KPIs Show You What, Reports Explain Why
In manufacturing, numbers tell a story. KPIs give you quick signals—when lead-times creep up, margins shrink, or quality issues rise. But signals alone aren’t enough. To act effectively, you need to understand the cause behind them.
That’s where reports come in.
Unfortunately, many small and medium manufacturing companies rely on generic reports or only pull information reactively when problems arise. The result? Decisions are slower, opportunities are missed, and issues snowball before anyone understands the root cause.
Recurring, well-structured reports solve this.
In our previous article we listed our top 10 KPIs you should track. Now we will explore the complementary reports that help you investigate and act on each KPI.
The Top 10 Reports We Recommend
Here are the 10 recurring reports every manufacturing company should have in place to complement their KPIs:
1. Order Backlog Report
Shows all open orders, their due dates, and current production status. This report keeps teams aligned on priorities and highlights risks of late deliveries before they happen.
2. Production Lead-Time Analysis
Breaks down average lead-times by product family, size, or complexity. If your “Average Lead-Time” KPI is rising, this report helps identify which types of jobs are slowing things down.
3. Revenue Forecast by Month
Details expected revenue over the coming months, broken down by delivery due dates. This complements the “Expected Revenue per Month” KPI and helps you balance cash flow with production planning.
4. Capacity Load Report
Compares available machine hours with planned orders. When your “Capacity Utilization” KPI is high, this report shows exactly where bottlenecks are forming—and where excess capacity is being wasted.
5. Job Margin Report
Tracks actual costs and times against quoted values for each job. It supports the “Average Margin” KPI by showing which jobs are profitable, which are break-even, and which are consistently unprofitable.
6. Quoting Performance Report
Summarizes quotes sent, quotes won, and lost opportunities, often broken down by customer or product line. This is the detailed view behind the “Win/Loss Rate” KPI and helps refine your quoting strategy.
7. Quality Issues Report
Lists defects, rework, or scrap by product type, machine, operator, or supplier. It complements your “Quality Scorecard” KPI by showing patterns and guiding continuous improvement projects.
8. WIP Aging Report
Details how long jobs have been sitting in production and their associated cost. This report complements the “WIP Inventory Cost” KPI and highlights where materials are stuck, delaying invoicing.
9. Overhead Allocation Report
Breaks down overhead costs per department or per hour of production. This helps validate your “Overhead Cost Percentage” KPI and ensures your quoting process reflects real indirect costs.
10. Cost of Quality Report
Summarizes monthly costs related to rework, scrap, and returns. Beyond the “Cost of Quality” KPI, this report provides the detail needed to justify investments in better equipment, training, or process redesign.
Why These Reports Matter
Each report provides the “why” behind one of the 10 essential KPIs. Together, they create a loop of continuous improvement:
- KPIs highlight where something is going wrong or right.
- Reports explain what’s driving the numbers.
- Leaders act with confidence, backed by evidence.
This approach helps prevent reactive firefighting and builds a culture of proactive decision-making.
How to Put Them into Practice
- Start small. Choose 2–3 reports that align with your most pressing KPIs.
- Automate where possible. Recurring reports lose value if they take hours of manual work every week.
- Review consistently. Reports should be part of your weekly or monthly management routine, not just pulled when something breaks.
- Connect reports with KPIs. Always ask: “Which KPI does this report support?”
Where an ERP Fits In
Manually generating these reports from spreadsheets can be time-consuming and error-prone. An ERP system centralizes your data, automates report creation, and ensures you’re looking at real-time, reliable information.
With an ERP like Nengatu, these 10 reports become a natural extension of your KPI tracking—giving you both the signals and the details needed to make better decisions.
Time to Check Your Reports
Do you already have these reports in place? Are they recurring and easy to access, or do you scramble to build them when something goes wrong?
If you’re planning an ERP implementation, think beyond dashboards. The right system should give you both KPIs and reports, so you always know what’s happening and why.
Book a call with us to review your reporting process and make a plan for your ERP upgrade.