Maintenance KPIs: The Most Important Metrics to Track in 2027

Tracking maintenance key performance indicators (KPIs) help you understand if  your team is meeting performance goals and if your assets are running as efficiently as they could be.

Having that visibility into maintenance KPIs allows you to see key areas of your operation that need improvement and quickly take action to cut costs, increase production efficiency, and ensure safety. For example, downtime is one of the primary enemies of any industrial company because of how much it costs them. The Siemens downtime report estimates unplanned downtime costs the world’s 500 biggest companies 11% of their revenues, adding up to about $1.4 trillion a year. Maintenance KPIs give you the hard data to see what is causing downtime and the best ways to reduce unexpected breakdowns.

In this guide, we'll break down the essential maintenance KPIs your team should be tracking in 2027 and how to use them for better decision-making.

Key takeaways

• Focus on three to five critical maintenance KPIs, such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), mean time between failure (MTBF), and planned maintenance percentage (PMP), to avoid data overload.
• Pair leading indicators, like schedule compliance, with lagging indicators, like mean time to repair (MTTR), to catch problems early and track results later.
• Compare each maintenance metric against a benchmark, then set the target your team commits to as the KPI.
• Use maintenance KPIs to translate performance into impact. The right data helps you justify new strategies or tools, and prove your team’s value to leadership.
• Use a modern, mobile-first CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) or enterprise asset management (EAM) platform so your KPIs reflect accurate, real-time data from technicians.

What is a maintenance KPI?

Maintenance KPIs (key performance indicators) are measurable targets that show how well your maintenance activities support your organization’s goals for uptime, cost, and safety. Operations and maintenance managers use these maintenance performance metrics to analyze and improve the processes that drive asset reliability.

Maintenance KPIs can measure:

• Efficiency
• Asset downtime
• Asset performance
• Inventory management
• Maintenance task management
• Maintenance spending and costs
• Workplace safety and compliance

Organizations use maintenance KPIs to measure the performance of maintenance technicians, operational systems, and processes. The core metrics apply across industries, though facilities maintenance teams often weigh them differently than manufacturing plants do.

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Maintenance metrics vs. KPIs

Maintenance pros often use the terms maintenance metrics and KPIs interchangeably, but their definitions differ slightly.

Managers typically use performance metrics to quantify the completion and impact of daily maintenance activities, while KPIs refer to the overall target numbers that the metrics level-up to.

For example, one maintenance KPI that a manager might track is total downtime. They may set a goal for this KPI at the beginning of a month or quarter. For example, reduce downtime quarter-over-quarter by 10%. There could be a variety of tactics and initiatives the manager uses to hit this KPI, each with one or several metrics tied to it so the manager can gauge the success and progress of their strategy. In this example, the manager might track preventive maintenance completion rate and inspection failure rate as metrics so they can ensure the team is doing more proactive maintenance and that work is yielding results. So:

• Total quarterly downtime is the KPI and the end goal
• PM completion and found failure rate are the metrics
  In other words, metrics indicate incremental progress while KPIs show the total result of that work. 

Leading vs. lagging maintenance KPIs

Maintenance key performance indicators fall into two groups based on when they reveal a trend, either positive or negative. Leading indicators track what is happening right now while lagging indicators measure the result of those actions. For example, a leading indicator may be parts usage on emergency maintenance work orders and the lagging indicator is total parts costs. You can see parts usage before you can see its impact on total parts costs.

Some examples of leading and lagging indicators in maintenance include:

• Leading indicators: Planned maintenance percentage, schedule compliance, preventive maintenance compliance, and maintenance backlog
• Lagging indicators: MTBF, MTTR, OEE, equipment downtime, and maintenance cost per unit
  

A balanced maintenance reporting scorecard pairs both types. Leading indicators show where your team should focus this week, while lagging indicators show whether last quarter's work improved asset reliability. If you only track lagging metrics, you learn about problems after the downtime has already happened.

For Greg Wortman, Operations Manager at Redimix Companies, one metric outranks the rest. 

“If you’re in operations, your number one metric, in my opinion, is OEE,” he says. 

