Preventive Maintenance (PM) compliance is an important metric for your preventive maintenance program that measures how successfully a team can complete preventative maintenance activities. In short, PM compliance is the percentage of preventative maintenance tasks that were completed on time in a given period. This snapshot of maintenance performance, used in combination with other maintenance metrics, can help you continuously improve your operations over time.
This article explains how to calculate PM compliance and offers strategies to improve this maintenance key performance indicator (KPI).
How to Calculate PM Compliance
There are two components of PM compliance. Note that only scheduled or proactive maintenance tasks are to be part of the calculation.
- Total # of on-time, completed PM tasks
- Total # of scheduled PM tasks
These are calculated within a defined period of time, such as a week or a month. The calculation is as follows:
# of completed PMs / # of scheduled PMs x 100 = PM compliance
PM Compliance Formula Example
Let’s calculate PM compliance in this fictitious example within the automotive manufacturing industry. In a 7-day period:
- 300 PM tasks were completed on time
- 400 PM tasks were scheduled
300 completed PM tasks / 400 scheduled PM tasks = 0.75
We then multiply this number by 100 which yields a PM compliance of 75%.
What is a Good PM Compliance Score?
While scores will vary by industry, the so-called “world-class maintenance” PMC percentage is 90%. This means that the most efficient maintenance teams are, on average, completing at least 9 out of every 10 preventative maintenance tasks on time in a given time period.
What are the Limitations of the PM Compliance Formula?
As with any KPI, preventive maintenance compliance is just one snapshot into your maintenance program’s effectiveness. It is important to keep in mind that the PM compliance formula does not take into consideration late PMs. For example, it does not capture whether PMs were late and slipped into the equation right before the cutoff, nor does it tell you how late the tasks were and if any tasks have become chronically late period over period.
To mitigate this issue, you can implement what is known as the 10% rule, which clarifies that tasks are only considered PM compliant if they are completed within a 10% window of time after its original due date. For example, a 30-day task would only be compliant if it is completed within 3 days of its original due date; after 4 days overdue, it is not considered complete for that period’s PM calculation.
With this consideration in the PM compliance formula, you will take better care of your assets in the long run. You can prevent problems that could negatively impact their solid functioning.
How to Use the PM Compliance Metric
Preventive maintenance compliance can be used in a variety of ways beyond measuring performance. It can also be used to optimize and improve your preventative maintenance strategy by enabling you to:
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Identify Areas for Improvement:
PM compliance using the 10% rule can help you pinpoint areas of your maintenance operations that need improvement. Which tasks regularly running late, and why? What tasks, if any, are never completed?
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Eliminate Irrelevant Tasks:
The formula can also be used to help you identify PM tasks that simply aren’t relevant anymore and no longer need to be completed, saving time and increasing the efficiency of your maintenance operations.
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Track Consistency:
Use PM compliance to identify patterns in completion and non-completion, diagnose, and resolve any issues preventing consistent on-time completion.
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Prepare for Audits:
PM compliance is an important metric that auditors look for when evaluating preventative maintenance programs, and being found out of compliance can lead to fines and penalties.
Key KPI Takeaways
Preventative maintenance compliance is more than just another metric for your maintenance KPI dashboard. PM compliance is a valuable snapshot into the health of your maintenance programs at a given point in time, but it’s also a trailing indicator. PM compliance should be leveraged as part of a comprehensive and proactive maintenance strategy in order to maximize machine uptime and optimize your maintenance program’s efficiency.