12 Warehouse KPIs That Actually Matter (and 5 That Don't)

Measure too little and you fly blind. Measure too much and you bury the signal in noise. Here's a short list that won't lie to you.

The 12 that matter

1. Inventory accuracy (% SKUs with zero variance).
2. On-time dispatch rate.
3. Order accuracy rate (% orders with zero errors).
4. Pick rate (units per picker hour).
5. Receiving cycle time.
6. Put-away accuracy.
7. Carrying cost as % of inventory value.
8. Dead stock as % of inventory value.
9. Backorder rate.
10. Average days on hand.
11. Return rate by SKU.
12. Cost per order shipped.

The 5 to ignore

1. "Warehouse utilisation %" � counts space, not value.
2. Number of POs raised � a vanity metric.
3. Stock turn for the whole warehouse � only meaningful per SKU class.
4. Average order size � useful only if linked to margin.
5. Number of suppliers � more is not better.

VasKem reports all 12 KPIs by default.