From Oxcart to Wal-Mart: Dealing with Duality in Emerging Markets
From Oxcart to Wal-Mart As more and more international retailers make a beeline for emerging markets like India, China, Nigeria, Mexico, and other markets, it is important for these retailers to embrace the chaos and duality that is inherent to these markets. For instance, in India, more than 95% of the retail market is dominated […]
Developing the Predictive Equation
Once the Scatter plot has been used to find out the correlation between the inputs being measured as well as the desired outputs, it is now time to come up with an equation which shows the precise relationship. This is called Regression. Regression is a technique which summarizes the relationships observed in the Scatter plot […]
BPI Project Walk Through – Understanding People and Process
Business Process Improvement projects are ideally suited for every business operation, especially to augment the process efficiency, to implement process changes and to take the business operations to the next level and meet with the Business demands and Customer expectations. For any BPI project to be successful, the leadership and the ownership of the Business […]
Six Sigma as a Strategic Tool
As mentioned in the earlier articles, Six Sigma helps the organization develop at various levels viz. operational, tactical and strategic. While the operational and tactical goals of cost reduction and increased customer satisfaction are well understood and appreciated, the strategic intent behind Six Sigma is not well recognized. It is the pivotal factor, however in […]
Cannabis Legalization: Impact on Canadian Economy
The movement to ensure the legalization of cannabis has been going on in many parts of the globe. Even in the United States, many states have legalized cannabis. This means that it is legal to possess cannabis for the purpose of sale in these states. However, this rule has not been formed on a national […]
While coming up with operational metrics one must not forget to begin by first clarifying and defining what they mean. This is because there is a good chance that there may be ambiguity regarding what the metric really means. To better understand how to come up with operational definitions, the following procedure must be followed.
Same Vocabulary: The same vocabulary must be followed all across the organization. This ensures consistency in what is being communicated by people from different facilities or locations.
Consider an automobile dealer with 4 branches. Three branches state that they deliver the car 2 days after the customer placing the order while one branch states that it takes 3 days to deliver the car. One may be led to believe that this dealership has a broken process. On closer inspection it is possible that a difference in vocabulary is the real cause.
It is possible that the three dealership call the day the customer placed the order as day 0 while the fourth one called it as day one. Therefore the time taken by both of them to deliver the car was same i.e. 72 hours. It is just that the vocabulary used was different. Such inconsistency can mislead the management and make them take wrong decisions. Hence while defining the metrics the relevant vocabulary must be defined as well.
How Data Is Collected ? There is also a possibility that there could be discrepancy in how different dealerships collect data. Let’s assume that one used random sampling to collect data while the other used stratified sampling. The results are obviously not comparable because the methods used are not the same. Hence data collection methods must be specified with no ambiguity.
How Calculations are Done ? Different departments are also likely to do calculations in different ways. This is also likely to create discrepancy in the value of the metrics being used. One department may round off the decimals while others may not and in some case it may produce significant difference in the values. To prevent this standard ways of calculating must be prescribed. It possible the data collection and calculation must be automated.
Develop the Range: Metrics do not always fall in the same line. They have approximately the same value, however not exactly the same value. Hence the range within which they normally fall in must be designed. This is usually done by creating control charts. If the metrics lie within the given range, then the process if working fine, if it is not then someone senior is alerted.
Classify what Happens if Variables go Beyond Range: Even when variable go out of range there are classifications. If the variable crosses the upper limit, it means one thing and if it crosses the lower limit, it means another. Also the magnitude by which it crosses the upper and lower limits can lead to the variables being classified separately.
Metrics will only be effective if the management has complete control over how they are created. The numbers should be comparable and mean exactly what they are supposed to mean.
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