Strategic Measurement in the Lean Enterprise
October 30, 2002
Professor Debbie Nightingale
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Metrics Serve Multiple Purposes
“Performance control systems can serve
two purposes, to measure and to
motivate.”
H. Mintzberg, The Structure of Organizations, (1979)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Metrics Are Measurements You Can Use
z Metrics are meaningful, quantified measures
z To be meaningful, a metric must present data or information that
allows us to take action
– Helps to identify what should be done
– Helps to identify who should do it
z Metrics should be tied to strategy and to “core” processes - they
should indicate how well organizational objectives and goals are
being met through disciplined “core” processes
z Metrics should foster process understanding and motivate
individual, group, or team action to continually improve the way
they do business. (Measurement does not necessarily result in
process improvement. Good metrics always do.)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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When Assessing a Metric System Ask
the Following Types of Questions
z Does it clearly define what constitutes business excellence?
z Does it provide the information required to set aggressive yet
achievable strategic objectives and stretch goals?
z Does it accurately portray our progress and probability of achieving
both long-term strategic objectives and near-term milestones?
z Does it identify the root causes of barriers?
z Does it focus the organization on the priority improvement needs?
z Does it drive the behavior and actions required to achieve the
objectives?
z Does it align work with value?
z Is it easy to use?
z Does it involve everyone?
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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What Are The Characteristics of a
“Good” Metric?
z Easy to get
z Answers the questions
z Produces the desired results
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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A “Good” Metric Satisfies 3 Broad Criteria
1. Strategic
2. Quantitative
3. Qualitative
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Strategic
A good metric should:
z Enable strategic planning and then drive
deployment of the actions required to achieve
strategic objectives
z Ensure alignment of behavior and initiatives with
strategic objectives
z Focus the organization on its priorities
Example: How fast do we need to develop and market new
products to grow 20 percent per year?
Example: How fast do we need to develop and market new
products to grow 20 percent per year?
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Quantification of Metrics is Critical
“When you can measure what you are speaking
about, and express it in numbers, you know
something about it; but when you cannot
measure it, when you cannot express it in
numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and
unsatisfactory kind.”
- Lord Kelvin
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Quantitative
A good metric should:
z Provide a clear understanding of progress toward
strategic objectives
z Provide current status, rate of improvement, and
probability of achievement
z Identify performance gaps and improvement
opportunities
Example: What is the cycle time of our product development
process? Where does the process need improving the most?
Example: What is the cycle time of our product development
process? Where does the process need improving the most?
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Qualitative
A good metric should:
z Be perceived as valuable by your organization
and the people involved with the metric
Example: Is the effort and cost of collecting the data reasonable?
Is the information timely and actionable?
Example: Is the effort and cost of collecting the data reasonable?
Is the information timely and actionable?
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Process Management
A Paradigm Shift
Go from
Measure the process and manage the results
(Inspection and Corrective Action Approach)
To
Manage the process and measure the results
(Prevention Approach)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Major Categories of Hard Data for
Non-Financial Performance Metrics
Primary
Measurements of
Process Improvement
Productivity
Improvement
(Output Increases)
Time
Savings
Quality
Improvement
Cost
Savings
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Two Edicts
“Effective measurement must be an integral
part of the management process.”
“What you measure is what you get”
R.S. Kaplan and D.P. Norton, Harvard Business Review, January-February, 71-79 (1992)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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The Balanced Scorecard Addresses
Four Key Perspectives
How do customers see us? Customer perspective
What must we excel at? Internal perspective
Can we continue to improve
and create value?
Innovation and learning
perspective
How do we look to
shareholders?
Financial perspective
The balanced scorecard allows managers to look at the business from
four important perspectives providing the answer to four basic questions:
R.S. Kaplan and D.P. Norton, Harvard Business Review, January-February, 71-79 (1992)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
While giving senior managers information from four different perspectives,
the balanced scorecard minimizes information overload by limiting the
number of measures used.
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The Balanced Scorecard Translates
Strategy into Operational Terms
Customer
To achieve customer satisfaction,
how should we appear to customers?
Shareholder
To increase shareholder value,
How should we appear to
our shareholders?
