Action 3.3 Identify the 'In Process' and 'Results' Measures

Based on the customer’s requirements and expectations, and any business needs, identify measures which can be used to collect data about how the process is performing as seen by the customer.  These are known as ‘results’ measures and are focused on the outputs of the process (these can be collected from within the organisation or by collecting data directly from the customer). 

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Once these ‘results’ measures have been defined, move through the process identifying key points which, if they were measured, would indicate how the process is performing and predict the result or outcome that the customer will receive.  These are known as ‘in process’ measures. 

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Ideally we put measures where there is a risk of increased waste (the process operates incorrectly) or where there are key internal interfaces that need to be operated in a way that achieves the real requirement for the customer. 

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Areas where increased waste, rework and things going wrong can accumulate are typically where decisions have to be made on the run.  The deployment flowchart can be used to identify these locations.  

 

Another area where error often occurs is at an internal supplier-customer interface - between different work groups, different departments, different divisions, different shifts.  Measures placed on these interfaces will often identify where people  are not getting what they need to be able to do a good job. 

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Each measure needs to be operationally defined so that when the data is collected everyone understands how the data is collected, where it is collected from, when it is collected and why it is collected.  An example if we have a measurement of ‘delivery in full and on time’, the operational definition of ‘in full on time’ is the quantity of and date on which the product arrives at the customer’s premises and is signed in by the customer.  If data is not collected in the same way by everyone, then any comparison of the data collected is meaningless. 

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The key to designing measures is to understand what you want to know and why you want to know it. 

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Pro tips

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Results measures are measures that show the results or outcome of an event, and are usually acted on after the event.

 

In process measures are 'real time' (the measures are taken as the process is happening) and can reacted on immediately.

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An operational definition is an agreement about the way the measurement gets done, so that everyone involved is collecting the same data, at the same point in the process and in the agreed on way