Creating a Maintenance Dashboard That Planners Actually Use

Most maintenance dashboards fail long before they reach the shop floor. They look impressive, but planners open them once, get lost in noise, and never return. A maintenance dashboard, done properly, becomes the daily control centre of a plant: one screen that tells planners what is happening, what's at risk, and where action is required.

In 2025, with labour shortages and rising downtime costs, giving planners fast clarity is non-negotiable. This article provides a practical, proven framework for designing a dashboard that actually gets used — not just displayed in a meeting room.

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Why Most Maintenance Dashboards Fail

Before fixing the solution, we need to tackle the core failure modes:

1. They're built for leadership, not planning

Executives love high-level KPI boards. Planners need the opposite: actionable micro-level detail. The mismatch kills adoption.

2. Too many metrics, not enough decisions

Dashboards littered with 25 KPIs create friction. Planners don't want to "admire the data"; they want clear next steps.

3. Built around system constraints, not workflow reality

CMMS exports are messy. Data is inconsistent. Many dashboards simply mirror the CMMS structure, making them hard to navigate.

4. No daily habit formation

If the dashboard doesn't naturally fit into morning planning meetings, scheduling sessions or handovers, it gathers dust.

5. Static views rather than dynamic workflows

Filtering, drilling, and categorising are essential for maintenance insights. Without these, dashboards stay superficial.

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What a Useful Maintenance Dashboard Actually Looks Like

A maintenance dashboard that planners adopt has three core characteristics:

1. It shows only what matters today

This means:

• Overdue PMs
• Jobs due today
• High criticality outstanding work
• Repeat failures
• Backlog by priority

Anything else is optional.

2. It mirrors how planners think

Maintenance planning follows a predictable mental model:

1. What broke?
2. Why did it break?
3. What is overdue?
4. What is scheduled?
5. What is about to cause trouble?

Dashboards that follow these questions win.

3. It pushes insight, not just information

Examples:

• Instead of "40 overdue work orders", show "6 overdue on critical assets".
• Instead of listing every breakdown, show repeat failures in the last 30 days.
• Instead of backlog size, highlight jobs older than 60 days.

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The Only Metrics That Matter on a Planner-Focused Dashboard

Below are the KPIs proven to drive daily action. Everything else is optional or belongs on leadership dashboards.

Core Daily KPIs

1. Overdue Work Orders (by priority)

Why it matters: Drives immediate scheduling action.

Recommended layout:

1. Priority 1 – Critical assets or safety-related work
2. Priority 2 – High-impact production equipment
3. Priority 3 – General maintenance and upgrades
4. Low priority – Optional (can be hidden by default)

2. Jobs Due Today

Provides the planner's immediate workload.

Suggested breakdown:

1. Scheduled PMs – Preventive maintenance tasks on the schedule
2. Planned corrective work – Pre-planned repairs and improvements
3. Safety-related tasks – Compliance and risk mitigation jobs

3. Breakdown Events in the Last 7 Days

Helps planners coordinate follow-up corrective work and schedule RCA (root cause analysis).

4. Repeat Failures (30-day window)

A leading indicator for reliability issues.

5. Backlog by Priority & Age

Shows resource risk. The optimal view:

1. Backlog < 7 days – Recent additions to queue
2. Backlog 7–30 days – Standard pipeline
3. Backlog > 30 days – Attention needed
4. Backlog > 60 days – Critical delay (highlight in red)

6. PM Compliance

Vital for leadership, but also necessary for planners scheduling the next cycle. Recommended view: compliance by asset class or department.

7. Labour Capacity vs Labour Demand

Simple bar or line chart:

1. Total hours available – Current workforce capacity
2. Total hours scheduled – Committed workload
3. Variance – Gap or surplus (positive/negative)

Prevents planner overload.

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Dashboard Layout That Works in Real Plants

The 4-Quadrant Layout (Battle-Tested)

After analysing dozens of high-performing maintenance teams (FMCG, utilities, mining, food & beverage), one layout pattern consistently works:

Quadrant 1 — Today's Work (Top Left)

• Jobs due today
• Emergencies/breakdowns
• Current work in progress

This becomes the planner's morning meeting view.

Quadrant 2 — Backlog Risk (Top Right)

• Backlog by priority
• Backlog age
• Repeat failures
• High criticality outstanding work

This is the early-warning system.