People
To have a winning team,
what competencies
& behaviors must we excel at?
Process
To sustain competitive advantage,
what business processes must
we excel at?
Vision
and
Mission
STRATEGIES
Source: From Kaplan and Norton, The Balanced Scorecard
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Balanced Scorecard Provides a
Strategic Framework for Action
Balanced
Scorecard
Clarifying and Translating the
Vision and Strategy
?Clarifying the vision
?Gaining consensus
Planning and Target Setting
?Setting targets
?Aligning strategic initiative
?Establishing milestones
Communicating & Linking
?Communicating and educating
?Setting goals
?Linking rewards to performance
measures
Strategic Feedback & Learning
?Articulating the shared vision
?Supplying strategic feedback
?Facilitating strategy review and learning
Source: From Kaplan and Norton, The Balanced Scorecard
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Balanced Scorecard Integrates
Company’s Reporting Process
“The scorecard brings together in a single report
many of the disparate elements of the
company’s competitive agenda, e.g. becoming
customer oriented, shortening response time,
improving quality, emphasizing team-work,
reducing new product launch times and
managing for the long term.”
R.S. Kaplan and D.P. Norton, Harvard Business Review, January-February, 71-79 (1992)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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The Balanced Scorecard Hierarchy
Financial
zCash flow ROI
zResidual income
zPercent revenue from
innovation
zResidual cash flow
zRevenue growth
Customer
zCustomer zCustomer zCustomer
satisfaction loyalty service
Internal Business Processes
zThroughput zReduction zOn-time
time in waste delivery
Innovation and Learning
zNumber of new products zReturn on innovation zEmployee skills
zTime-to-market (new products) zTime spent talking to customers
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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The Balanced Scorecard:
Performance Measurement Hierarchy
H
(F + G)
Level 1
(e.g., Top Management)
Level 2
(e.g., Middle Management)
Level 3
(e.g., Workers)
F
(A + B)
G
(C + D + E)
ABCD E
z Performance measurement hierarchies are structured to provide
the right level of performance-related information
z Hierarchies are frequently formed, in response to the need for the
same measure, to measure a similar aspect of performance, but
at different levels
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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The Balanced Scorecard:
Relationship Between Process Improvement, Strategy, Vision, & Metrics
Feedback for process improvement
Targets
OutputsInputs Process
Vision
Strategy
Objectives
Goals
Top Management
Middle Management
Workers
Indices and
individual metrics
Indices and
Individual metrics
Individual
metrics &
supporting
cross-section
data
and statistics
Source: Adapted from R. Simons, Levers of Control (1995), p. 63
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Primary Purposes of the Balanced
Performance Metrics Scorecard
z Align a balanced set of performance metrics with
business strategy and vision
z Provide management and work teams with the
information necessary and sufficient to meet their
objectives and goals
z Create “line-of-sight” at lower levels of the
organization
z Foster and support process continuous improvement
initiatives
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Alignment of Strategic Objectives and
Metrics is a Powerful Force
“When the critical success factors of a strategy
are quantified and used as a measure of policy
deployment, they can become a powerful force
for aligning organizational priorities, actions,
and behavior with strategic objectives.”
- Raytheon Systems Metrics Team
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Align Priorities, Metrics and People
with Your Strategy
Process Use of Metrics
1. Define business excellence
for your
business.
Strategic measures of
success are established.
2. Assess your progress. Progress is compared to
world class, to
competitors, and to
strategic objectives.
Gaps are quantified.
3. Identify improvement
opportunities.
Quantify potential gains.
Set improvement
priorities, goals, and
timetables.
4. Establish and deploy an
action plan.
Key performance
indicators are aligned with
priorities and are
deployed at all levels of
the organization.
