KPI Dictionary · KPI tree

The KPI Tree

The dictionary defines thirteen metrics one entry at a time. This is the map of how they fit together — which metrics are literally other metrics combined, which pairs are the same arithmetic read twice, and where this practice judges one metric to move another. Every line carries its reason, and the authored ones say so.

Verified August 2026

The relationships below are current to the date above — verify against the dictionary entries they decompose before you build.

How to read it

None of these metrics stands alone. Cash-to-cash is three other metrics subtracted from each other. Perfect order is OTIF plus two more tests. OTIF is fill rate and on-time delivery evaluated jointly. Read one entry at a time and that is invisible; read them as a map and it is the first thing you see — which is also why a switch flipped in one entry quietly restates the number in another.

There are two kinds of line here and one honesty rule. A solid line is definitional: the arithmetic makes it true, and there is nothing to argue about. A dashed lineis this practice's judgment that one metric moves another — no coefficient, no promised effect size, and a written reason attached to every one of them. A dotted line is the same components aggregated a second way, which is why it has no arrowhead: neither end causes the other.

That distinction is the whole point. The dictionary's thesis is that supply chain metrics are not standardized and somebody has to author them; a map of how they interact is exactly the same problem one level up. So the definitional edges and the authored ones are drawn differently, listed separately below, and the authored ones are labeled as judgment rather than as findings.

Decomposes into (definitional)
Influences (authored)
Same arithmetic, restated
Named, not yet an entry

The tree

Thirteen dictionary metrics and the five components their arithmetic needs, laid out in four tiers. Select any node — by click or by keyboard — to see what it decomposes into, what it is a component of, and what this practice judges to move it. Nothing below the canvas depends on the selection: every relationship drawn here is also written out in the two sections that follow.

Select a metric to see its relationships.

The definitional edges, written out

Three metrics in the dictionary are defined as other metrics combined. Each one is spelled out below with its arithmetic and the reason each component belongs — these are the edges nobody has to take on trust.

Cash-to-Cash Cycle Time

C2C days = DIO + DSO − DPO

Days of Supply (DOS / DIO) (inventory leg (DIO)) — DIO is days of supply in dollars — the days-of-supply entry's formula says so — and the cash-to-cash entry warns the two must be one shared computation or they contradict each other in front of finance.
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) (discussed in the dictionary) (receivables leg) — Cash-to-cash is DIO plus DSO minus DPO by definition; DSO is the receivables leg, struck against revenue under the classical convention.
Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) (discussed in the dictionary) (payables leg) — The payables leg, struck against cost of goods — subtracted, because supplier terms finance the cycle.

Perfect Order Rate

Perfect order = on time ∧ in full ∧ damage-free ∧ invoice-accurate

OTIF (on-time & in-full components) — The on-time and in-full tests of the perfect-order set, taken jointly at order grain, are OTIF — perfect order is OTIF plus the condition and billing tests.
Damage-Free Delivery (discussed in the dictionary) — The condition component of the classical perfect-order set — a line delivered in full that arrives damaged fails the order.
Invoice Accuracy (discussed in the dictionary) — The billing component of the classical set — the hardest to assemble, because disputes surface in receivables rather than in shipping.

OTIF

OTIF = on time ∧ in full, on the same line

Fill Rate (the quantity half) — Fill rate is OTIF's in-full component measured alone — jointly tested inside OTIF and never multiplied with the time half, because late lines are disproportionately short lines.
On-Time Delivery (OTD) (discussed in the dictionary) (the time half) — OTD is OTIF's on-time component measured alone — a pass/fail clock with no quantity test.

Same arithmetic, restated

Two pairs of entries are built from identical components and differ only in how those components are combined. Neither end drives the other, so neither edge carries an arrowhead — but a switch changed on one side silently restates the other.

Forecast Accuracy and Forecast Bias — Identical components from the same forecast-vs-actual fact: accuracy takes the absolute value, bias keeps the sign — which is why both entries list the same source tables.
Inventory Turns and Days of Supply (DOS / DIO) — Days of supply is roughly 365 divided by turns — but only when both are built on identical bases; the same numerator family, inverted.

The authored influences, written out

The eight edges below share no arithmetic. They are this practice's judgment, drawn from building these metrics against real planning and fulfillment data, and each one is stated as a mechanism rather than as a measured effect. There is no coefficient here, no benchmark, and no claim about how much one number moves another — if your operation disagrees with an edge, your operation is the evidence and this map is the opinion.

Forecast Bias → Excess & Obsolete (E&O) — A consistent over-forecast accumulates stock one planning cycle at a time, and coverage measured against that same forecast hides the excess until the forecast is corrected.
Forecast Accuracy → Days of Supply (DOS / DIO) — Safety stock is sized against forecast error at the planning lag — the larger the error, the more coverage the buffer adds to on-hand.
Lead Time → Days of Supply (DOS / DIO) — Safety stock exists to absorb the lead-time tail; a longer or fatter-tailed distribution raises the buffer, and the buffer is on-hand — the days-of-supply numerator.
Lead Time → On-Time Delivery (OTD) (discussed in the dictionary) — The on-time test is a threshold drawn on the same clock lead time reads as a distribution — the distribution shifts, and OTD moves before any promise changes.
Schedule Attainment → Fill Rate — What production does not build against the frozen schedule, the first shipment cannot ship — mix misses surface downstream as first-pass fill misses.
Days of Supply (DOS / DIO) → Fill Rate — First-pass fill fails where coverage runs out; the coverage days of supply reports is the availability fill rate spends.
Supplier On-Time Delivery → Inventory Turns — Unreliable inbound receipts force planners to carry earlier and larger buffers; that raises average inventory for the same annual consumption and pushes turns down.
First Pass Yield → Schedule Attainment — Scrap and rework consume the very capacity the schedule was cut against — a unit that fails its first pass either never completes or completes late, so a first-pass miss surfaces as a schedule-attainment miss before any customer sees it.

What this map is not

Not a causal model. No edge carries a coefficient, an elasticity, or a promised effect size, and nothing here says a point of forecast bias buys a day of coverage. The influence edges are directional judgments about mechanism; the size of any of them is an empirical question about your own data, and the honest way to answer it is to measure it there.
No benchmarks. Nothing on this page compares a number to an industry figure. Where the dictionary mentions a target, it is an internal goal and says so — a map of how metrics interact does not need a scoreboard to be useful.
Not an industry framework. This is deliberately not SCOR or any other published hierarchy. Those exist, they are useful, and they are also somebody else's authored judgment with the authorship filed off. This map claims exactly as much authority as the reasons written beside its edges. (SCOR is a registered trademark of the Association for Supply Chain Management; it is named here only to say this map is not it.)
The dashed-border nodes are not a to-do list with a date on it. DSO, DPO, invoice accuracy, damage-free delivery, and on-time delivery appear because the arithmetic above them needs them, not because they have entries. Each one links to the section that already discusses it, and each gets a full entry when the dictionary reaches it — drawing them as finished would be the dishonest option.

Everything here is free to copy, adapt, and argue with — no attribution required, no email needed. If an edge disagrees with the entry it connects, the entry is the source of truth and the edge is the bug.

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