Guide
Maintenance KPIs: Key Performance Indicators Guide
Maintenance KPIs measure the effectiveness of your maintenance programme. Learn the essential KPIs — from availability and MTBF to maintenance cost ratio and schedule compliance — and what good looks like.
9 min readUpdated July 2026
Why Measure KPIs?
'What gets measured gets managed.' Without KPIs, you can't tell if your maintenance programme is improving or deteriorating. KPIs provide objective data to guide decisions, justify resources, and benchmark against industry standards.
Reliability KPIs
| KPI | Formula | Good | World-Class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Availability | (Total time − Downtime) / Total time × 100 | 90% | 95%+ |
| MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) | Total operating time / Number of failures | Increasing trend | Increasing trend |
| MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) | Total repair time / Number of repairs | Below 4 hours | Below 2 hours |
| OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) | Availability × Performance × Quality | 75% | 85%+ |
| Planned maintenance ratio | Planned maintenance hours / Total maintenance hours × 100 | 70% | 85%+ |
| Schedule compliance | Tasks completed on time / Total scheduled tasks × 100 | 80% | 95%+ |
| Backlog | Outstanding work orders / Weekly capacity | 2–4 weeks | 2–4 weeks |
Cost KPIs
| KPI | Formula | Good |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance cost as % of asset replacement value | Annual maintenance cost / Asset RIV × 100 | 2–3% |
| Maintenance cost per unit produced | Total maintenance cost / Units produced | Decreasing trend |
| Emergency maintenance cost ratio | Emergency repair cost / Total maintenance cost × 100 | Below 10% |
| Spare parts inventory turnover | Annual parts usage / Average inventory value | 2–4× per year |
| Maintenance cost per labour hour | Total maintenance cost / Labour hours | Benchmark internally |
Safety KPIs
- Lost Time Injury Rate (LTIR) — injuries per 200,000 hours worked. Target: zero
- Near-miss reporting rate — number of near-misses reported per month. A high rate is actually good — it means the culture is reporting, not hiding
- Safety training compliance — percentage of workers current on required training. Target: 100%
- Maintenance-related incidents — number of safety incidents during maintenance work. Target: zero
Implementing a KPI Programme
- Select 5–10 KPIs: Don't try to measure everything. Pick the KPIs most relevant to your goals — reliability, cost, and safety.
- Establish baselines: Measure current performance for 3–6 months before setting targets.
- Set realistic targets: Improvement takes time. Set annual improvement targets of 5–10%, not 50%.
- Review monthly: KPIs should be reviewed monthly by the maintenance team and quarterly by management.
- Act on the data: KPIs are only useful if they drive action. When a KPI deteriorates, investigate and correct.
- Don't game the numbers: If the backlog KPI is 'too high', the solution is to fix the backlog, not to change the measurement to make it look better.
Pro tip: PlantLogica automatically calculates and trends these KPIs — MTBF, MTTR, availability, planned maintenance ratio, and backlog — from the work order data. No manual spreadsheet tracking required.