Key performance indicators for manufacturing operations management in the process industry

The international standard ISO 22400 has defined a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the performance of manufacturing operation. However, the defined KPIs seem to be inspired from the discrete production context, and hence do not automatically fit the process industry context. The process industry is defined as the industry in which the raw material undergoes conversion during a continuous process in order to become finished products. To make the defined KPIs more suitable for evaluating the operational performance in process industry, this paper analyzes the different characteristics of process industry and discrete industry, and proposes a new framework for organizing KPIs in process industry. Some modifications are discussed to make the proposed ISO 22400 KPIs fit to the process industry. Such a study can provide useful ideas for manufacturing engineers and decision-makers to define and measure suitable KPIs for performance evaluation in process industry.