How do you actually hold a maintenance contractor to account — KPIs and reporting?
We have maintenance contracts but I've no real way of knowing if we're getting value — visits happen, invoices come, but is the equipment actually being looked after?
- What KPIs and reporting should a maintenance contract include so I can measure performance?
- Things like uptime, response times, PPM completion, repeat faults?
- How do I review it?
This is the measurement side of the SLAs and pricing model decisions. Trying to manage on evidence, not gut feel. What should I track?
3 answers
Short answer: what isn't MEASURED isn't managed — so a maintenance contract should hand you a small set of KPIs and a regular report, or you're paying on faith. The core KPIs: PPM COMPLETION (were the planned preventive visits actually done, on schedule, in full?), RESPONSE + RESOLUTION times against the SLA (did they attend and fix within the agreed windows?), EQUIPMENT UPTIME/availability (especially the critical assets), and REPEAT/RECURRING faults (the same thing failing again signals patch-not-fix). Add first-time-fix rate and open vs closed jobs. Then review it monthly against the targets, with the evidence (job sheets, timestamps), so the contract is managed on data, not the feeling that "someone came."
The KPIs that actually matter: - PPM completion rate: were the scheduled preventive visits done, on time and in full (not skipped or rushed)? This is the foundation — miss the PPM and everything else degrades. - Response & resolution time vs SLA: measured from the logged call — did they attend and restore within the agreed windows, by severity? (Ties to your SLA tiers.) - Uptime / availability of critical assets: how much unplanned downtime on the equipment that matters (cooling, refrigeration). - Repeat/recurring faults: the same fault returning = a symptom being patched, not the cause fixed. A key quality signal. - First-time-fix rate and open vs closed jobs (is a backlog building?).
How to review it: - A monthly report against the targets, backed by evidence — job sheets, timestamps, asset history — not a summary you can't verify. - A short monthly/quarterly review meeting to walk the numbers, agree actions on misses, and re-prioritise. - Tie consequences in (service credits) where targets are repeatedly missed.
Setting it up: - Keep it to a handful of KPIs you'll actually look at — too many and none get managed. - Baseline first, then track the trend (improving or slipping), not just a single month.
Common mistake: paying for "maintenance" with no reporting, so you only find out it's been neglected when something fails. Build a few clear KPIs + a monthly evidenced report into the contract, and expect a capable maintenance provider to report transparently on the critical plant. Operators — which KPI actually changed your contractor's behaviour?
Repeat-fault rate is the KPI that exposes the most, in my experience — a contractor can hit response times all day while the same unit keeps failing because they're patching symptoms. Track the recurring faults and first-time-fix and you see who's actually fixing versus firefighting. PPM completion is the other non-negotiable; skipped preventive visits are where future breakdowns are born. Keep it to a handful you'll genuinely review each month with the evidence, and have the consequence (credits) for repeated misses. Measured contractors behave differently from unmeasured ones.
The "monthly report with evidence, not just an invoice" point is the one I'd stress. For ages I paid and assumed; once I asked for PPM completion, response times and repeat faults in a simple monthly report, the service visibly improved just because it was being watched. Keep it few and reviewable — I don't need forty metrics, I need the four that tell me the critical kit is being maintained and faults aren't recurring. And actually hold the review; a report nobody discusses gets gamed. Manage on the numbers, not on trust.
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