Maintenance KPIs reveal whether your program is preventing failures or just documenting them after the fact. Every maintenance team collects data (metrics). Work orders are logged, hours are tracked, and failures are recorded. But data alone doesn't improve reliability. With regard to KPIs, the question is whether that data gets translated into decisions before the next breakdown occurs.
The distinction between metrics and KPIs matters. They’re not the same thing. Metrics describe what's already happened. KPIs tell you whether or not what you're doing is working.
The most obvious difference is that in order to know if something is working, you need to know what “it’s working” looks like. You need goals, objectives, standards, targets, benchmarks, etc. Something's got to be used to compare. Furthermore, all of these represent purposeful decisions, both past and future.
For example, a metric might show that your team completed 847 work orders last month. However, a KPI asks whether those work orders moved you closer to your reliability goals or simply kept you treading water.
The eight KPIs covered in this article form the essential measurement framework for maintenance management within an asset performance management context. They span reliability, efficiency, and program health, giving maintenance leaders a comprehensive view of how their operations are performing.
Each KPI includes its formula, a brief example, and the benchmarks that separate average performance from world-class. More importantly, this guide explains why manually tracking these KPIs often fails to provide the visibility teams need to act before problems escalate.
Key Points
- The 8 essential KPIs span three categories: reliability indicators (MTBF, MTTR, Reliability), efficiency indicators (OEE, Availability), and program health indicators (PMP, PM Compliance, MC/RAV).
- World-class benchmarks exist for each KPI, but manual tracking often masks declining performance until failures or audits expose the gap.
- KPIs become actionable only when tracked in real time and connected to the workflows where maintenance decisions are made.
The 8 Essential Maintenance KPIs
These eight KPIs provide a complete view of asset health, team performance, and program effectiveness. They fall into three categories.
- Reliability Indicators: MTBF, MTTR, and Reliability measure how well assets perform and how quickly teams restore them after failure.
- Efficiency Indicators: OEE and Availability reveal whether equipment is being used to its full potential.
- Program Health Indicators: PMP, PM Compliance, and MC/RAV indicate whether your maintenance strategy is working as designed.
Together, they create a measurement framework that connects daily execution to long-term reliability outcomes.
1. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
MTBF measures the average operating time between failures, indicating how reliably an asset performs over a given period. It answers a fundamental question. “How long can you expect this equipment to run before something goes wrong?”
Formula:
MTBF = Total Operating Time ÷ Number of Failures
Example: Consider a hydraulic pump that runs 2,000 hours over six months and experiences 4 failures during that period. Its MTBF is 500 hours, meaning the pump typically operates for 500 hours before requiring intervention.
A higher MTBF indicates greater reliability. A declining MTBF signals emerging problems that warrant investigation, often before the next failure occurs.
2. Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
MTTR measures the average time required to restore an asset to operation after failure. While MTBF tells you how often equipment fails, MTTR tells you how long each failure keeps you down.
Formula:
MTTR = Total Repair Time ÷ Number of Repairs
Example: If a motor required 12 total hours of repair time across 3 separate failures, its MTTR is 4 hours.
Lower MTTR means faster recovery and less impact on production. High MTTR often indicates parts availability issues, skill gaps within the maintenance team, or diagnostic delays that extend the time between failure detection and resolution. Improving MTTR typically requires attention to all three factors.
3. Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
OEE combines availability, performance, and quality into a single metric that reveals how effectively equipment is being used during scheduled production time. It has become the standard measure for manufacturing productivity because it captures losses that individual metrics might miss.
Formula:
OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality (percentages)
Example: A packaging line with 90% availability (accounting for downtime), 95% performance (accounting for speed losses), and 99% quality (accounting for defects) yields an OEE of approximately 85%.
That 85% represents world-class performance. Most manufacturing facilities operate at 60%-65% OEE, leaving significant opportunity to reduce downtime, eliminate speed losses, and improve first-pass quality. For maintenance teams, availability is typically the most directly controllable component.
