Measure and Monitor to Improve Business Performance- an overrated principle?

Measuring and monitoring data is being considered a major tool in the decision making process. William Edwards Deming – the statistician and author that had evolved into Plan-Do-check-Act (PDCA) cycle for continuous improvement- pointed out the value of using data to help improve the management of the organizations, whereas he also stated that just measuring and monitoring data is not sufficient. There are many things in the business environment, which cannot be measured and managers must still make decisions about. Or, there are cases where data cannot be of value if it is not verified and validated.

Using data to evaluate waste in the operational processes and in the overall business effectiveness is an objectively valuable management practice. And it is still a practice that is not massively used although digitalization of processes may, nowadays, support data retrieval and monitoring.
In AscentiWay methodology for value stream improvement we adhere that much more than managing what you can measure, is needed to efficiently manage organizations. Measurements and Data is the basis, which needs to be wisely used and translated to actual strengths and deficiencies to be appropriately managed.

Measurement tools

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics, organizations use to define their goals, and establish quantitative thresholds for their improvement, progress or achievements.

KPIs are the indicators’ measurements, which must be correlated to Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and strongly related to the strategic goals of the business. KPIs must aim to measure what is linked to the essential areas of activity and critical operations for the business management.

CSFs usually cover the following areas:

• Financial Metrics
• Customer Needs Coverage/ Satisfaction/ Experience
• Business processes effectiveness
• Learning and innovation

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

• Monitor the progress of achieving the CSFs
• Are quantifiable
• Focus to the amount of data that are important to business success

Benchmarking compares measures of a specific process or function to what is considered to be a standard of reference or best practice. Benchmarking provides a snapshot of the operations performance and allocates the position of the business in relation to a particular standard to initiate improvement actions and reach higher performance in relation to this standard of reference.

Engagement of the Human Factor is key to sustainable success in your business.

According to the Movement ‘Engage for Success’ in the UK, ‘’Employee engagement’’ is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each day, committed to their organisation’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being. Four common drivers of staff engagement have emerged from David MacLeod and Nita Clarke’s extensive research captured in Engaging For Success.

Strategic Narrative: Active and empowering leadership creates a solid vision and a traceable strategy to achieve the corporate goals.
Engaging Managers: Train the managers how to focus on people and give them scope, and appropriate coaching towards the company’s goals and targets.
Employee Voice: Employees are seen not as the problem, rather as central to the solution, to be involved, listened to, and invited to contribute their experience, expertise and ideas.
Integrity: Corporate values are reflected in day- to- day business life. Values and agreements are not compromised by any condition.

Many reengineering projects have historically failed due to the lack of cultural changes within the frame of the re-design of procedures. Cultural factors are the drivers of change in any environment where people are involved. Our methodology is based on our belief that you cannot effectively achieve a sustainable performance improvement without focusing equally on the cultural and operational factors of the organization.

Practice the New Way – Integrate the AscentiWay into the daily practice of your business.

Sustainable transformation means effective, practical management of change. Taking into consideration the crucial role of the human factor in business, we make your people the drivers of change so they can excel in their activities and raise productivity at its maximum. Thus, the newly improved procedures are directly tested and practiced in the daily business routine giving the opportunity to the staff to monitor actual benefits, or points for further improvement.

‘‘Join the Learning Experience of a Leaner and Sustainable Way of Success in your Business – A breakthrough to your Performance Improvement Strategy’’

As soon as the process improvement goals are set in the organization our experts follow a roadmap to transfer knowledge and expertise on the applied methods to the involved personnel. The staff becomes a counterpart to our team for the changing mechanism throughout the entire journey of the re-design of procedures and the total improvement process. Both on-the- job and theoretical training includes the key concepts, practical components and methods of lean management as it is being used in the frame of the AscentiWay methodology.

Description of Projects Planning and Implementation

Current status assessment- Diagnostic process – As the first step in our methodology our experts conduct a current state analysis by the use of modern tools in order to identify the weaknesses, the operational failures, the waste (in all directions), and, finally the potential for improvement along with the financial potential which can be achieved by the improvement and the re-engineering process.
Design – Based on the current status analysis and the conclusions of phase 1, we move to the Design phase where we involve the organization staff to understand what will work best for them to drive engagement, performance improvement and communications to a new level.
Test – The new model which is designed at the previous step is tested and reevaluated with regards to the suitability, effectiveness and expected outcomes.
Pilot – In the pilot phase the optimum model as defined by the test period is transferred to actual operational conditions and is implemented in a focused area of activities (pilot site). Continuous improvement and re-design techniques also apply at this stage. Training of the staff to the newly introduced model is a significant part of this stage.
Roll out – The pilot model after the refinements conducted at the previous level it is transferred to a wider area for implementation (roll out phase).