Don’t Waste Your Time Tracking These KPIs

Bennett Fitch, Noria Corporation
Tags: lubricant storage and handling

Deciding which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track can be a difficult task. A KPI needs to be purposeful; it needs to indicate the causality between action and reward; it needs to be able to alert us to any concerns. Effective KPIs show what changes are taking place (altered processes, implementing new technology, etc.) and how those changes are impacting key business objectives (reduced equipment failure, improved manpower efficiencies, etc.). KPIs also reveal the extent to which current legacy activities continue to provide sustained benefits, revealing if the margins are closing in. After all, if we aren’t improving, we’re falling behind.

Lubrication has a critical impact on equipment reliability and, as such, has associated reliability objectives and goals - our daily actions have everything to do with reaching these objectives and goals. To define these goals, we often apply the tenants of SMART Goals.

SMART Goals:

Once these goals are set, KPIs can be used to measure the progress on these goals over time - or at least they should. For KPIs to have any value at all, they must have a clear association with actions that are specific, achievable and relevant. If you don’t know what is influencing a change in a KPI, you may be wasting your time by measuring it. The following list describes a few KPIs associated with lubrication tasks and the factors that make them effective.

 

1. Don’t measure lubrication inspection effectiveness unless ... 

 

2. Don’t measure lubrication route effectiveness unless ...

 

3. Don’t measure the unavailability of machines or production loss hours related to lubrication tasks unless ...

 

4. Don’t measure the compliance of plans for training and certification of your lubrication technicians unless ...

 

5. Don’t measure total lubricant consumption unless ...

 

6. Don’t measure the overall lubrication program effectiveness unless ...