Lesson 10 of 10 · 9 min
Measuring and improving
Written by Melek Mehrez, founder of FreeMaint · Last reviewed October 11, 2026
Lesson objective
By the end of this lesson, you can track four indicators after go-live (backlog, preventive share, schedule compliance and MTTR), run a 30-minute monthly review, and recognize the six classic pitfalls of a CMMS rollout.
Go-live is the beginning of the results, not the end of the project. The goals you set in lesson 1 now have a source of figures: every request, work order and preventive task leaves a trace. The question becomes which figures to watch, and what to do with them.
This lesson keeps it simple: four indicators, one short monthly meeting, and the six pitfalls that most often stall a project in its first year.
Four indicators for the first year
| Indicator | How it is calculated | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog | Hours of open work divided by the team's weekly capacity, in weeks | Whether the team keeps up with demand |
| Preventive share | Preventive hours divided by total maintenance hours | Whether work is shifting from reacting to planning |
| PM schedule compliance | Preventive tasks done on time divided by the tasks due in the period | Whether preventive plans are really carried out |
| MTTR | Total repair time (from breakdown to restart) divided by the number of repairs, on critical assets | Whether repairs are getting faster |
These four are enough for the first year. They come straight from the work orders and what technicians record at closure, they connect to the goals of lesson 1, and they move within months. MTBF, availability and costs come next, once the history is long enough to mean something.
A 30-minute monthly review
Indicators only help if someone looks at them and decides something. Hold the same short meeting every month, with the same people: the maintenance manager, the sponsor, a production representative and a field champion.
- 1
Read the four indicators (5 minutes)
Compare them with last month and with the goal. Look at the trend, not at one month in isolation.
- 2
Look at the repeat failures (10 minutes)
The three assets that broke down most often this month: is the cause known, and is a plan or a fix in place?
- 3
Decide on three actions at most (10 minutes)
A frequency to adjust, a task list to rewrite, a spare part to stock. Each action has an owner and a date.
- 4
Check last month's actions (5 minutes)
Done, in progress or dropped, and why. A review whose actions are never checked becomes a ritual.
Example
Six months later at the packaging plant
Six months after go-live, the monthly review takes 30 minutes on the first Tuesday of each month. The backlog has fallen from five weeks to 2.5 weeks, below the three-week goal. Preventive work represents 29% of hours, on the way to the 35% goal due at twelve months.
Schedule compliance has reached 85%, but the review noticed that breakdowns on the second filler had not dropped: two tasks were being closed without the measurement being taken. The task list now asks for the measured value, and compliance is read next to breakdowns.
MTTR on the two filling lines has dropped from six hours to four, mainly because parts are now ready before the job starts. The figures go to the sponsor on one page, the same every month.
Six classic pitfalls
| Pitfall | What it looks like | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Duration underestimated | Go-live set for next month, and no time freed up | 2 |
| Change management forgotten | The software is announced, never explained | 2 and 9 |
| Data migrated all at once | Duplicates and gaps everywhere from day one | 3 and 6 |
| Technicians left out | Choices made in the office, forms nobody can fill in | 2 and 4 |
| Messy data kept | Two names for the same machine, frequencies in three formats | 5 and 6 |
| No pilot | Every problem discovered at once, across the whole site | 9 |
Stalled projects often show two or three of these at once. When one appears, go back to the lesson that prevents it: it is rarely too late to run a short pilot, clean a list or bring technicians back in.
After the first year
Once the four indicators are stable, widen the scope: cover the remaining assets with preventive plans if not done yet, add MTBF and availability on critical equipment, and follow maintenance costs per asset. Review the goals of lesson 1 once a year, and set new ones.
In FreeMaint
Included in Core (free)Where these figures live in FreeMaint
In FreeMaint, the Dashboard shows open and overdue work orders, Analytics › Preventive calculates the Preventive share of maintenance, PM schedule compliance and PM backlog, and Reports › Assets gives MTBF, MTTR and availability per asset from recorded downtime. Analytics › Preventive counts work orders, not hours, and PM schedule compliance only looks at finished work: if you measured your baseline another way, keep measuring it that way. These screens are part of the free Core plan.
Read the documentationTemplate for this lesson
Monthly indicator tracker and review sheet
Excel (.xlsx), blank, with formulas
Key takeaways
- Follow four indicators in the first year: backlog, preventive share, schedule compliance and MTTR.
- Read each indicator next to another one that would reveal a trick.
- Hold the same 30-minute review every month, with at most three actions, each with an owner.
- When a project stalls, look for the classic pitfalls and go back to the lesson that prevents them.
Check your understanding
A few quick questions. Nothing is recorded.