Wood Treatment Manufacturing KPIs: Stay on Track

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on 10/4/19 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehension.

In school, everyone receives a grade card.

It shows what you’re doing well and what you need to put some extra effort into.

You need the same sort of accountability in your business.

These wood treatment manufacturing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are a great start for you to monitor all the different aspects of production.

Wood treatment manufacturing KPIs

Knowing which metrics matter can be difficult to discern – especially when the umbrella of “manufacturing” is so large.

Here are some of the most important wood treatment manufacturing KPIs to pay attention to, according to the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association.

Customer experience

• On-time delivery. This measures the percentage that a wood treatment product is completed and delivered to a customer on time.
• Manufacturing cycle time. A measure of how long it takes for the entire manufacturing process, from start to finish.

Quality assurance

• Yield. The percentage of products that are manufactured correctly the first time.
• Customer rejection/return. The number of times customers return or reject a wood treatment product.
• Defect density. This is a measurement of defective treated wood products divided by the total number of treated wood products manufactured.

Supplier quality

• Incoming material quality. If you don’t start with quality materials, you won’t end up with an outstanding end product. Plus, you’ll be spending more money on repairs for products that aren’t up to standard. It all adds up to an additional expense for the manufacturer. The incoming material quality can be measured by the specific supplier, the type of product, or moisture content of the product .
• On-time supply. To make sure you’re working with a reliable supplier, determine the difference between orders that are delivered on time and orders that are late. Divide that by the total number of orders.

Efficiency

• Capacity utilization. A measure of how much of the manufacturing capacity is actually being used.
•  Schedule attainment. How often the target production level is met.
• Equipment availability. To keep production up, the manager needs to know which equipment is available and when. This number shows the proportion of operating time to designated production time.
• Actual performance. This KPI measures the actual output vs. the expected output.

Health and safety

• Reportable incidents. The number of health and safety violations/incidents that happened in a certain time period. It can also include “near-misses.”
• Non-compliance events in a year. Number of times in a year that a facility was not compliant with health and safety standards.
• Lost time from injury. This KPI represents the numbers of work hours lost due to employee injury. It’s determined by the number of injuries in a specific amount of time, divided by the total number of hours worked for the whole organization during that period.
• Average overtime hours. Determining how many hours employers are working beyond their normal hours shows your organization if you’re managing your workload well. It’s a health and safety issue when your employees are experiencing fatigue from working too many overtime hours. (Keep in mind that this will vary from company to company and the definition of “overtime” can be different depending on the industry.)

Maintenance

• Planned vs emergency maintenance. This measures how often planned maintenance occurs against the frequency of unplanned maintenance.
• Downtime vs operating time. A percentage of how often a facility is up and running normally as opposed to the amount of downtime it has.

Reduced costs/increased profits

• Manufacturing cost per unit. This metric is determined by dividing the total number of units made by the cost to create them. (This excludes the cost of materials.) This measurement determines if resources are being used effectively and if the costs are on target.
• Productivity in revenue per employee. This is calculated by dividing the total revenue generated by the total number of employees. These numbers can be examined on several different levels, such as the whole-company, departmental or a specific production line.

Environmental manufacturing KPIs

At Tank Fab, we take our commitment to environmentally-friendly processes seriously.

Here are some KPIs we follow, specific to lessening our environmental impact.

1. Air emissions

In January 2016, more rigid boiler emissions regulations went into effect with the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency’s Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology.

Contaminants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, total particulate matter, and greenhouse gases are the main culprits that are harmful by-products of the wood treatment process.

At Tank Fab, we have taken steps to reduce these harmful emissions.

2. Waste production

Waste is another environmental issue that is a result of the wood treatment process.

We use our resources carefully to avoid as much leftover scrap as possible.

3. Materials used

The wood treatment process obviously requires chemicals to make the wood last a long time without decay.

Because the chemicals have an effect not only on the product but also on the people who come into contact with them, we follow the strictest safety standards.

The chemicals used and ­the amounts are monitored closely so we can identify any spills or unnatural consumption that would indicate a problem.

Follow these wood manufacturing KPIs

These metrics will not only keep your business on the right track, but they’ll also lessen your negative impact on the environment.

This is especially important in the wood manufacturing industry, where a variety of chemicals are necessary.

Follow these KPIs and keep your business on track.