Every organization and its people are driven by goals and targets which are measured against some key metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicator). Metrics are an important measurement to track organizational performance over time. Though they still need to be paired with higher level strategy, they can help us understand trends in our operations and ensure steady quality and efficiency if measured correctly and frequently.
It is also recommended to invest in digital platforms that help connect these dots to help you optimize business efficiency, avoiding time consuming data sanitization, spreadsheet transfers and deciphering of paper logs.
Choosing your metrics is an iterative activity and there are many to pick from dependent on the department you ask. The responses will vary from engineering teams to reliability, maintenance and asset lifecycle management. Even if chosen, monitored and evaluated, there are chances of them being suboptimal or only partially useful at the current time, and in such cases it is important to reevaluate the original business questions and take lessons learned.
Without further ado, below are you will find common and proven key maintenance metrics you should consider to optimize your maintenance and asset management operations:
Equipment Downtime
is a measure of time an equipment is non-operational. This includes both unplanned and planned downtime duration. A lower equipment downtime indicates higher effectiveness of the equipment.
Maintenance Backlog
is a metric calculated as the amount of time with a set of maintenance workers required to complete all pending maintenance tasks. This could be both preventive and corrective maintenance task. Having no backlog indicates overstaffing. Organizations should not aim for no backlog at all, rather for manageable number of backlogs to distribute workload proportionally over a period and set of maintenance professionals. As each business is unique, therefore it is important to clearly understand and agree with the team and other stakeholders and accordingly set benchmark for maintenance backlog.
Wrench Time
is the time your maintenance professionals spend on actual repair tasks against their total working hours. This is also called as Hands on tool time. A higher wrench time means more time on average is being spent on actual repair tasks. Average wrench time across manufacturing companies is 35% and world class level is 55%.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
is a measure of an equipment´s level of productivity. OEE is calculated as a combination of availability, performance and quality. It means that an OEE of 100% means that an asset is fully available and never breaks down, is performing at its highest speed and doesn´t produce even a single defective item. This metric helps identify the underperforming assets and the underlying issue(availability/performance/quality) to fix.
Planned Maintenance Percentage (PPC)
also sometimes referred to as PMP is the measure of planned maintenance time vs total maintenance time planned und unplanned together. A lower PPC is a result of less time being spent on planned maintenance tasks. This could be further due to poor preventive maintenance planning or frequent issues with assets resulting in more time being spent on corrective maintenance.
Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
is the time starting from when a repair starts until the operations have been restored, this is after testing if any required. This time starts the moment issue has been identified and the technician has been notified. The lower the MTTR means the faster the organization is in responding to breakdowns and fixing them. As during this time the equipment being fixed is nonoperational resulting in loss of production and hence business, organizations should always aim at reducing the mean time to repair.
Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
As the name suggests, it is a measure of the duration that an equipment operates without failure or interruptions. Higher MTBF indicates higher availability and reliability of the equipment. It is important to note that MTBF is applicable to repairable items only.
Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC)
is measure of completed preventive maintenance tasks as a percentage of planned preventive maintenance tasks. Higher PMC means that your organization is highly compliant to the planned maintenance schedule and your PM compliance program is working.
There are several other metrics such as RAV, schedule compliance, maintenance overtime and so on which are also important metrics to watch out and could be relevant for your operations. As mentioned already, choosing the right metrics is an iterative process and dependent on your business, the assets you manage, the resources, engineering and operations teams as well as your overall business objectives.
If you are interested in exploring digital solutions or services that could help you monitor important maintenance metrics, reach out to us and we will be happy to support you.