4. Availability
Availability measures the percentage of scheduled time an asset is actually operational and ready to produce. It forms the uptime component of OEE and represents where maintenance has the most direct impact on production outcomes.
Formula:
Availability = (Operating Time ÷ Planned Production Time) × 100
Example: A stamping press scheduled for 480 minutes of production runs 432 minutes after accounting for a changeover and a brief breakdown. Its availability is 90%.
Availability losses come from both planned stops, like changeovers and setups, and unplanned stops, like equipment failures and material shortages. Maintenance teams focus on reducing unplanned stops, while operations and engineering often collaborate to reduce planned stop duration through techniques such as SMED.
5. Reliability
Reliability measures the probability that an asset will perform its intended function without failure over a specified period. While MTBF provides an average, reliability gives you a probability, which is often more useful for planning and risk assessment.
Formula:
Reliability = e^(-t/MTBF), where t = time period
Example: An asset with an MTBF of 1,000 hours has approximately 90% reliability over a 100-hour operating window. This means there's a 90% chance it will run without failure during that period.
Reliability and availability work together but measure different things. An asset can show high availability over a month while still being unreliable if it experiences frequent short failures. Tracking both metrics provides a more complete picture of asset health.
6. Planned Maintenance Percentage (PMP)
PMP reveals how much of your maintenance effort is proactive versus reactive, making it one of the clearest indicators of program maturity. A high PMP means your team controls the work. A low PMP means the work controls your team.
Formula:
PMP = (Planned Maintenance Hours ÷ Total Maintenance Hours) × 100
Example: A maintenance team logs 1,600 hours on planned tasks and 400 hours on unplanned interventions during a given month. Their PMP is 80%, meaning four out of five maintenance hours are strategic rather than reactive.
World-class operations target 80% to 90% PMP. The industry average hovers around 55%, which means many teams spend nearly half their time responding to failures they didn't anticipate (read: a significant opportunity target for competitive advantage). Teams stuck below 60% often find themselves trapped in a reactive cycle that consumes resources without improving reliability.
7. Maintenance Cost as % of Replacement Asset Value (MC/RAV)
MC/RAV measures maintenance spending efficiency by comparing annual costs to the value of the assets being maintained. It provides a normalized benchmark that allows comparison across facilities of different sizes and asset bases.
Formula:
MC/RAV = (Annual Maintenance Cost ÷ Replacement Asset Value) × 100
Example: A facility spends $500,000 annually on asset maintenance, with a total replacement value of $20 million. Its MC/RAV is 2.5%, which falls within the best-in-class range of 2% to 3%.
Higher percentages may indicate over-maintenance, chronic reliability issues driving excessive repairs, or inefficient use of labor and parts. The goal is to reduce MC/RAV without compromising reliability. Operations with reactive maintenance cultures often see MC/RAV climb toward 5% or higher as emergency repairs and expedited parts consume budgets.
8. Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PM Compliance)
PM Compliance measures whether scheduled preventive maintenance tasks are actually completed on time. A PM schedule only works if it's followed, and this KPI shows whether execution aligns with intent.
Formula:
PM Compliance = (Completed PMs ÷ Scheduled PMs) × 100
Example: A facility schedules 200 preventive maintenance tasks monthly and completes 180 within their required windows. PM Compliance is 90%.
The 10% rule provides additional precision: tasks should be completed within 10% of their scheduled interval to be considered on time.
A monthly PM, for example, should be completed within plus or minus three days of its target date. Without compliance tracking, schedules become planning artifacts rather than operational tools, and the gap between intention and execution grows undetected.
Why Manual KPI Tracking Falls Short
Spreadsheets can store KPI data, but they cannot trigger actions, update in real time, or connect metrics to execution. Many teams begin their KPI journey with manual tracking because it requires no software investment and feels manageable on a small scale. The problems emerge as operations grow and the gap between data collection and decision-making widens.
Manual tracking introduces structural limitations that compound over time.
