15 Ready-Mix Concrete KPIs and Benchmarks You Can’t Afford to Ignore

In the ready-mix industry, knowing how to measure and improve key performance indicators (KPIs) is just as important as knowing how to pour. From plant utilization to delivery accuracy and batch consistency, today’s most competitive producers rely on real-time metrics to stay one step ahead. In this post, we’ll break down critical KPIs and give you numerous benchmarks to help you evaluate your performance. By the end, you’ll understand which metrics matter most at the operational and strategic levels – and why.

Ready-Mix Concrete KPIs Are Business-Critical

Ready-mix concrete KPIs impact profitability, customer satisfaction, and operational stability. Monitoring these data points is critical to your success. Poor plant utilization or batching delays can bottleneck production. Missed deliveries erode trust with contractors. Inconsistent mixes can mean lost bids or costly quality callbacks. Fortunately, even small changes create an impact that will lift your bottom line.

Tracking metrics also builds accountability and fosters collaboration across teams. When they use standardized KPIs, executives in departments including Operations, Dispatch, and Quality Control speak a shared language and move toward shared targets.

Perhaps most importantly, the right KPIs empower fast decisions. If a plant is trending toward late deliveries, managers can shift truck assignments. If returned concrete spikes, dispatch can investigate order accuracy. Data helps stop small issues from becoming costly patterns. 

Monitor the Ready-Mix Concrete KPIs That Matter

The most essential ready-mix concrete KPIs fall into four major categories: Production, Delivery, Quality, and Efficiency. Tracking these metrics gives plant managers and executives a complete view of performance, cost effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.

Production KPIs

Without high-performing production, everything downstream suffers. Ready-mix concrete KPIs production KPIs reflect how well your plant is performing in terms of throughput, capacity usage, and uptime. 

1. Production Throughput (cubic yards/hour) measures how much concrete is produced per hour. Many high-capacity batch plants are rated for 180–300 yards/hour, making 100+ yards/hour during peak a reasonable benchmark for busy operations.
2. Plant Utilization Rate indicates the percentage of operational capacity being used. 85–90% is considered an optimal target across industries.
3. Batching Cycle Time tracks the average time to load a truck. Plants aiming for faster turnaround often benchmark ~10 minutes for a 10-yard load.
4. Unplanned Downtime measures time lost due to equipment failure or other unexpected events. Less downtime enables better throughput and scheduling.

Delivery KPIs

Delays in delivery can damage client relationships and increase costs. Delivery KPIs reflect your ability to satisfy customers and run an efficient fleet.

1. On-Time Delivery Rate (OTD) measures the percentage of orders delivered within a defined time window. According to the 2024 NRMCA Benchmarking Survey Report, top performers average 93% on-time delivery.
2. Truck Utilization shows how effectively mixer trucks are used. The same NRMCA report referenced above indicates that top performers average 5,380 cubic yards per truck annually in 2023.
3. Average Load Size indicates how close deliveries are to a truck's full capacity. Smaller gaps indicate more efficient use of trucks, fuel, and driver time.
4. Cycle Time per Load captures the total time from loading at the plant to returning after a job. Shorter cycles improve daily output per truck.

Quality KPIs

Consistency and compliance with specs protect your reputation and reduce costly rework. Quality-related ready-mix concrete KPIs make sure that you’re meeting internal standards and customer expectations.

1. Compressive Strength Compliance indicates the percent of test cylinders meeting or exceeding design strength as defined by the American Concrete Institute’s Code 318.
2. Batch Consistency (Slump/Air) tracks how often loads fall within your target range for slump and air content — for example, ±1 inch for slump or ±1.5% for air. Many producers aim for 90%+ compliance, though the acceptable range can vary by mix design and job specifications.
3. Water Added at Jobsite helps ensure field compliance with mix design. Excess water can weaken concrete.

Efficiency KPIs

Beyond operations, business performance relies on tight control of costs and resources.

1. Profit per Cubic Yard: No metric has more impact on your bottom line. In 2023, the average profit per cubic yard was $14.59—a 91% increase from 2022. Top quartile producers outperformed the bottom by $25.87 per yard.
2. Cost per Cubic Yard reflects how much it costs to produce and deliver one yard of concrete. While regional variations exist, NRMCA reports a 2023 national average selling price of $160 per cubic yard, implying producers must tightly manage costs below that level.
3. Returned Concrete Rate shows you how much of your output is being rejected. The NRMCA notes returned concrete averaged 2–5% of production, depending on scheduling and order management effectiveness.
4. Yards per Driver Hour: How many yards are your drivers moving? NRMCA benchmarking indicates yards per driver hour averages between 2.9 and 3.2.

Understand and Improve Ready-Mix Concrete KPIs with Better Technology

At Sysdyne, we help managers overcome the challenges created by legacy systems, manual tracking, and disconnected plant and fleet operations. Our ready-mix concrete software suite gives producers the real-time data and control needed to optimize performance. 

ConcreteGO concrete dispatch software is a modern system that reduces standby time and improves truck utilization through simple-to-use intelligent scheduling and real-time order management. Dispatchers can monitor driver hours, yards per load, and cycle times, all critical KPIs for maximizing fleet efficiency. ConcreteGO also enables proactive decision-making by alerting dispatchers to orders at risk of delay, allowing rerouting or load priority changes. Its advanced reporting makes it easy to spot trends in average load size or man-hour performance over time.

iStrada concrete delivery management software offers real-time GPS tracking, electronic ticketing, and mobile jobsite data capture. It enables accurate measurement of on-time delivery, water addition logging, and load status. These insights help track both logistics and quality KPIs like slump variability and jobsite wait time. Supervisors can view truck performance across an entire region and easily isolate bottlenecks—whether at the plant, in transit, or on site. Drivers using iStrada also provide better documentation for compliance and quality verification.

CloudBatch concrete batching systems automate batch plant control with precise material weighing and moisture correction. By improving batching accuracy, the software supports tighter control over mix consistency and reduces cement overuse, positively impacting both quality and cost KPIs. Remote monitoring is possible with CloudBatch. This allows a central team to supervise multiple plant operations from a single interface and reduces labor needs while maintaining a high level of control.

SysdyneBI is ready-mix business intelligence with advanced, plant-to-pour analytics that tie together operational, quality, and financial KPIs in a single dashboard. With built-in visuals and filters, decision-makers can track performance by plant, customer, driver, or project. Custom reports uncover trends in efficiency, load performance, and profitability, helping teams identify where and how to improve. BI delivers the insights needed to move from reactive decisions to proactive growth strategies.

These integrated solutions close the data gap between plants, trucks, and back-office systems. Together, they provide decision-makers with the real-time metrics needed to stay agile and competitive.

Ready to see how better data can lead to better KPIs? Contact us to schedule a short demo and explore what’s possible.