Proposal for a classification of ISO22400 KPIs for manufacturing operations management

The ISO22400 standard defines key performance indicators for manufacturing operation management. Its visionary goal is to be applicable to all industry types, regardless the production methodology and the process configuration. Pursuing this objective, a challenging trade-off between generality and specificity in the definitions must be found. In the cited standard, the former approach has been preferred: thus, several indicators seem too vaguely defined and result to be difficulty usable in real contexts. Our aim is to refine the ISO22400 standard definitions and in this paper, by means of a designed classification method combined with the explicit and implicit existing information, the indicators are analysed according to their specific initial application context. Afterward, context extensions are proposed to overcome the recognised shortcomings and to better support performance measurement. In this step on the road to the improvement of the ISO standard, we managed to refer each indicator to work orders, production orders, work units, to the entire process, and to possible combination of these. This information is crucial to proceed towards a better interpretation of the standard and, thus, its diffusion in the real world.