- There's no automation, so someone must remember to pull data, calculate formulas, and update reports.
- There's no real-time visibility, so metrics reflect last week's reality rather than today's conditions.
- There's no escalation, so a declining MTBF or slipping PM compliance stays invisible until someone manually checks.
A missed PM in a spreadsheet stays missed until audit time. A missed PM in a connected system triggers an alert before the next failure. For teams serious about using KPIs to drive improvement rather than simply documenting history, effective tracking requires integration with the workflows where maintenance decisions are made, and work gets executed.
How Tractian Supports Maintenance KPI Tracking
Tractian's integrated platform transforms KPIs from static reports into real-time decision tools connected to maintenance execution. Rather than pulling data from disconnected sources and manually compiling metrics, maintenance leaders see live dashboards that update as work is completed and conditions change.
Tractian tracks MTBF, MTTR, availability, backlog, and compliance automatically, eliminating manual calculations that delay insight. Every work order is categorized as planned or unplanned at creation, providing an accurate PMP without requiring separate tracking.
Condition monitoring through Smart Trac Ultra wireless vibration sensors feeds directly into the same system, connecting asset health data to maintenance workflows and turning reliability metrics into leading indicators rather than lagging reports.
Mobile execution ensures that technicians capture data at the point of work, so KPIs reflect reality rather than best guesses entered hours later.
This integration closes the gap between tracking metrics and acting on them. The result is a KPI framework that actively supports the decisions that continuously improve itself.
See how Tractian's CMMS delivers real-time KPI tracking
What Industries Benefit Most from Maintenance KPI Tracking?
Industries with critical rotating equipment, tight production schedules, and low tolerance for unplanned downtime benefit most from structured KPI tracking. When equipment failures carry significant operational and financial consequences, real-time visibility into reliability, efficiency, and program health metrics becomes essential for proactive decision-making.
- Automotive & Parts: High-speed production lines demand consistent uptime, making KPIs like OEE, MTBF, and availability essential for identifying reliability gaps before they disrupt throughput targets.
- Fleet: Shop equipment reliability directly affects vehicle turnaround times, and tracking MTTR and PMP helps maintenance teams stay ahead of failures during peak service demand.
- Manufacturing: Continuous operation of motors, pumps, and conveyors requires visibility into asset health, and KPI dashboards reveal whether preventive strategies are improving reliability over time.
- Oil & Gas: Regulatory frameworks require documented maintenance performance, making real-time KPI tracking essential for both operational continuity and audit readiness.
- Chemicals: Process stability depends on detecting degradation early, and reliability KPIs such as MTBF serve as leading indicators that equipment health is trending in the right direction.
- Food & Beverage: Production schedules leave little room for equipment failures, making KPIs such as availability and PM compliance critical to preventing mid-run breakdowns and product waste.
- Mills & Agriculture: Seasonal processing windows create high-stakes periods when reliability matters most, making KPI visibility essential to protect uptime during critical harvest and processing months.
- Mining & Metals: Heavy equipment operating in harsh conditions requires disciplined maintenance, and tracking MC/RAV alongside reliability metrics ensures resources are allocated where they deliver the greatest impact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good MTBF?
MTBF varies by asset type and criticality, but higher values generally indicate greater reliability and should trend upward as your maintenance program matures.
How do I improve OEE?
Improve OEE by reducing unplanned downtime (availability), eliminating speed losses (performance), and minimizing defects (quality) through proactive maintenance and root cause analysis.
What is world-class PM compliance?
World-class operations target 90% or higher PM compliance, with tasks completed within 10% of their scheduled interval.
Why is PMP more important than total maintenance hours?
PMP reveals whether your team controls the work or the work controls your team, since high reactive percentages indicate systemic reliability problems that total hours alone cannot expose.
How does a CMMS improve KPI accuracy?
A CMMS automates data capture at the point of work, eliminates manual entry errors, and updates KPIs in real time as tasks are completed.
