u/bookkeeping-2026

I've been helping a few small manufacturing teams clean up their KPI tracking, and these 3 mistakes come up over and over.

1. Tracking too many KPIs

If everything is important, nothing is important. Start with 3-5 metrics that actually drive decisions.

2. Only reviewing KPIs monthly

Monthly reports hide problems. Weekly (or even daily) visibility shows bottlenecks before they become expensive.

3. No link between KPIs and action

A KPI is useless unless it changes behavior. If a metric doesn't trigger a decision, it's noise.

I've been building simple Excel dashboards for shops that want visibility without a full ERP. If anyone wants to see examples or how I structure them, I can share screenshots.