Use Your Data Well

Modern manufacturing or service delivery systems produce lots of opportunities for collecting data which can be used to improve those systems.  

Many firms have recognised this and have installed a system of key performance indicators (KPIs) which help tell them where things are going well, and, perhaps more importantly, where they are not.

However all this data collection, analysis and presentation can become arduous and complex.   If not done effectively, a measurement system can confuse and obfuscate the ‘truth’.

This leads to organisations attempting to implement digital technologies and computer systems which can process data more quickly and present it more simply, bringing the ‘truth’ into greater focus.

None of this is simple or cheap.

However, if you think implementing a large integrated system that produces the right information to help your planning, control  and decision-making is too expensive, try implementing a smaller, less-well integrated system and see how much that costs - especially as you grow.

There are ways of implementing systems that help reduce costs (and doing so in stages)  but you need a vision of what your intended, final , fully-integrated system will look like, so you can build towards it and put in place the potential for inter-connection, rather than trying to integrate different parts of a system later.

Most importantly, you need the right data that is going to help you uncover the ‘truth’ we spoke about earlier.

So, review your system of metrics and where and how they are, or can be, collected … and then plan your integrated performance review system.

Good luck!

Volunteers Wanted

Volunteering generates a £4.6bn productivity boost to the UK economy each year, new research has found. 

A study by the think tank Pro Bono Economics, commissioned by the Royal Voluntary Service, estimates the UK benefits from annual productivity gains of more than £4,500 per volunteer working in professional and managerial occupations. 

The report, called A Pro Bono Bonus: The Impact of Volunteering on Wages and Productivity and published very recently, says white-collar workers who volunteer with charities typically benefit from learning new skills and developing existing ones.  These may be technical skills but are just as likely to be ‘softer’ communication, project management and innovation-related skills.

This is a real win-win situation, resulting in increased productivity, satisfaction and well-being for the individual and improved performance and productivity for the volunteer’s organisation.

 

Don't turn burnout into bored-out

Many people seem to be suffering from burnout.  They feel the organisation asks too much of them, that they are never completely off-duty.

An organisation might respond with consideration by reigning back on some of the pressures, some of the ‘asks’.

The problem is that then the  employee think they are not achieving, not fully involved snd they start to lose interest.  They now suffer from ‘bored-out’.  

Employees react best and perform better when they feel they have a real purpose, when they understand how their role and their work contribute to the organisation’s goals and mission. They can feel pressure from ‘stretch goals’ but achieving them gives them a real high, a great sense of achievement. Even failure to reach a stretch goal can give greater satisfaction than easily achieving a goal that doesn’t stretch..

So, be careful how you address what looks like burnout.  Don’t change it into bored-out. Review goals and targets for individuals and teams and make sure employees know their role and their performance is vital and valued.

Big Isn't Alwayas Best

There is a universal truth that the private sector is always more efficient than the public sector - that the profit motive drives efficiency.

Larger companies have the advantage of being able to negotiate e better prices with their suppliers and have the advantage of ‘economies of scale’ with their production and delivery processes

However, things are not always what they at first seem to be. 

My personal observation, from working across the public snd private sectors  and across both small and large organisations, is that efficiency is negatively correlated with organisation size - large organisations are inefficient, small ones are generally efficient.

The reason is ‘engagement’.

In a small organisation, the owners/ managers are directly involved with all aspects of the processes involved in delivering goods or services to customers.   They see each step in each process and how different processes connect with others.  They know the other managers and often all supervisors and many of the staff. They communicate effectively because communication lines are short.

Similarly the workers are more likely to engage with the organisation. They know their role and how and where it fits into the overall process. They know the other staff, the supervisors and the managers. They know their contribution and performance can be judged. Issues cab be dealt with directly and swiftly. 

Little of this applies in a large organisation. Relationships, performance and issues tend to drift and fester. 

These advantages of engagement in small organisations can far outweigh the direct economic advantages of larger ones. 

What Is Non-Ptroductive?

A focus on productivity, and its development is a good thing - indeed, an essential thing for all organisations.

However, there is a danger that we over-focus and forget about balance.

There is a tendency to bifurcate all activity into being either productive or non-productive.  So, a worker operating his/her machine is (clearly) productive.  A worker taking a break is (just as clearly?) non-productive.

Yet what would happen if we did not give our employees any breaks. Would productivity rise?

Perhaps temporarily - until the employees become exhausted and start making errors.

Those of you who are, or were, involved in work measurement will know that rest and recovery times are built in to work standards for this very reason.

Another example of this dilemma is employee training.  If employees being trained are taken away from their machines, they are clearly non-productive.  Yet presumably we are training them so they can be more productive in the future.

So.be careful with your simple binary approach.  Think of the longer-term and consider whether non-productive time and events will have (perhaps indirect) productivity benefits over the longer-term.  

You should be optimising, rather than short-term maximising, productivity.