Target | Gap | Stage where you install |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | |||||
| 4 | |||||
| 5 | |||||
| 6 | |||||
| 7 | |||||
| 8 |
The cross-reference with the self-assessment
The self-assessment told you the stage of the cycle that is weakest. This worksheet tells you the KPIs that are furthest from target. They should mostly agree.
If they disagree — if, for example, your self-assessment said Q5 Close-Out was your weakest stage, but your worst KPI gap is Schedule Compliance — the disagreement is diagnostic. Re-read the "reading the chain backward" section of Chapter 3. Schedule Compliance looking bad might actually be close-out feeding bad plans through the cycle. Trust the self-assessment's stage conclusion over the KPI's surface reading.
What counts as a win
Close the gap for your weakest-stage KPI(s) to target over 90 days. Not to world-class. Target. The step from action-threshold to target is the installation Part II is designed to produce. The step from target to world-class is a separate, longer project that requires a functioning Tier 3 foundation.
Do not try to move all eight KPIs at once. A plant that improves five KPIs by 2% each has not meaningfully improved. A plant that moves one KPI from action-threshold to target has installed a system that holds.
Re-benchmark quarterly
Track the eight KPIs every quarter. The shape of progress is stage-by-stage, not linear. Expect some KPIs to hold flat while others move sharply — that is the cycle reintegrating. Over twelve months, expect three or four of the eight to cross into target range if you have installed systems against the weakest stage.
| Date | PM | Sched | OTC | React% | Backlog | Insp | Avail | MTTR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline | ||||||||
| +90 days | ||||||||
| +180 days | ||||||||
| +270 days | ||||||||
| +1 year |
From Fix the System by Ivan Getov. Companion to Chapter 4: Where Are You. getov.xyz/toolkit/fix-the-system/ch04/benchmark-gap. Free. No email required.