Alongside OEE, his team focuses on reducing mean time to repair, and he watches hours of planned versus unplanned downtime and preventive versus reactive work orders to see what’s driving both. He also tracks something less common: the average labor cost of completing specific tasks. That gives him a baseline to work from. 

“It allows me to forecast my R&M spend with a higher degree of accuracy,” Wortman explains.

16 maintenance metrics to track in 2027

Without the right performance indicators, long-term improvement comes down to guesswork.

Some maintenance metrics look back at past events, such as completed work and recorded failures, while others show current asset conditions. An effective, data-driven maintenance strategy combines both views.
The following maintenance KPI examples cover 16 essential metrics, with formulas and benchmarks to help you set meaningful, data-driven KPIs for your maintenance team.‍

Quick reference: Essential maintenance KPIs

Mean time between failures (MTBF)

What MTBF measures:

MTBF is the average time a piece of equipment operates before it fails. It helps determine asset reliability and predict maintenance needs.

How to calculate MTBF:

MTBF = Total operating time / Number of failures

Example:

Consider a packaging line motor in a food processing facility that operates for 1,000 hours during a production month and experiences four unplanned failures. A maintenance manager would calculate the MTBF to assess motor reliability and plan preventive maintenance schedules.

MTBF = 1,000 hours / 4 failures

MTBF = 250 hours

MTBF KPI benchmark:

A higher MTBF indicates better reliability. While benchmarks can vary, many industries aim for an MTBF of 500 to 2,000 hours, depending on the equipment type and use case.

Mean time to failure (MTTF)

What MTTF measures:

MTTF measures the average time an asset operates before failing beyond repair. It's a particularly useful metric for non-repairable equipment or consumable components, like lightbulbs, filters, or belts and chains.

MTTF differs from MTBF in that MTTF measures the time until total irreparable failure, while MTBF calculates the time between failures that can be fixed.

How to calculate MTTF:

MTTF = Total operating time / Number of failed assets

Example:

Imagine you have a batch of 100 light bulbs in operation for a total of 50,000 hours. Over that time, 25 bulbs fail and need to be replaced. To calculate the MTTF:

MTTF = 50,000 hours / 25 failed components

MTTF = 2,000 hours

MTTF KPI benchmark:

Higher MTTF indicates a longer asset lifespan. Benchmarks vary, but a common target is between 1,000 and 5,000 operating hours, depending on the equipment type and industry standards.

Mean time to repair (MTTR)

What MTTR measures:

MTTR measures the average time it takes to repair equipment and return it to service after a failure. It directly affects equipment availability and production capacity in manufacturing and industrial facilities.

How to calculate MTTR:

MTTR = Total repair time / Number of repairs

Example:

If your maintenance team spent 20 hours total repairing a conveyor system across five separate failures, the calculation would be:

MTTR = 20 hours / 5 repairs

MTTR = 4 hours

MTTR KPI benchmark:

Lower MTTR indicates faster repair times and better maintenance efficiency. Organizations often target an MTTR of one to five hours, though this varies by equipment complexity and industry.

Getting production back online is taking longer. The Siemens 2024 findings show the average time to restore production after a downtime incident at large plants, across four sectors, rose from 49 minutes in 2019 to 81 minutes.

A mobile-first work order and asset management platform helps technicians diagnose and fix issues faster. For example, in the first year after implementing MaintainX, Ahlstrom reduced MTTR by 90%. Ahlstrom’s engineering manager said: “Since adoption, our mean time to repair has decreased from 580 to 60 hours a month.”

‍Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)

What OEE measures:

The overall equipment effectiveness metric evaluates equipment efficiency and productivity by combining three factors: availability, performance, and quality. This maintenance metric gives you a full view of how well your equipment is running.

How to calculate OEE:

OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality

How to calculate these variables:

• Availability = (Actual operating time / Planned production time)
• Performance = (Actual production rate / Ideal production rate)
• Quality = (Good units produced / Total units produced)

Let's break this down with a real-world example:

Imagine you have a machine that's scheduled to run for an 8-hour shift, or 480 minutes. However, the machine went down for 60 minutes for repairs. This gives us an actual operating time of 420 minutes.

Availability = 420 / 480 = 0.875 or 87.5%

Say the ideal production rate is 100 units per hour, but the actual production rate was 80 units per hour.

