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OKR template for manufacturing

An OKR template holds a company's objectives for the year and the key results that say whether each one was reached: one metric, a baseline from real data, a target and a date, with one owner. OKR stands for objectives and key results. This version is written for plants: the pillars are Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and People, the example key results are TRIR, first-pass yield, OTIF, changeover time and operators certified, and it has the cascade that office OKR tools leave out: each facility, department and person writes the key results it can act on and marks the company objective each one serves, or Other. Page 1 of the PDF holds four objectives with four key result rows each and a value per quarter, page 2 the cascade sheet with an alignment tally, page 3 the scoring rules, the bands and the rhythm of the year, and pages 4 and 5 a worked example. The Excel version takes six objectives and sixty key results at any level, scores each one every month from its latest value (progress = (latest minus baseline) divided by (target minus baseline), clamped to 0 to 1.0 and rounded to one decimal), colours the score Green, Amber or Red, averages the key results into an objective score, and counts how many cascaded key results serve each objective and how many sit in Other.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the OKR templateFields for company, year, owner and review date, then four objective blocks each with pillar, objective, owner and objective score, and four key result rows with owner, unit, better higher or lower, baseline, target, four quarter columns, progress and score.
Objectives with pillar and ownerKey results: baseline, target, betterMonthly or quarterly valuesScore 0 to 1.0Green, Amber, Red bandsObjective scoreCascade: facility, department, personAligned to, with OtherAlignment countScoring guide
Filled-in OKR template for manufacturing: a three-plant group's OKRs at the end of September
The same sheet filled in with the worked example (page 4 of the PDF, illustrative numbers). Open full size (opens the picture in a new tab)

When to use it

When to use an OKR template

  • At the start of the year, when leadership turns the strategy into three to five objectives with measurable key results.
  • When a plant has goals on a slide and KPIs on a board, and nobody can say which board number belongs to which goal.
  • When facilities, departments and people need to write their own key results and show which company objective each one serves.
  • At the monthly or quarterly review, to score every key result the same way and spend the time on reds and ambers.
  • When the question is how much of the improvement work serves the strategy, and how much sits in Other.

How to fill it in

  1. 1

    Write three to five objectives

    Each one in plain words, with a pillar and one owner. 'Nobody gets hurt at any of our plants' is an objective; 'reduce TRIR' is a key result waiting for its numbers.
  2. 2

    Give each objective three or four key results

    One metric, its unit, whether higher or lower is better, the baseline from the last twelve months and the target by the end of the year. The baseline comes first; a target with no baseline says nothing about the size of the change.
  3. 3

    Cascade and listen

    Each facility writes the key results it can act on and marks the company objective each one serves, then departments and people do the same. Facilities reply before the key results are fixed (catchball), so the targets are theirs.
  4. 4

    Enter the latest value every month

    Owners type this month's value. The sheet works out progress, clamps it to 0 to 1.0, rounds to one decimal and colours it: Green 0.7 to 1.0, Amber 0.4 to 0.6, Red 0.0 to 0.3. The bands are example values; set your own.
  5. 5

    Review reds and ambers, not greens

    The objective score is the average of its key results. Read the two or three lowest first: what is in the way, what changes in the action plan, and whether the key result still describes the right change.
  6. 6

    Read the alignment count

    The summary counts the cascaded key results behind each objective and the ones in Other. Other is allowed; a share aligned well below three quarters says the plan and the work have drifted apart, and the review decides which to change.

Scoring

How a key result is scored, and what the bands mean

The Excel version scores every key result the same way from its baseline, target and latest value. The bands are example values made for this template; change them and keep them the same for every key result.

  • Green

    Score
    0.7 to 1.0
    What it means
    On track or done. At the year end, 0.7 is a good score for a stretch key result; 1.0 every time means the targets were too easy.
  • Amber

    Score
    0.4 to 0.6
    What it means
    Real progress, behind the plan. Ask what is in the way and whether the action plan changes.
  • Red

    Score
    0.0 to 0.3
    What it means
    Little or no progress, or the number went the wrong way. Decide: more help, a different approach, or drop it and say so.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example: a three-plant metal components group's OKRs for 2026 at the end of September, nine months reported (illustrative numbers, the same as the Excel Example sheet and PDF pages 4 and 5).