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Companies are Using the Balanced
Scorecard to:
z Clarify and update strategy
z Communicate strategy throughout the company
z Align unit and individual goals with the strategy
z Link strategic objectives to long-term targets and
annual budgets
z Identify and align strategic initiatives
z Conduct periodic performance reviews to learn about
and improve strategy
Companies are expanding their use of the balanced
scorecard, employing it as the foundations of an integrated
and iterative strategic management system
Companies are expanding their use of the balanced
scorecard, employing it as the foundations of an integrated
and iterative strategic management system
R.S. Kaplan and D.P. Norton, Harvard Business Review, January-February, 71-79 (1992)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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No One “Right” Set of Metrics
z The balanced scorecard has to be tailored to each
specific company
z The resulting scorecard of indicators should be
driven by the firm’s strategy if it is not to consist
merely of a listing of indicators:
“…although there may be a potentially long list of non-financial
indicators, individual firms have to be selective by linking
explicitly their choice of indicators to their corporate strategy.”
“…although there may be a potentially long list of non-financial
indicators, individual firms have to be selective by linking
explicitly their choice of indicators to their corporate strategy.”
R.S. Kaplan and D.P. Norton, Harvard Business Review, January-February, 75-85 (1996)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Metrics Must Be Changed to Maintain
Alignment With New Strategies
Typical causes of metric misalignment are:
1. The metric is wrong and must be changed to align with the
strategy
2. The right things are being measured, but the strategy is out of
date and must be realigned with the changing market
3. Management perspective and policy are wrong and must change
with the strategy and market
4. The process has matured and new metrics are required
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Business-Growth Product-Development Process-Test People-Learn
METRICS Phase-II
Business-Mature Product-In Market Process-Formalize People-Practice
METRICS Phase-III
Business-Declining Product-PhaseOut Process-Optimize People-Expert
METRICS Phase-IV
Business-Emerging Product-Concept Process-Develop People-Competency
Customer
Product Development
Manufacturing
Supplier Relations
Support
METRICS Phase-1
Best Life Cycle Metrics
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
Metrics Will Change Over an Item’s Life Cycle
Entity Phases Attributes
Business
Emerging
Growth
Mature
Declining
? Cash flow
? Competitive advantage
? Market share
? Critical Mass
Product
Concept
Development
In market
Phase-out
? Creative backlog
? Potential product revenue
? Cost per feature
? Time to market
? Performance requirements
? Predicted product quality
? Design to cost
? Profitability
? Market expansion rate
? Volume impact on cost
? Inventory
? Customer support
Core
Competency
Recognition
Learn
Practice
Expert
? Inventory of skills and capabilities
? Competitive advantage
? Acquire knowledge
? Cycles of learning
? Use
? Apply
? Levels of use in organization
? Deployment
? Teach
? Leverage advantage
? Combine and evaluate
Raytheon Systems, 1998
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Process and Metric Maturity Model
Level Metric
Maturity
Process
Maturity
Metrics are ad hoc and
primarily results oriented.
Little or no process focus. That
which exists is primarily directed
internally toward local operations
1
Initial Initial
?Business process management, which
begins & ends with the customer is
established, in control, and in the
conscious thinking of management.
?Process metrics added &
integrated with result metrics
?Metrics aligned between
strategy & daily activities in core
processes
2
Vertical
Alignment
Core
Processes
Managed
?Common process language &
specifications
?Integrated core processes allow a
seamless flow of work across process
boundaries
?Metrics reinforce & leverage
activities across all core business
processes
?Local interests are subordinated
to the good of the whole
3
Horizontal
Alignment
Core
Processes
Integrated
4
Total
Alignment
Enabling
Processes
Integrated
?All metrics (process, results,
organizational, geographic, etc.)
align with strategic objectives,
provide competitive advantage &
optimize the whole
?Support processes are integrated with
and enable core business processes to
provide competitive advantage.
? Customer-focused process
management is applied unconsciously
5
Optimizing
Holistic
?Metric-driven actions simulated
during strategy setting process to
ensure organizational alignment
before metrics are implemented
?Process management has
provided world-class competitive
advantage (e.g., nodal influence,
agile & forward looking)
Raytheon Systems, 1998
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level One: Initial
Enterprise does not manage its business with a process
focus
z Many metrics sub-optimized by local organizational interests
rather than having them aligned with customer interests and
with the strategic objectives of the enterprise
z Organizations measure the results of past actions
z Results-oriented metrics cannot provide the leading indicators
needed for timely corrective action to change outcomes
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Two: Vertical Alignment
Definition
Vertical alignment is the alignment and reinforcement of strategic
objectives with supportive goals and progress measures at all
levels of the organization.
