Continuous improvement is long term habit. Regular health check of process is needed. very few process/SOP get its review. Right measuring may help in process improvement quickly.
- Do monitor PCE (process cycle efficiency). PCE is measure of Value added time/ Total lead time. It is better pulse of long processes like Procure to pay or manufacture to consume etc. Service process ends up in waiting/batching or other delays. Lean is easy to implement technique. It improves value added time (VAT)
- Ontime is another measure. Is process build to deliver? High inflow process would struggle to deliver. I also have seen processes where ontime KPI remains above 100% continuously. If a activity take 2 minutes and you take target as 1 hours. It will remain 100% ontime. What a waste of efforts to measure it? KPI needs frequent reviews to adjust organizational goals.
- Takt time is amazing KPI for any lean process. Traditional management is dependent on push technology. Matching takt time is important. Event slightest mismatch may create huge inventory. Process rhythm will go away. Takt time can be first determined with the formula: T= Ta/D , Ta is Net time available to work. D is customer demand.
- Inventory is key signal of process. Mismatched takt time may create inventory. Process step of high cycle time will be culpit. If you know this KPI , you may know many things. Traditional management practices relies heavily on it.
- Forecasting accuracy may measure how well you are using resources. COPC has heavily relies on it. We may have manpower when it is not needed and lost KPI’s when it is needed. Smart managers overstaff process before festivals/ seasonal trends or contingency. No harm is there to keep some buffer. However running a continuously inefficient process is a crime.
How many of these are you measuring for your critical process ?