Performance = 80 / 100 = 0.8 or 80%

Only 540 of the 560 units produced during the 7-hour operation met quality standards and 20 were considered defective.

Quality = 540 / 560 = 0.964 or 96.4%

When we put this all together, we get the following calculation:

OEE = 0.875 (Availability) × 0.8 (Performance) × 0.964 (Quality)

OEE = 0.674 or 67.4%

OEE KPI benchmark:

The 85% world-class OEE benchmark traces back to Seiichi Nakajima's work on total productive maintenance. Treat it as a reference point, since realistic targets vary by process and industry. As a rough rule of thumb, a score between 60% and 85% shows room for improvement. A score below 60% points to major losses, such as incorrect setups or slow-running equipment.

Planned maintenance percentage (PMP)

What PMP measures:

Planned maintenance percentage tracks how much of your maintenance work is scheduled rather than reactive. A higher PMP indicates a more proactive approach to maintenance, which helps reduce unplanned downtime.

How to calculate planned maintenance percentage:

PMP = (planned maintenance hours / total maintenance hours) × 100

Example:

Say your maintenance team worked 300 hours last month. Of those 300 hours, 200 were spent on planned maintenance activities, such as scheduled inspections and preventive repairs.

PMP = (200 / 300) × 100

PMP = 0.6667 × 100

PMP = 66.67%

PMP KPI benchmark:

An ideal PMP benchmark is 85% or higher, meaning most of your maintenance activities are planned rather than reactive.

Reactive maintenance percentage

What reactive maintenance percentage measures:

Reactive maintenance percentage tracks the proportion of maintenance work that is unplanned or done in response to equipment failures. A lower percentage indicates a more proactive approach to maintenance, which reduces downtime and extends equipment lifespan.

How to calculate reactive maintenance percentage:

Reactive maintenance percentage = (reactive maintenance hours / total maintenance hours) × 100

Example:

Back in the PMP example, 100 of the 300 total maintenance hours that month went to reactive maintenance.

Reactive maintenance percentage = (100 / 300) × 100

Reactive maintenance percentage = 33.3%

Reactive maintenance percentage KPI benchmark:

A reactive maintenance percentage below 20% is ideal. Higher values often point to gaps in your preventive maintenance strategy or planning.

Unplanned outages and run-to-fail practices are still common. The ABB reliability survey of 3,215 plant maintenance decision-makers (2023) found over two-thirds of industrial businesses experience unplanned outages at least once a month. Respondents self-reported a typical cost close to $125,000 per hour, and 21% still rely on run-to-fail maintenance.

Schedule compliance

What schedule compliance measures:

Schedule compliance measures how closely your maintenance team sticks to the planned maintenance schedule. It tracks the percentage of scheduled maintenance tasks that are completed on time.

How to calculate schedule compliance:

Schedule compliance = (completed scheduled tasks / total scheduled tasks) × 100

Example:

Say your maintenance team had 120 tasks scheduled last month and completed 108 on time.

Schedule compliance = 108 / 120 x 100

Schedule compliance = 90%

Schedule compliance KPI benchmark:

A 90% or higher schedule compliance benchmark is ideal, indicating that your team completes most maintenance tasks on time. A low score often points to issues such as poor communication between teams or weak resource planning.

Remaining asset value (RAV)

What RAV measures:

Remaining asset value measures the current value of an asset compared to its original purchase price. RAV helps teams determine whether it's more cost-effective to maintain or replace an asset.

How to calculate remaining asset value:

RAV = (current asset value / original purchase value) × 100

Example:

Suppose you purchased an industrial printer for $20,000; its estimated value is now $8,000. To calculate the RAV:

RAV = (8,000 / 20,000) × 100

RAV = 40%

RAV KPI benchmark:

A lower RAV suggests that the asset is nearing the end of its useful life. A benchmark of 50% or lower typically signals the need to evaluate asset replacement.

Maintenance cost per unit

What maintenance cost per unit measures:

Maintenance cost per unit measures how much you spend on maintenance for every unit of output your operation produces. It links maintenance spend to production, so leadership can see whether maintenance spending and performance is getting more or less efficient as volume changes.  