  • Four objectives, thirteen key results. O1 Safety: TRIR 2.4 to 1.2, now 1.6, progress (1.6 minus 2.4) divided by (1.2 minus 2.4) = 67%, score 0.7, Green; near-miss reports 3 to 10 per 100 employees a month, now 8, score 0.7; hazards closed within 30 days 60% to 95%, now 78%, score 0.5, Amber. Objective score 0.6.
  • O2 Quality: first-pass yield 91.0% to 96.0%, now 95.5%, score 0.9; complaints 85 to 40 per million, now 52, score 0.7; cost of poor quality 3.2% to 2.0% of sales, now 2.8%, progress 33%, score 0.3, Red; supplier defects 1,800 to 600 ppm, now 1,200, score 0.5. Objective score 0.6.
  • O3 Delivery: OTIF 88% to 97%, now 94.0%, score 0.7; changeover 52 to 30 minutes, now 41, score 0.5; finished goods 21 to 14 days, now 20, progress 14%, score 0.1, Red. Objective score 0.4, the lowest.
  • O4 People: operators certified on three or more stations 35% to 70%, now 58%, score 0.7; implemented ideas 0.8 to 3.0 per employee, now 2.4, score 0.7; voluntary turnover 18% to 11%, now 15%, score 0.4. Objective score 0.6.
  • The cascade: twelve facility, department and person key results. Ten serve a company objective (O3 four, O2 three, O1 two, O4 one); two sit in Other, a canteen repaint and the car park lighting, both finished and both real work.

Across the thirteen company key results: 7 Green, 4 Amber, 2 Red, average score 0.6. The review spends its time on the two reds (cost of poor quality, finished goods days) and the four ambers, and asks why O4 has one cascaded key result behind it when O3 has four. Share of cascaded key results aligned to a company objective: 10 of 12 = 83%.

Common mistakes

  • Twelve objectives

    A plant with twelve objectives has none: the people on the floor cannot hold them and the review cannot get through them. Three to five, and say no to the sixth.

  • A key result with no baseline

    'Get OTIF to 97%' says nothing about the size of the change. Measure the last twelve months first; the score has nothing to work from without it.

  • Scoring by feel

    A green decided in the meeting is a conversation, not a measure. Score every key result the same way from its numbers, then argue about what to do.

  • Only the company level is scored

    If facility and person key results are never scored, the cascade is a list of good intentions. Score every level the same way, every month.

  • Hiding Other

    Work that serves no objective does not go away when it is left off the sheet. Count it. A large Other is information, not a failure.

  • Changing key results every month

    A key result that moves whenever it is missed cannot be missed. Change one mid-year only when the business changed, and write down why.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite, goals for the year are set at company and facility level, each with an owner, a pillar, a Why it matters statement and the KPI it is measured by; a company goal is cascaded to chosen facilities with a reply-by date, each facility replies, and every month the goal shows Met or Missed from its KPI.

See it in a 45-minute demo

FAQ

OKR template for manufacturing: common questions

  1. A sheet that holds a company's objectives for a period and the key results that measure each one: the metric, its baseline, the target, the owner and the latest value, with a score worked out the same way for every key result. This one adds the cascade to facilities, departments and people, and an Other bucket for work that serves no objective.

  2. Progress = (latest value minus baseline) divided by (target minus baseline). The score is that progress clamped to 0 to 1.0 and rounded to one decimal, so a key result that overshoots scores 1.0 and one that went backwards scores 0.0. In this template 0.7 to 1.0 shows Green, 0.4 to 0.6 Amber and 0.0 to 0.3 Red; an objective scores the average of its key results. The bands are example values you can change.

  3. A KPI tracks the ongoing health of a process every day or week against a standard, such as OEE or scrap, and stays on the board year after year. A key result measures a change you have chosen to make this year, from a baseline to a target by a date. Often it is a KPI with a target that moves; when the change is done, it becomes a KPI to hold.

  4. Yes, and this template assumes they are. Hoshin kanri sets the three to five year breakthroughs and the annual objectives through catchball and the X-matrix; OKRs are a plain way to write and score the annual objectives and to cascade them; the bowling chart and the KPI boards track the numbers month by month. They are three vocabularies for one plan.

  5. Any facility, department or person key result, or any initiative, that serves none of the company objectives. Some work has to be done whatever the strategy says. The sheet counts how much, and the review decides whether the plan or the work should change.

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