What is the Maintenance Excellence Index? (MEI)

Maintenance excellence is fundamentally about how a company strategically employs its resources to keep its assets performing at their best, ultimately delivering value to its customers.

Essentially, it’s about shifting maintenance from a reactive, “fix-it-when-it-breaks” mindset to a proactive, value-driven approach. This involves a multi-faceted strategy, encompassing planning, execution, and continuous refinement.

As outlined by Jardine and Campbell, achieving maintenance excellence has three primary goals:

To establish a strategic vision for maintenance, aligning it with overall business objectives
To implement tactical plans that ensure assets are consistently available and reliable
To foster a culture of continuous improvement, where maintenance processes are constantly evaluated and optimized.

This holistic approach ensures that maintenance becomes a key driver of operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, rather than just a cost center.

What is the Maintenance Excellence Index (MEI)?

The Maintenance Excellence Index (MEI) is a metric or set of metrics used to evaluate and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of a company’s maintenance operations. It’s designed to provide a comprehensive view of how well an organization is managing its assets and maintenance processes.

The MEI often incorporates a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect various aspects of maintenance performance, such as:

By combining these KPIs into a single index or a set of related metrics, the MEI provides a holistic view of maintenance excellence, enabling organizations to make informed decisions and drive improvements in their maintenance operations.

Benefits of using a Maintenance Excellence Index

Using a Maintenance Excellence Index (MEI) offers several significant benefits for organizations looking to optimize their maintenance operations.

Improved asset reliability: An MEI helps pinpoint areas where maintenance practices can be enhanced, leading to fewer breakdowns and increased asset uptime.
Maintenance cost reduction: An MEI helps identify inefficiencies and opportunities for cost savings, such as optimizing preventive maintenance schedules or reducing unnecessary repairs.
Enhanced operational efficiency: An MEI provides a clear picture of maintenance performance, enabling organizations to streamline processes, improve resource allocation, and minimize downtime, ultimately boosting overall productivity.
Data-driven decision-making: An MEI provides quantifiable data that supports informed decision-making regarding maintenance strategies, investments, and resource allocation.
Increased safety: An MEI helps identify and address potential safety hazards by monitoring safety-related KPIs, creating a safer work environment.
Better performance benchmarking: An MEI allows a company to compare its maintenance performance against industry standards or internal targets, revealing areas needing improvement and allowing for the setting of more effective goals.
Proactive maintenance culture: An MEI encourages a shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, promoting preventive and predictive maintenance strategies that minimize unexpected equipment failures.
Improved asset lifespan: An MEI contributes to extending the life cycle of equipment by maintaining assets to a high standard, reducing the need for premature replacements.

Metrics used in a Maintenance Excellence Index (MEI)

The metrics used in a Maintenance Excellence Index (MEI) can vary depending on the specific industry, company, and goals, but they typically fall into several key categories. Here are examples of the most common metrics:

Asset reliability metrics

Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): MTBF indicates the average time an asset operates without failure.
Mean Time To Repair (MTTR): MTTR measures the average time required to restore a failed asset to operational status.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE): OEE assesses the combined impact of asset availability, performance, and quality.

Maintenance cost metrics

Maintenance cost as a percentage of asset replacement value: This metric shows the proportion of maintenance costs relative to the asset’s worth.
Cost per unit of production: This calculates the maintenance cost associated with each unit produced.
Preventive maintenance cost vs. reactive maintenance cost: This comparison reveals the balance between planned and unplanned maintenance expenses.
Budget variance: This metric tracks the difference between budgeted and actual maintenance expenditures.

Maintenance efficiency metrics

Preventive Maintenance (PM) compliance: PM compliance measures the percentage of scheduled preventive tasks completed on time.
Work order completion rate: This indicates the proportion of maintenance work orders that are successfully completed.
Work order backlog: This metric shows the number of outstanding maintenance work orders.
Schedule complianceSchedule adherence: Schedule adherence measures how well maintenance activities follow the planned schedule.

Asset availability metrics

Uptime percentage: Uptime percentage signifies the proportion of time an asset is operational.
Equipment utilization: Measures how effectively equipment is used compared to its total available time, helping identify inefficiencies and maximize productivity.
Idle time: The period when equipment or labor is available but not in use, often indicating inefficiencies or scheduling issues.

Safety metrics

Number of safety incidents related to maintenance: This tracks the frequency of safety-related incidents during maintenance activities.
Near-miss reporting: Near-miss reporting quantifies the reporting of potential safety hazards.
Safety audit results: Safety audit results evaluate the effectiveness of safety protocols within maintenance operations.

