10.3 Work Management Metrics & Continuous Follow-Up
Key Takeaways
- Measure work by comparing actual scope, labor, material, timing, and result with the approved plan, then classify meaningful variances and act on their causes.
- Schedule compliance can be measured by completed work-order count or completed scheduled labor hours; the report must state the method and treatment of approved changes.
- PM and PdM compliance should use the facility's defined due window; the SMRP 10 percent rule is a specific interval-based timing convention, not simply completion within a calendar week.
- Rework needs an operational definition, time window, asset boundary, and consistent denominator; a universal percentage is not a substitute for a site baseline and risk review.
- A balanced work dashboard combines process execution, quality, backlog, cost, safety, and asset outcomes so that one ratio cannot be optimized at the expense of reliability.
Last updated: September 2026
10.3 Work-Management Metrics and Follow-Up
Quick Answer: Work measurement is a feedback system. Compare what was authorized and planned with what actually happened, determine why the variance occurred, update the plan or process, and verify that the correction improves asset and business results.
Analyze actual work against the plan
SMRP functions 5.7 and 5.8 require professionals to compare actual work with plan, identify variances, establish indicators, and report schedule compliance and rework. That sequence matters. Reporting a percentage without analyzing the underlying jobs does not close the learning loop.
For each completed job, compare:
- actual scope with planned scope;
- actual craft and hours with the estimate;
- parts used with the bill of materials and kit;
- tools, permits, and access with the job-plan assumptions;
- start and finish with the schedule;
- failure mode and cause with the initial diagnosis;
- test results with acceptance criteria;
- restored function with the requested result;
- follow-up work with remaining defects.
Classify variance consistently. Useful categories include scope discovery, inaccurate estimate, unavailable material, equipment access, permit or isolation delay, emergency displacement, skill mismatch, procedure defect, and data-entry error. A Pareto chart can identify the few recurring causes that consume most delay or cost.
Schedule compliance
Two common methods are:
\frac{\text{scheduled work orders completed in the period}} {\text{work orders scheduled for the period}} \times 100$$ $$\text{labor-hour compliance} = \frac{\text{scheduled labor hours completed in the period}} {\text{labor hours scheduled for the period}} \times 100$$ A schedule with 20 jobs can contain one 80-hour overhaul and nineteen one-hour tasks, so count and hour methods may tell different stories. State which method is used. Also define: - when the schedule is frozen; - whether partial completion counts; - how multiweek work is credited; - how approved operations cancellations are handled; - whether emergency break-in work changes the denominator; - whether work merely started or fully met closeout criteria. **Example:** A weekly schedule contains 200 planned labor hours. Crews complete 160 of those scheduled hours. Hour-based schedule compliance is 160 / 200 x 100 = 80%. Completing 40 additional emergency hours does not raise that figure because the emergency work was not in the frozen schedule. The 10 percent scheduling principle means the crew should normally execute the frozen weekly schedule, with management controlling a limited portion for genuinely necessary break-in work. It is not permission to hide all schedule changes in an exclusion category. ## PM and PdM timing compliance SMRP materials use a **10 percent rule** for recurring preventive or predictive work. The allowed timing window is calculated from the task frequency under the governing metric definition. A site must implement the convention consistently in its CMMS. For a 30-day task, a 10 percent window represents three days on the applicable side of the due date if that is the site's adopted definition. The exact compliance calculation must state the due-date logic, grace window, early completion rule, and denominator. Simply closing a task eventually does not prove timely compliance. Pair compliance with quality measures: - meaningful findings per route; - action conversion and response time; - repeat failure after task completion; - overdue critical tasks; - defect-elimination effectiveness. A PM program can have high timing compliance and poor technical content. ## Planned, proactive, and reactive work Labels must be mutually understandable. A planned job has a developed scope and prepared requirements before execution. Proactive work seeks to prevent or detect degradation before functional failure. Reactive work responds after an unplanned demand or failure. These are related but not identical dimensions: an urgent corrective job can receive some planning, and a planned job can still address an already failed asset. Typical ratios use maintenance labor hours: $$\text{planned-work share} = \frac{\text{hours on jobs meeting the planning definition}} {\text{total maintenance labor hours}} \times 100$$ $$\text{reactive-work share} = \frac{\text{hours classified as reactive}} {\text{total maintenance labor hours}} \times 100$$ Document exclusions and ensure hours are classified once. Targets should reflect business goals, asset risk, and the organization's current capability; they are not universal pass/fail thresholds. ## Rework Rework is repeated maintenance made necessary because prior work did not restore or sustain the required condition. A practical calculation is: $$\text{rework rate} = \frac{\text{rework events or hours}} {\text{completed maintenance events or hours}} \times 100$$ The numerator and denominator must use the same basis. Define the look-back period and linkage rule. A seal replacement repeated within 30 days may be rework if installation or diagnosis was defective; it may be a new event if an unrelated process upset damaged the seal. Automated candidate matching should be reviewed by a knowledgeable person. Do not declare one universal acceptable percentage. Compare with the site's controlled baseline, asset criticality, and consequence. Any repeat on a safety-critical protective function may demand investigation even if the fleet percentage is low. ## Backlog in crew-weeks Backlog becomes decision-ready when status is clear. **Ready backlog** contains approved, planned work whose material, information, permits, and access assumptions meet the facility's readiness gate. $$\text{ready backlog weeks} = \frac{\text{ready planned labor hours}} {\text{available weekly crew labor hours}}$$ If 2,400 ready hours exist and net weekly capacity is 600 hours, ready backlog is four crew-weeks. Net capacity should account for the organization's defined meetings, leave, training, and other committed time. The result supports resource and scheduling decisions; the desired range depends on shutdown cycles, supply lead time, workforce model, and risk. ## Reporting and action cadence A useful review has three levels: 1. **Weekly control:** schedule completion, break-in work, material/access delays, overdue critical tasks. 2. **Monthly learning:** plan-versus-actual variance, rework, backlog aging, data quality, recurring delay causes. 3. **Quarterly outcome:** functional failures, production loss, risk reduction, cost, and strategy effectiveness. Show numerator, denominator, count, trend, definition version, and important exclusions. Assign corrective actions with an owner and date. Then confirm effectiveness using subsequent data. ## Avoiding metric gaming - Do not reduce the scheduled workload merely to raise compliance. - Do not relabel reactive jobs as planned after execution. - Do not close incomplete work to stop an overdue clock. - Do not exclude difficult assets from the population without disclosure. - Do not reward speed without checking safety, quality, and restored function. Metrics serve reliable decisions. When a measure changes behavior in a harmful way, redesign the measure and governance rather than blaming the workforce.Test Your Knowledge
A frozen weekly schedule contains 200 planned labor hours. The crew completes 160 scheduled hours plus 40 hours of emergency work that was not on the schedule. What is hour-based schedule compliance?
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Test Your Knowledge
What is essential when reporting PM/PdM compliance under a 10 percent timing rule?
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Test Your Knowledge
A site's controlled baseline rework rate is 2%, but one month shows 8% and several repeats involve the same critical pump family. What is the best response?
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