How to calculate standard maintenance cost per unit:

Maintenance cost per unit = (total maintenance costs/number of units produced)

Example:

Say your company spent $150,000 on maintenance last quarter and the plant produced 1,550,000 units. To calculate maintenance cost per unit:

Maintenance cost per unit = $150,000 / 1,550,000

Maintenance cost per unit = $0.096 per unit

Maintenance cost per unit KPI benchmark:

A lower cost per unit indicates more cost-effective maintenance operations. Benchmarks vary, so track the trend over time to find ways to lower maintenance costs or be more efficient with maintenance costs.

Work order completion rate

What work order completion rate measures:

Work order completion rate monitors the percentage of work orders completed within a set timeframe. It provides insights into how efficiently your team meets maintenance objectives.

How to calculate work order completion rate:

Work order completion rate = (completed work orders / total work orders) × 100

Example:

Say your team had 150 work orders assigned last month and completed 135. To calculate the work order completion rate:

Work Order Completion Rate = (135 / 150) × 100

Work Order Completion Rate = 90%

Work order completion rate KPI benchmark:

A 90% or higher rating indicates strong performance. A score below 85% may signal a need to rethink how your team prioritizes tasks.

Maintenance backlog

What maintenance backlog measures:

Maintenance backlog measures the amount of maintenance work that is scheduled but not yet completed. It helps assess your team's capacity to keep up with scheduled tasks and maintain operational efficiency.

How to calculate maintenance backlog:

Maintenance backlog = (total pending maintenance work / total available maintenance hours) × 100

Example:

Imagine your maintenance team has 500 hours of pending work and 1,000 hours of available maintenance time over the next month. To calculate maintenance backlog:

Maintenance Backlog = (500 / 1,000) × 100

Maintenance Backlog = 50%

Maintenance backlog KPI benchmark:

A two- to four-week maintenance backlog is considered ideal because it provides enough work to keep your team productive without overwhelming them. A backlog exceeding this range may indicate that your team needs more resources or more efficient work order management systems.

Maintenance technician productivity

What maintenance technician productivity measures:

Maintenance technician productivity tracks how efficiently your technicians complete their assigned tasks. It compares productive work time with time lost to delays, errors, or inefficiencies.

This metric is becoming increasingly important to measure and improve as the supply of experienced maintenance technicians diminishes. The BLS job outlook projects employment of industrial machinery mechanics, machinery maintenance workers, and millwrights to grow 14% from 2025 to 2035. It also projects about 51,900 openings each year, so getting more productive hours from your existing technicians matters.

How to calculate maintenance technician productivity:

Maintenance technician productivity = (productive maintenance hours / total maintenance hours) × 100

Example:

Say your technician worked 160 hours in a month, spending 120 hours on planned maintenance and 40 hours waiting for parts or handling admin tasks. To calculate productivity:

Maintenance Technician Productivity = (120 / 160) × 100

Maintenance Technician Productivity = 75%

Productive maintenance hours are the time technicians spend actively working on planned maintenance tasks that support the maintenance operation’s goals. They exclude time spent waiting on parts or doing administrative work between tasks.

Maintenance technician productivity KPI benchmark:

A productivity rate of 85% or higher is generally considered efficient. If the rate is below 75%, it may indicate bottlenecks or a need for better task management and resource allocation. A technician at 90% or higher is among your most efficient performers.

Spare parts turnover ratio

What spare parts turnover ratio measures:

Spare parts turnover ratio shows how often spare parts are used and replaced within a specific time frame. It helps track inventory management efficiency by indicating whether you're using parts efficiently or unnecessarily stockpiling them.

How to calculate spare parts turnover ratio:

Spare parts turnover ratio = (cost of spare parts used / average spare parts inventory)

How this works:

• Cost of spare parts used: This is the total monetary value of all the parts consumed within the given period (in the following example, a year).
• Average spare parts inventory: This is the average value of the spare parts inventory on hand over the same period.

Example:

If your inventory's average value is $50,000 and you've used $100,000 worth of parts over the year:

Spare parts turnover ratio = ($100,000 / $50,000) = 2

This means your inventory "turned over" twice during the year.