Inventory management metrics

Inventory turnover rate: Inventory turnover rate measures how quickly spare parts are used and replaced.
First Time Fix Rate (FTFR): Measures the percentage of maintenance or service tasks resolved on the first attempt without follow-up visits, reflecting efficiency and skill.
Spare parts availability: Spare parts availability indicates the readiness of necessary parts for maintenance.
Inventory carrying costs: Inventory carrying costs quantify the expenses associated with holding spare parts inventory.

Personnel performance metrics

Training hours per employee: Training hours per employee measures the amount of training provided to maintenance personnel.
Employee satisfaction: Employee satisfaction gauges the morale and contentment of maintenance staff.
Technician efficiency: Technician efficiency evaluates the productivity and effectiveness of maintenance technicians.

How to implement the Maintenance Excellence Index

To effectively implement an MEI, follow these steps to ensure a robust and valuable measurement system.

Establish clear objectives. Begin by defining what “success” means for your maintenance department, aligning it with overall business goals, especially profitability. This clarity will guide the selection of relevant metrics.
Select key metrics. Choose 10-15 critical metrics from your CMMS and financial systems that directly reflect your defined objectives. Prioritize metrics that significantly impact asset reliability, cost efficiency, and safety.
Define target performance levels. Set realistic yet challenging goals for each selected metric, ideally benchmarking against industry best practices or internal standards. This establishes a clear vision of optimal performance.
Assign weights and scoring mechanisms. Determine the relative importance of each metric by assigning weights, ensuring the total weights sum to 100%. Develop a scoring system (e.g., 0-10) to quantify performance levels for each metric.
Develop a tracking system. Create a spreadsheet or utilize CMMS reporting features to track KPI data, performance goals, scores, and weighted scores. This system should facilitate regular monitoring and analysis.
Regularly monitor and analyze data. Consistently track KPI performance using your CMMS and record scores at predetermined intervals (e.g., monthly). Calculate the overall MEI score and analyze trends to identify areas for improvement.
Refine and adjust the MEI. Periodically review the effectiveness of the selected metrics and adjust the MEI as needed. Remove or add metrics to ensure the index accurately reflects your organization’s priorities and performance.
Implement improvement actions. Use the insights gained from the MEI to identify areas requiring improvement. Develop and implement action plans to address these areas, such as optimizing preventive maintenance or enhancing training programs.
Secure stakeholder support. Use the data provided by the MEI to demonstrate the value of maintenance improvements to stakeholders, and gain support for needed resources.

Get the most from MEI with a CMMS

Using a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) like Limble, alongside a Maintenance Excellence Index (MEI) significantly enhances the effectiveness of your maintenance strategy.

Here’s how a CMMS can help:

A CMMS provides a secure, cloud-based digital infrastructure. A CMMS is a robust system designed to manage all facets of maintenance operations, making MEI integration a seamless addition to its functionality.
Pre-existing asset historical data enhances MEI accuracy. A CMMS stores comprehensive asset data, including specifications, history, and performance, which provides a rich foundation for accurate MEI calculations.
CMMS configuration enables tailored MEI data capture. CMMS systems can be customized to track specific MEI metrics through configurable fields, reports, and integrations, ensuring data aligns with your organization’s needs.
Real-time data collection and analysis streamline MEI tracking. CMMS platforms allow for remote, real-time data entry and analysis, enabling immediate MEI score generation and eliminating delays associated with manual processes.
CMMS facilitates efficient monitoring and improvement. CMMS capabilities support the implementation of improvement strategies identified through MEI analysis, such as optimizing PM schedules or enhancing inventory management.
CMMS significantly reduces the time required for MEI implementation and monitoring. By automating data collection and analysis, a CMMS accelerates the MEI process, minimizing downtime and maximizing cost savings compared to standalone MEI implementation.

The Maintenance Excellence Index serves as a powerful tool for organizations seeking to optimize their maintenance operations. By establishing clear objectives, selecting relevant metrics, and consistently monitoring performance, companies can drive significant improvements in equipment reliability, cost efficiency, and Overall Operational Effectiveness (OOE).

However, the true potential of the MEI is realized when paired with a robust CMMS software. Limble’s user-friendly platform streamlines every aspect of maintenance management, from data collection and analysis to work order execution and inventory control. This integration not only simplifies MEI implementation but also empowers your maintenance team to drive continuous improvement with real-time insights and actionable data.

By partnering with Limble, you can transform your maintenance operations into a strategic asset, maximizing uptime, minimizing costs, and securing a competitive advantage.

Book a demo with Limble and discover how our CMMS can improve your maintenance operations and drive business success.

What is Maintenance Excellence Index & How It Drives Profit

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