Posts Tagged ‘kpi’

Focusing on Basics for Dashboards and KPI

Friday, June 13th, 2008

When developing dashboard KPI, there is an imminent need to focus on just the basics of KPIs here. This way, more informed decisions can be made faster.

KPI dashboards are tools that no company or organization should be without. This is because these dashboards contain the keys that make decision making all the more easier. The metrics provide the needed information for decision makers to make more informed decisions. After all, you never can tell when you would need to make sudden decisions that can mean the difference between success and failure for the company itself. Thus, KPI dashboards are very important tools for any company or organization to have. And they have very positive effects when it comes to the very experience of using them in companies.

However, a lot of companies actually incorporate so many metrics on their KPI dashboards. These companies do not really mean any harm in doing this. But what they do not realize is that the more metrics they include on the dashboard, the more confusing it would be to interpret the data represented by the metrics themselves. Thus, the better thing to do here is to choose just a few relevant metrics to include in your KPI dashboard.

It is very easy to get tempted to include a lot of KPIs in your dashboard. This is especially true when you see that you have a lot of data about your content, your models, specifications, colors, origination, and a lot more. When you feel very much tempted to include many KPIs for your dashboard, fight off the urge because less is more when it comes to dashboard KPIs. Just think about the time you can save when you have only a few KPIs to analyze and check out for representation. You also end up making decisions that are more profitable in the end.

Because you will be using just a few metrics for your dashboard, the issue at hand would now pertain to selecting which metrics you would include. Focus on the basics so that the members of the management staff can also focus on the aspects that drive the whole process of the trade from start to finish. You alone would know what particular metrics to use for your dashboard since businesses and organizations differ from one another. Of course, there are commonalities that you just cannot ignore. For instance, when it comes to the supply chain, these just might be the key indicators to include: cost reduction, shorter delivery time, on-time delivery, efficiency of manufacturing chain, better supplier management, and more. It is also important to portray all of these details in a certain format that can well present all information against indicators that have been pre-set, as well as historical trend data.

All of these just might be jargon to the ear at this point in time. And managers like to have specific information at hand so that the decision-making process can be made more speedy and efficient. The following are common indicators: Perfect Order Lead Time, Perfect Order Fulfillment, Production On Time and Complete, Expedited Order Fulfillment, Supplier Fulfillment On Time and Complete, Customer Return Rate, and Cash to Cash Cycle Time.

Supply chain management will certainly improve with the usage of these indicators on your dashboard. And the same procedure should be exercises when developing dashboards and KPI for whatever facet of the organization. Keeping the basics in mind will surely bring a lot of benefits for the organization as a whole.

Knowing How to Control Business Performance with KPI

Friday, June 6th, 2008

The performance of any business greatly relies on KPI or key performance indicators. Thus, knowing how to manipulate these can bring significant results for your business’s performance.

We all want our businesses to become successful, especially in terms of profit and stature. What businessman would not want this for his business, right? Thus, it is of import to exhaust all possible resources to control the performance of a certain business, so that performance itself can be guided accordingly. One effective way to deal with this is through the implementation and usage of KPI or key performance indicators. But just how does this work? What should every businessman know on how to control business performance with KPI?

The underlying concept here involves a lot of factors. For business performance to be controlled in a positive way, these factors have to be addressed. These include: the design of your KPI, the gathering of data that is to be plotted onto your KPI system, and the analysis and usage of the gathered data.

Your KPI design is just about the most important factor to consider here. There are a lot of indicators that you can include in your design. What’s important here is to choose indicators that are relevant to your cause. Now, these can vary from one company to another, since different companies inevitably have different corporate goals and objectives. For the most part, these are the indicators that frequent the usual KPI designs of so many companies: total monthly company profit, regional company profit, customer social position, and customer education. Having these indicators is quite important because a number of people from the upper management would be looking into this from different perspectives. To illustrate, the CEO of the company might want to take a look into the total profit metric, which is understandable since the CEO heads the whole company. The regional manager, on the other hand, might be interested on just regional company profit, since this is the scope of his or her job itself. Thus, your KPI design should bear in mind the needs of all people who will be viewing them.

However, the road towards successful performance does not end with just having a reliable KPI system. The inputted data and information have to be sorted out, analyzed, and represented appropriately and accurately. Thus, the very person who’s in charge of the analysis and representation of data gathered should indeed be as qualified as he or she should be. The analyst should be aware of the goals of the implementation of all metrics in the design. The analyst should also know why that particular metric was chosen, and not some other related one.

Keeping tabs with the limits of your KPI system is also important. You have to understand that there are also limits that come with your KPI design, no matter how awesome this might have been when it first came into play. Thus, it is of much importance to make sure your KPI system remains up to date because what worked well yesterday just might not produce any significant results today. What’s more, your KPI design is not really equipped to provide detailed facts about your business so avid representation is needed here.

By keeping these factors in mind, you will now have an idea just how to control business performance with KPI. Use these to the fullest so that your business, in turn, can also realize its full potential.

The Helping Hand of HR KPI in a Company

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Having HR KPI can assist any company in ensuring the productivity of its workforce. The indicators would show the management areas that need improvement, so that it can act accordingly.

The concept of HR KPI, or human resource key performance indicators, is not something new. The popularity of such can be attributed to the fact that taking note of key performance indicators is indeed very important in ensuring the overall success of any company. Regardless of size or tenure, key performance indicators are indeed needed.

What exactly are these key performance indicators? Let us place ourselves in the shoes of the employee first, so that we could have a better perspective of the concept. Now, a typical 8-hour job would give you particular demands and requirements to meet. At first, especially during the first few months at the job, meeting such demands and requirements would be fun enough for any employee.

But over time, the tasks and responsibilities entailed with the job could very well become tedious. With such tedium comes the possibility of your performance at the job dwindling as well. And if this tedium is not noticed or perceived early on, you just might be doing your company more harm than good. Without the presence of key performance indicators, you would definitely be doing your company more harm in the long run.

Key performance indicators basically focus on the performance of a certain company’s employees. Just to name a few, these indicators would include the employees’ initiative, teamwork, productivity, quality of work, job satisfaction, and many more. Measuring these aspects can help any company, particularly the management, gauge the company and how it is doing, as a whole. By examining, let’s say, the productivity indicator of the company, the management can then perceive for themselves how efficient the workforce is in this area.

But what the management is really after when employing these key performance indicators is determining which areas the company needs improving on. For instance, the indicators would show that a significant number of employees are not satisfied with their jobs and positions. This may be due to the inevitable tedium any employee would feel over time. Thus, the management can act accordingly and implement the appropriate changes to encourage the employees to perform better.

Encouragement would be the key concept here, so that the employees would once again feel that zest they once had when performing their tasks and responsibilities. If you look at human resource key performance indicators from this perspective, then it would totally make sense to have these implemented in any company or organization today. With these indicators, the management would be able to make more insightful and educated decisions pertaining to their workforce.

Other than that, HR KPI can also show the employees themselves their quantitative worth in the company. Aside from such measurements being encouraging, especially if the employee gets high marks, the indicators can also act as motivation. If you see that you need improvement on a certain task entailed in your job, wouldn’t you want to be informed? Being informed would mean that the management trusts that you have appreciation for constructive criticism, and that you have it in you to act accordingly and professionally. Thus, these indicators also promote both career and personal growth.