Importance of key performance indicators in FM

The role of a facilities manager in determining a facility’s performance is dependent on a holistic key performance indicator (KPI) approach and this is important for performance assessment. There are many KPIs that can be applied. However, the selected ones must be fit for purpose and must be calculated, analyzed and evaluated to allow for the future state of the facility to be acceptable to all stakeholders.

A useful maintenance KPI drives reliability growth whilst guiding the choices for improving maintenance effectiveness and efficiency. The application of these KPIs allows the facilities manager to identify issues and helps in selecting the right strategy to support or correct the activities producing the results.

Maintenance KPIs are of two types – those that improve maintenance impact on business performance and those that drive reliability. The KPIs assist the facilities manager to understand what maintenance is doing, what it is achieving and what more they can do to improve operational performance.

Efficient maintenance is doing maintenance right so that higher equipment reliability and operational risk reductions are achieved with minimum resources and time. It is important that when a variety of maintenance KPIs is selected, they improve equipment reliability and maintenance performance and not simply indicate that problems exist.

The facilities manager’s maintenance plan needs to support the business objectives and operating strategy. The best way to demonstrate this is to have a maintenance performance linked to the reasons for the company’s business. To develop maintenance KPIs require the creation of a KPI pathway from top to bottom which connects the operational activities with corporate goals.

This clear connection enables everyone to see the benefits these maintenance activities bring to the built environment. In applying these KPIs, a facilities manager is able to identify opportunities as well as errors. As a result, the facilities manager in conjunction with senior management can correct problems expediently and take advantage of the opportunities to reduce cost.

Some FM related KPIs to consider are:

1)Preventive Maintenance Programme Compliance: This KPI gives a clear understanding of how much time is spent on completing preventive maintenance activities rather than constantly fire-fighting issues. It allows the facilities manager to recalibrate the work to become less reactive. A disciplined PM programme managed by a competent maintenance team will produce results and success may be measured by a 99 percent PM activities completed on time. This may be measured on a monthly basis to make changes in real time and reduced cost.

2)Average Time To Complete Work Order: This helps the facilities manager to understand where gaps exist in the processes if a work order takes more than reasonable time to complete. For instance, a job of few hours takes two days to complete.

It may also be used to determine skill gap within the maintenance team if a plumbing issue takes much longer to fix whilst an electrical issue is fixed on time. This KPI may indicate where work orders are held up in a process. Improvement can, therefore, be made.

3)Total Number Of Work Orders: Tracking the number of completed work orders in a given period will assist in determining the maintenance team’s workload and overall productivity. It can also assist in justifying budget requests where there’s a need to increase staff strength as a result of increase in work orders.

KPIs can answer numerous questions which, in turn, will make a facilities manager to continually improve and create business value. Finally, a facilities manager can help make facilities management a key partner in achieving organizational goals by knowing which KPIs to consider and how to relate them to overall business goals.