Spare parts turnover ratio KPI benchmark:

An ideal spare parts turnover ratio depends on your industry and equipment types, but a higher turnover ratio typically indicates better inventory management. A ratio of two to four is common for many industries, signaling a balance between stocking too many or too few parts.

Better forecasting keeps you in that range and avoids rush orders, similar to how Wauseon Machine cut parts costs 14.5%, saving about $60,000 annually.

Equipment downtime

What equipment downtime measures:

Equipment downtime tracks the percentage of time equipment is out of service due to maintenance, repairs, or failures. It's a direct indicator of operational efficiency and asset reliability.

How to calculate equipment downtime:

Equipment downtime = (total downtime hours / total operating hours) × 100

Example:

Imagine a machine has been out of service for 10 hours during a 200-hour production month. To calculate the equipment downtime percentage:

Equipment Downtime = (10 / 200) × 100

Equipment Downtime = 5%

Equipment downtime KPI benchmark:

A lower equipment downtime percentage is ideal, with many industries aiming for less than 5% downtime. Higher values may signal maintenance inefficiencies or aging equipment that requires more frequent repairs.

Quicker response pays off. Manufacturer Interroll used QR codes and mobile maintenance software to improve reaction time by 15%, helping reduce downtime up to 20%.

Asset utilization

What asset utilization measures:

Asset utilization tracks how efficiently equipment is used compared to its full potential. It shows whether assets are being underused, overworked, or used optimally.

How to calculate asset utilization:

Asset utilization = (actual output / maximum possible output) × 100

Example:

Suppose a machine has a maximum production capacity of 1,000 units per month but produced only 750 units last month. To calculate the asset utilization:

Asset Utilization = (750 / 1,000) × 100

Asset Utilization = 75%

What output means:

What counts as output varies by asset type and industry. It typically measures the work an asset completes (or can complete) within a given time frame. For a pump, that might be gallons moved per hour, and for a packaging line, it can be cases packed per shift.

Asset utilization KPI benchmark:

An asset utilization rate between 85% to 95% is generally considered optimal. Lower rates may indicate that you’re underusing an asset, while higher rates could suggest overuse, leading to wear and tear. Track utilization alongside equipment downtime to see whether low output comes from idle time or breakdowns.

First pass yield (FPY)

What first pass yield measures:

First pass yield is a key indicator of quality and process efficiency. It measures the percentage of products or tasks completed correctly the first time, without rework or corrections.

How to calculate first pass yield:

FPY = (number of units completed without rework / total number of units produced) × 100

Example:

Imagine your team manufactured 1,000 units of a product, and 950 of these passed quality checks without needing rework. To calculate the FPY:

FPY = (950 / 1,000) × 100

FPY = 95%

First pass yield KPI benchmark:

Many plants treat an FPY of 95% or higher as a strong target, though first pass yield is primarily a quality metric that maintenance influences through equipment condition. Lower percentages suggest issues with quality control or process inefficiencies that require attention, such as inconsistent processes or substandard materials and components.

How to determine which KPIs to track

We recommend that beginners track no more than five maintenance KPIs at any given time. Teams that still handle most work reactively get more value from planned maintenance percentage and backlog first, while teams with a stable preventive program can shift focus to reliability metrics like MTBF and OEE.

A short list prevents data overload and supports the small, steady improvements that lead to lasting change. The following questions help narrow it down.

Ask yourself and your team the following questions:

• What specific changes would most benefit your department?
• What specific outcomes would get you closer to your organization’s goals?
• Which performance metrics could you use to measure progress?

Choose KPIs that align with your maintenance goals and overall business objectives. For example, if reducing equipment downtime is a priority, you might track metrics like mean time between failures (MTBF) and equipment downtime. If cost savings are the goal, focus on maintenance cost per unit or inventory turnover.

Your industry shapes the list, too. Fleet operations, for example, pair these core metrics with vehicle-focused fleet maintenance KPIs.

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How to use maintenance KPIs effectively

Implementing maintenance KPIs is only the first step. Their value comes from using them to drive specific improvements.

KPI tracking helps you build a solid case for your next big ask, whether that’s more headcount, new technology, or something else. Our five-step template shows how to use KPIs to get your next project approved.

