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Recently we have had to develop key performance indicators and I struggled
to find a meaningful way to do so. Do you have any suggestions?
*******************
I always measure by "cost of quality". Whenever documentation is able to
save the company money -- potentially as well as actually -- I make it a
point to include this in my CQ quarterly reports.
Some of these dollar figures can come from risk avoidance:
1. If we had not written a company safety manual and implemented a full
safety program in accordance with OSHA requirements, and performed a gap
analysis with our own internal auditors before the next OSHA inspection,
what would we have paid in fines if their auditors had found the gaps before
ours did (so that we could fill them).
2. If we failed an FDA or Health Department or USDA documentation audit,
what would be the business cost of business suspension while we complied
with an order to repair deficiencies? If our internal auditors find and fix
a gap that would otherwise cause a regulatory audit non-compliance finding,
this cost can be counted as a savings due to the document control project.
3. If our competitors can fulfill all customer requirements (including
document control or even ISO registration) and we do not fulfill that
requirement, what would the loss of that customer's revenue do to our bottom
line? If two small customers would leave because we chose not to become
fully ISO registered, this might not be a problem and registration might not
be the best business choice. If we would lose the top 20% of our customer
base (uh oh, the 20/80 rule where that top 20% probably accounts for 80% of
our total revenue), this is a crisis and must be managed immediately.
Avoiding this crisis through good documentation can be counted as a savings
due to the document control project.
4. Lack of clear, available policies and instructions can result in
lawsuits and accidents. It's easy enough to find historical data for both.
Whenever the lack of clear documents was at the root of a loss, those
numbers can be used in the risk avoidance report as we close that gap with
good new documents.
5. As I document processes, can my document SME team look at ways to
improve the process to reduce downtime and changeovers? Of course. Can we
record the numbers after the new documents are released, and compare them to
the pre-documentation numbers? You betcha. Does that information go into
my quarterly reports? You had better believe it!
It's important to make sure we are putting 80% of our effort toward the 20%
of issues that will account for 80% of our company's progress. Managers
usually report to accountants, so as the communication professional it is
our job to present the measurement of our performance in the language of the
audience -- and that language is dollars.
One of my personal objectives is to deliver a Cost of Quality risk avoidance
and process improvement annual report that equals at least four times my own
salary.
Dori "What Are You, A Lawyer?" Green
No, I am not a lawyer. I'm the kid you hired so you wouldn't have to spend
time with lawyers.
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