What I think about KPI's, especially in terms of those which look like production KPI's is to create a KPI tree. So everyone from shopfloor upwards to see out that KPI links in to achieve business objectives and annual plans. Often they don't and are just a short term activity. If the KPI doesn't go anywhere it brcomes meaningless. Each area should have its own KPI tree to define its objectives. Actually its rare to see these trees and people die under a mountain of data and reporting stats that to others don't seem to mean much because they don't understand the links to overall objectives