The Transformation of Data-Driven Management
Maintenance management has evolved drastically in recent decades. We have moved from a model based purely on repairing breakdowns when they occurred, to preventive models and, more recently, predictive ones. However, to successfully make this transition, a profound shift in mindset is necessary: stop viewing maintenance as an unavoidable cost center and start managing it as a strategic area that adds value and sustainability to the organization.
To achieve this shift, data is the essential fuel. A chief financial officer does not make decisions based on hunches, but on balance sheets and auditable income statements. Similarly, an infrastructure or urban asset manager should not make decisions about equipment renewal or personnel allocation based solely on empirical experience or feelings. They need Key Performance Indicators, universally known by their acronym KPIs.
The fundamental problem facing many companies and public administrations is that calculating these indicators manually, using paper work orders or disconnected spreadsheets, is a titanic task prone to human error. This is where Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software like Maptainer becomes an irreplaceable tool. By digitizing the workflow, the system collects data in real-time and calculates these metrics automatically, freeing managers from the administrative burden. Below, we analyze the five most critical indicators for the operational health of your infrastructure.
1. Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
MTTR is possibly the most direct indicator of the efficiency of your incident response team. It measures the average time that elapses from when a breakdown is reported until the asset is fully operational and functional again.
In a manual management environment, this calculation is often inaccurate because it relies on the technician remembering to write down the exact start and end time of the intervention, something that rarely happens with precision in emergency situations. With a mobile CMMS, the stopwatch is digital and automatic. Reducing MTTR not only improves service availability but also reduces the negative impact on citizens or production. A sustained high MTTR can indicate underlying problems, such as a lack of technical training in staff, a lack of critical spare parts in inventory, or poor logistical planning that delays the arrival of teams at the breakdown site.
2. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
While MTTR measures the efficiency of human repair, MTBF measures the reliability and quality of the physical asset. It indicates how much time passes, on average, between one breakdown and the next on the same equipment or system.
This indicator is vital for financial investment decisions (CAPEX). If we observe through the software that the MTBF of a series of streetlights, water pumps, or vehicles is drastically decreasing year after year, we have irrefutable mathematical proof that the asset has reached the end of its useful life. With this data, it can be justified to management that it is more profitable to replace the equipment with a new one than to continue investing in continuous repairs. Without a digitized history of each asset, this trend is invisible, and money ends up being wasted on corrective maintenance rather than planned renewal.
3. Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC)
Preventive maintenance is the foundation of asset longevity and facility safety. This KPI measures the percentage of preventive work orders that were completed within the scheduled date compared to those planned.
A low preventive compliance rate is a serious warning sign for any manager. It means the department is overwhelmed by corrective work, dedicating all its resources to "putting out fires" and neglecting necessary conservation tasks. In the long run, this creates a dangerous vicious cycle: by not performing preventive maintenance, unexpected breakdowns increase, consuming more emergency resources and leaving even less time for preventive work. A CMMS system alerts managers when this ratio falls below acceptable levels, allowing for resource reallocation or outsourcing support before the system collapses due to lack of maintenance.
4. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) per Asset
How much does it really cost to maintain a specific streetlight, an underground container, or a municipal fleet vehicle? Often, organizations only consider the initial acquisition cost. However, the accumulated maintenance cost over ten or fifteen years can far exceed the original purchase price.
Advanced management software allows labor costs (based on hours logged by the technician and their rate) and materials used in each intervention to be automatically imputed to each asset. This allows for the generation of accurate financial reports and the detection of "toxic assets" or "lemons" that consume a disproportionate share of the maintenance budget due to factory defects or poor installation. This information is a valuable asset when negotiating warranties with suppliers or planning the next year's operational budgets.
5. Maintenance Backlog
Backlog measures the accumulation of pending work; that is, all those work orders that have been approved and are necessary but have not yet been executed due to a lack of resources or time. It is usually measured in man-hours. For example, if we have a backlog of 200 hours and a team of 2 technicians, we know we have approximately 2.5 weeks of accumulated work without accepting new tasks.
Monitoring the backlog is essential for correctly sizing the workforce. If the backlog graph grows constantly month after month, it is an unequivocal sign that the department needs to hire more staff or outsource external services to absorb the workload. Conversely, if it decreases too much, we might have idle staff. Keeping the backlog at a stable and healthy level is key to financial and operational efficiency, avoiding both work stress and resource waste.
Towards a Culture of Objective Management
Implementing and tracking these metrics should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a means to transform the organization's culture. When decisions are based on objective and traceable data provided by technological platforms like Maptainer, subjective arguments are eliminated, budgets are better justified, and integral management is professionalized. The move from manual spreadsheets to intelligent CMMS is not just a technological upgrade; it is the necessary leap toward modern, efficient, and financially sustainable asset management over time.