Quadrant 3 — PM Compliance (Bottom Left)

• Weekly or monthly view
• By asset class, team, or department

Quadrant 4 — Resourcing & Capacity (Bottom Right)

• Hours available vs required
• Trades utilisation
• Contractor load

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Step-by-Step: How to Build a Dashboard Planners Will Adopt

Step 1 — Start With a Single Question:

"What decisions does this dashboard help a planner make?" If the answer isn't crystal clear, stop and redefine the scope.

Step 2 — Map Planner Workflows

Spend one hour observing or interviewing planners. Capture:

• Their first tasks each morning
• Biggest frustrations
• Reports they manually export
• What they communicate to supervisors and technicians

Build the dashboard around these patterns, not the CMMS menu.

Step 3 — Choose Only the 6–10 KPIs That Drive Action

Anything above 12 metrics is too much for daily use.

Step 4 — Use Tiered Detail (Drill-Downs)

Make the top-level dashboard simple, with drill-down capability such as:

• Asset → failure history
• Backlog age → specific WOs
• PM compliance → which PMs were missed

Step 5 — Build Around Timing Cadences

A great maintenance dashboard supports:

• Daily meetings
• Weekly planning
• Monthly performance review

Structure your layout to align with these rhythms.

Step 6 — Iterate With the Planners Themselves

Too many dashboards are built for planners — not with them. Bring them into review cycles every 7 days.

Step 7 — Automate Data Refresh

Daily automatic refresh is the bare minimum. If planners have to export CSVs manually, the dashboard will die.

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Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Designing for management approval

Executives love pretty charts. Planners need clarity.

2. Forgetting data quality issues

Dashboards can't fix incomplete fields, missing failure codes, or inaccurate timestamps.

3. Overloading with colours and visuals

More colours = more cognitive load.

4. Using CMMS terminology only IT understands

Example: Users think in terms of "jobs", not "notifications".

5. No ownership

Assign one person to maintain the dashboard, clean the data and drive adoption.

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Mini Case Study: Beverage Plant Maintenance Turnaround

Industry: Bottling Problem: Planners drowning in backlog and repeat failures on conveyors Intervention: New 4-quadrant maintenance dashboard Outcome:

• 38% reduction in overdue WOs (6 weeks)
• Repeat failures identified instantly (vs 2–3 hours analysis previously)
• Morning planning meeting reduced from 45 minutes to 18

Nothing magical — just a dashboard built around daily workflow.

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Practical Checklist: Before You Publish Your Dashboard

Use this 14-point checklist to verify readiness:

• Overdue work orders by priority
• Jobs due today
• Breakdowns in the last 7 days
• Repeat failures
• Backlog by age bracket
• PM compliance
• Resource capacity vs workload
• Single-page overview
• Drill-down capability
• Colour coding used sparingly
• Daily auto-refresh
• Mobile/tablet compatible
• Designed with planner input
• Integrated into daily meetings

If you tick these off, your dashboard will get real adoption.

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Conclusion

A maintenance dashboard isn't a reporting tool — it's a decision-making tool. The ones that get used are laser-focused on planner workflows, support daily cadences, and surface only the KPIs that drive immediate action.

Start simple. Build with planners. Iterate weekly. Avoid the temptation to add "just one more metric" — discipline in what you exclude is as important as what you include. And most critically, ensure the dashboard answers the question every planner asks at 7 AM: "What do I need to do today, and what's about to go wrong?"

When your dashboard becomes the first thing planners open each morning — not because they have to, but because it makes their job easier — you've succeeded.

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How LeanReport Can Help

LeanReport transforms maintenance dashboard creation from a six-month IT project into a ten-minute CSV upload. Built specifically for maintenance planners and managers, LeanReport helps you:

• Upload any CMMS export — Supports SAP PM, Maximo, Maintenance Connection, Fiix, UpKeep, MEX and more
• Automatic KPI calculation — Overdue work orders, PM compliance, repeat failures, backlog analysis and downtime Pareto charts are computed instantly
• Dashboard-ready insights — Get presentation-ready summaries with the exact metrics planners need: today's work, backlog risk, and resource capacity
• Built for daily use — Not a static report — a living view of your maintenance operation that updates as you upload fresh data
• No BI expertise required — No need for PowerBI, Tableau, or complex SQL queries

Instead of waiting months for IT to build a custom dashboard, start using actionable insights today.

👉 Ready to build a dashboard planners will actually use? Start your free trial or learn how it works.