Vertical alignment is the alignment and reinforcement of strategic
objectives with supportive goals and progress measures at all
levels of the organization.
z The business enterprise applies a process focus so it can
measure leading indicators of the expected process output
z Defective process output is viewed as a process-capability
problem, not a people problem
z Carefully chosen metrics ensure that all levels of the
organization align with strategic objectives
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Two Example
A core process related to product development activities
might be documented, be in control (repeatable), be
consistently deployed across the organization, and have
measurable improvement gains. If so, that process is
probably at or near Level 2 maturity. If the metrics indicate
variations in the process results, then they are still at Level
1 because the process is not in control.
A core process related to product development activities
might be documented, be in control (repeatable), be
consistently deployed across the organization, and have
measurable improvement gains. If so, that process is
probably at or near Level 2 maturity. If the metrics indicate
variations in the process results, then they are still at Level
1 because the process is not in control.
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Three: Horizontal Alignment
1. The global optimization of work flow across all
process boundaries. These boundaries become
transparent to the flow of work. Metrics are
customer-focused and assess the enterprise-level
capability of a process to provide value from the
customer’s perspective.
2. The global optimization of work flow across all
organizational boundaries that support or use a
particular process. Metrics are customer-focused
and assess how well the infrastructure enables
execution of customer-focused processes.
Two phases:
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Three Example
The enterprise may have several core customer-related processes
such as winning new business and developing new products. Also,
the enterprise may have many functions that support or execute
these core processes.
The enterprise may have several core customer-related processes
such as winning new business and developing new products. Also,
the enterprise may have many functions that support or execute
these core processes.
Level 3 characteristics include:
z Integrated core processes that customers see as seamless
z Minimized hand-offs or delays as work moves among
processes and sub-processes
z Management focus primarily on early process activities in a
product life cycle
z Metrics insure local organizational interests (functional or
business unit) are subordinated to customer needs and
what is best for the entire business
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Four: Total Alignment
Definition
Total alignment is the synergistic interaction of metrics from all
support processes with metrics from all core process to reinforce
the strategy and to drive business excellence.
Total alignment is the synergistic interaction of metrics from all
support processes with metrics from all core process to reinforce
the strategy and to drive business excellence.
z All employees clearly see where the business is headed
and how they can make a difference.
z Horizontal integration (Level 3) provides employees with
“line of sight” to customer value. Dramatic performance
improvements can occur at this level.
z Total enterprise-level alignment (Level 4) is required to
overcome the major systemic barriers to great performance
and to embed the long-term gains into the fabric of the
organization’s culture.
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Four Example
At Level 4, the enterprise begins asking how
enabling processes create competitive
advantage for the core customer-related
processes, rather than what they do to improve
themselves.
At Level 4, the enterprise begins asking how
enabling processes create competitive
advantage for the core customer-related
processes, rather than what they do to improve
themselves.
z Total enterprise alignment is required to overcome the major
systemic barriers to great performance
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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Level Five: Optimizing
z From a process perspective, the enterprise will have much
greater influence on the market than its size might indicate. The
agile and forward-looking enterprise will be able to foresee
events and respond to those events before they occur.
z From a metrics perspective, the enterprise will be able not only
to simulate and predict the outcome of a strategy before its
deployment, but also to predict the effect of specific metrics on
the outcome of that strategy before choosing metrics.
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001
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How One Company Built a Strategic
Management System...
Clarify the Vision (months 1-4)
Communicate to Middle Managers (months 4-5)
Develop Business Unit Scorecards (months 6-9)
Eliminate Non-strategic Investments (months 6)
Launch Corporate Change Programs (months 6)
Review Business Unit Scorecards (months 9-11)
Refine the Vision (months 12)
Communicate the Balanced Scorecard to the Entire Company (months 12-...)
Establish Individual Performance Objectives (months 13-14)
Upgrade Long-Range Plan and Budget (months 15-17)
Conduct Monthly and Quarterly Reviews (months 18-...)
Conduct Annual Strategy Review (months 25-26)
Link Everyone’s Performance to the Balanced Scorecard (months 25-26)
Debbie Nightingale, MIT ? 2001