Define Your System Objectives
Measuring system performance and providing feedback to the team is the primary catalyst for process improvement. Measure a system 1) if it drives your company goals, 2) if it is a constraint to the sales throughput of your business, 3) if it will motivate people to a higher level of performance, or 4) if the measurement is an important leading indicator for managing business operations. You decide which business systems are useful to measure; only spend time measuring if you expect a tangible benefit.
Most often, there is one primary measurement of system performance (e.g., number of deliveries per day; number of applications processed). However, there may be secondary measurements you have an interest in. For example, you could measure what percent of deliveries were on time, or what percent of applications were not completed correctly.
In the System Objectives section of Box Theory™ Software (or on the System Dashboard), first, check to see if the system has a direct influence on a Balanced Scorecard goal. If so, add this company goal as a reference. Then determine the most relevant measurement(s) for the current System/box. The software prompts you to choose productivity, quality, timeliness, cycle time, resource utilization, or costs. You can read an explanation of these on the “Principles” page or in the “Software Help.”
Like the company Balanced Scorecard, you will write the system objective, unit of measure, and target goal (see the software Measurement Examples page).
After deciding what you want to measure, go to the Measurement Report Manager, and quickly create your report for data entry. You don’t have to measure every system!
Remember: Numbers are the language of improvement!
Ron Carroll
Better Systems
Better Business