The following steps will help you get the most out of your maintenance KPIs:

Set benchmarks and targets

Clear targets give your team something to aim for. Start with benchmarks built on consistent, industry-recognized definitions, such as those in the SMRP metrics library. The library includes 70+ standardized maintenance and reliability metrics and guidelines that provide standardization and benchmarks. The full guidelines are available to SMRP members.‍

Example: If your plant sets a schedule compliance target of 90%, track progress against it each month to keep your team on course.

Collect and analyze data

Data is only as useful as the metrics you track. Use your computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to gather accurate information for each KPI, including the asset performance metrics behind reliability KPIs. Run regular analyses to uncover trends and inefficiencies.

‍Example: Track the number of work orders completed each month to calculate your work order completion rate. You can then analyze this data to spot trends that point to inefficiencies.

Interpret results

KPIs show where you’re missing targets, and root-cause analysis shows why. Historical records make that analysis faster. Once Zeta Energy, a lithium sulfur battery maker, built maintenance and inventory records, diagnoses and fixes that took weeks shrank to hours or minutes.‍

Example: Rising equipment downtime might point to aging equipment or inadequate preventive measures.

Take action based on insights

KPI analysis is only valuable when it leads to a specific change. A lower-than-expected first pass yield, for example, usually points to inconsistent procedures or training gaps, so standardizing work instructions or adding hands-on technician training addresses the root cause rather than the symptom.

Communicate results

Report KPI data to your team and stakeholders regularly so everyone works toward the same goals.

Review and adjust KPIs

KPIs should evolve as your business grows. Review your maintenance metrics often and adjust them when priorities shift.

How to track key maintenance metrics automatically with MaintainX

With customizable dashboards and real-time reporting, MaintainX helps you stay on top of key metrics. Below are some of the KPIs it tracks:

Work order completion rate

Real-time tracking shows where work stands at any moment. With MaintainX’s digital work order system, you can track the percentage of work orders completed on time and monitor work order progress in real time.

Equipment downtime

Downtime data reveals where reliability is slipping. Use MaintainX to identify patterns or recurring issues that lead to inefficiencies. Our downtime tracking feature helps you pinpoint problem areas and minimize unplanned outages.

Maintenance costs

MaintainX provides detailed cost tracking to help you monitor maintenance expenses. With real-time reporting, you can improve spending by comparing actual costs to benchmarks and identifying cost-saving opportunities.

Asset performance and utilization

MaintainX’s asset management features help you get more from your equipment by keeping close tabs on utilization rates and performance. For metrics like mean time between failures (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR), connect Internet of Things (IoT) sensors or other asset management systems.

Connected monitoring is spreading. The Siemens industry survey of large industrial plants (2024) found almost half of firms now have predictive maintenance teams, twice the 2019 share.

Reactive maintenance percentage

MaintainX's reactive maintenance tracking tools show how much of your maintenance is unplanned. Working toward a lower reactive maintenance percentage means less unplanned downtime and more productive operations.

Preventive maintenance compliance

Consistent PM completion keeps small issues from turning into failures. MaintainX's automated reminders and tracking tools keep preventive maintenance tasks on schedule. You can monitor schedule compliance rates to keep your team on track.

Work order backlog

Monitor pending maintenance work with MaintainX’s work order backlog feature. This metric helps you identify bottlenecks, prioritize overdue tasks, and complete them efficiently.

Technician productivity

MaintainX helps you track technician productivity by monitoring labor hours and task completion rates. This helps you spot inefficiencies and direct your resources where they'll do the most good.

You can check out real stories of how customers used MaintainX’s real-time insights, dashboards, and reports to see their metrics clearly and make data-driven decisions.

Book a tour to see how MaintainX helps your team improve its maintenance processes.

The final word on maintenance KPIs

The right maintenance KPIs turn daily work into evidence your entire organization can act on. A short list of well-defined metrics shows where your program stands and where to improve next. Those numbers are only as reliable as the data behind them, which is why mobile-first tools that technicians use at the asset matter.

Start with three to five KPIs tied to your biggest operational goal, review them on a regular cadence, and adjust as your program matures. ‍

Sign Up For Free to see how MaintainX tracks these metrics automatically.