KPI Basics
How Apple use ‘Observable Consequences’
Figuring out how vulnerable your software is to malicious attack has got to be right up there on the ‘hard to measure stuff’ league table. Why? Because anyone who knows how to hack your software probably isn’t going to tell you that they can. The most valuable exploits are the ones that no-one knows about.…
KPI Cheat Sheet – Making KPIs and Measures Easy to Understand
Most KPIs are really badly documented, if they are documented at all No matter which industry, I find three things are consistently true of KPIs KPIs and measures are not fully understood by all of those using them KPIs and measures are poorly documented The documentation that does exist is almost unreadable Performance measurement and…
Defining KPIs: How the wrong KPI shut schools
Defining KPIs clearly is crucial. Badly defined KPIs have unfortunate side effects. The cobra effect is one of my favourites. Most people agree that going to school is good for children. This means that there is a government focus on truancy as a measure. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why children cannot get to school. One such reason is snow. A singular focus on truancy…
Strategy Checklist: Is your strategy ready to support meaningful measures and KPIs?
Why is a strategy checklist important? Imagine a friend saying to you “Can you pop out to the hardware store and buy a tool for me?”. Obviously, your first question would be “What kind of tool are you looking for?” Deciding on your measures and KPIs without having a clear strategy is exactly like going…
30 Second Tip: Seek out pain
Measure things that are not in control. Organisations tend to shy away from this, as the message initially looks grim. If you are trying to improve things then it’s essential to measure the things that are not working properly.
A plain English guide to OEE
OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness. It is a very commonly used efficiency measure. What do we mean by efficiency? Put simply, it is “How much did we make, compared with how much we could have made.” OEE splits our efficiency down into three categories. The idea here is that we can get some understanding…
How to measure the “unmeasurable”
I’m often told that some things are impossible to measures. It’s true that some things are much less obvious but there are some pretty ingenious ways around this. If you can’t measure something directly then you can look for “coincident” events or activities. What am I gibbering on about? Let me give you an example:…