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Appendices

Improving the delivery reliability and quality performance of a Make-To-Order SME

Danny Sprietsma

Email:

D.Sprietsma@student.rug.nl

Student number: S2005719

University of Groningen Faculty Economics and Business Master of Science Technology Management

Company: Ventura Systems B.V. Bolsward Company Supervisor: M. Bruinsma University Supervisor: Drs. Ing. H.L. Faber University Co-assessor: Prof. Dr. R.H. Teunter

August 2013

Final version

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Appendices

Appendix I: Improvements within Ventura Systems ... 3

Appendix II: Problem analysis... 4

Functional or Instrumental analysis ... 4

System definition... 5

Goal, Reality and Perception analysis ... 6

Appendix III: Literature study ... 7

Small to Medium Enterprises and Business Process Maturity ... 7

Strategy deployment, goal setting and performance measurement ... 9

Delivery reliability in the supply chain ... 11

Quality in the value chain ... 12

Appendix IV: Customer satisfaction research ... 13

Appendix V: Performance measurement recommendations ... 16

Appendix VI: PM development framework ... 17

Appendix VII: PM analysis Ventura Systems ... 18

Appendix VIII: Supplier delivery performance ... 21

Appendix IX: NCR form ... 23

Appendix X: NCR analysis ... 24

Appendix XI: Supplier development steps and possible pitfalls ... 26

Appendix XII: The main characteristics of a PMS ... 29

Appendix: XIII: Collection of performance measurements ... 30

Appendix: XIV: PMS-IRIS Methodology ... 32

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Appendix I: Improvements within Ventura Systems

4 weeks supplier lead time 1 day: printing PO’s1 day: Order picking3 days: Assembly1 day: Shipping

Suppliers Receiving products

Microsoft Dynamics Nav Order picking

Printing Production orders

Logistics AssemblyShipping

Customer Short term rescheduling

Log. & Prod. Supervisor

PurchasingSales Engineering Quality assurance 1

53

4 2 7

1. Delivery reliability and quality from suppliers 2. Supplier management/development and tracking incoming goods 3. Production planning based on knowledge/skills 4. Limited information for order acceptance / due date setting 5. Transparency within the Engineering department (performance) 6. Quality control within the current process 7. Transparancy within the system and reactive fire-fighting mentality 6

7 7

Short term improvements Medium term improvements Long term improvements

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Appendix II: Problem analysis

Functional or Instrumental analysis

The original problem in a company can be related to the output of a system (functional) or related to the characteristics of the system itself (instrumental). From the perspective that the system itself is

“only” a method or tool to reach a certain goal, it would mean that the shortcomings of the system (instrumental problems) are not useful to use as a starting point of the diagnostic phase. However, the instrumental problems can lead to insightful information related to the output of the system (De Leeuw, 2002).

The original problems voiced by the initiators of the project are that the 97% delivery reliability and the 3% or less defects goals are not being met by Ventura Systems. This is a functional problem as described by management of Ventura Systems, as it focuses on the output of the total supply chain.

Strategic management has set these goals to gain a competitive edge on other suppliers and to be able to offer their products for their current prices. Strategic management knows these performance measurements are very important to the customers because of their years of experience and furthermore by customer satisfaction research, which will be discussed later on in this research.

After exploring the problem further by conducting preliminary interviews with the problem owners, it becomes clear that there are certain other problems which according to them could result in the output problem. These are instrumental problems which could be a cause of the original problem stated by the initiators. These are related to the performance measurements done by the company itself, the delivery reliability and quality measurements which will be discussed in a later stage.

Further analysis into the problem if it is a functional problem and related to the output of the system is done by the triptych of Haselhoff (Haselhoff, 1977). Haselhoff states that organisations must fulfil three assessment criteria, these are: be effective (hitting the goal), be efficient (shortest route possible), and keeping the employees motivated. Functional problems should therefore always be defined as problems related to the output of a system based on these three assessment criteria. By judging the system by these assessment criteria, it can be stated that the system, order acceptance till shipping of the products, can be seen as an ineffective system. This is because the goal that has been set by strategic management is not accomplished currently.

Not being able to realise the desired delivery reliability or quality is related to the output of the

system and related to effectiveness. The functional problem is therefore not being able to realise the

goals, which are a delivery reliability of 97% and the desired 3% or less defects.

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5 System definition

The relevant system for this research is the entire process that has an influence on the delivery reliability and the quality of the door systems produced by Ventura Systems.

This process starts at the Sales department by accepting an order from the customer depending on what type of order, at the engineering department. The first process step that influences the delivery reliability is the delivery date that has been agreed on between the sales department and the customer, which is based on a certain quota for a period of time. When a customer is in need of an earlier delivery while a certain period’s quota is full, there will be a meeting between multiple departments of Ventura Systems (Sales, Purchasing, Production & Logistics) to see if it is possible to deliver in time. When the order has been accepted and a delivery date has been set by the sales department in cooperation with the customer, they release the customer order. This is a sign for the operational purchasing team to purchase all of the necessary goods to be able to produce the ordered door systems. During this process, the operational purchasing department will send a purchasing order and receive confirmation.

The next step is logistics i.e. the warehouse within Ventura Systems where the goods that have been ordered by the purchasing department will be received. All of the parts are expected to be delivered to Ventura Systems six days in advance of the production schedule which is the time when the order is released for production by the logistics department. Subsequently, when the order is released the order can be picked in the warehouse. Specific parts for an order are directly placed on an order picking cart after delivery to Ventura Systems, and other smaller parts which are in stock are picked for the order. While some other parts, i.e. screws etc. are in a Kanban system on the work floor.

If everything is going according to schedule, the order cart is delivered to the assembly line as planned and assembled in approximately three days. The last steps of the process of Ventura Systems are within Expedition. These steps are the preparation of the orders for shipping, planning the transportation and lastly, loading and shipping the products to the customer. The Quality Assurance activities are incorporated within multiple places of the entire chain.

The processes that lead to the unwanted output can be seen in figure 1.

Sales Administration

Expedition Production

Warehouse Logistics and warehouse

Sales

Tactical purchasing Engineering Operational purchasing

Suppliers

Quality complaint

Customer inquiry Non conformance

report

Pre-sales engineering

Supplier selection Formulate

proposal Order

Production engineering Release

customer order

Planning order based

on targets Making

purchaseorder Release

purchaseorder

Confirmation

Receiving goods

Billing

Customers

Intake / Store

Quality control

Goods in stock

Register and checking

invoice

Releasing production

order

Picking

goods Assembly

Organising transportation Preparing

for

shipping Loading and shipping

Figure 1: Process overview of Ventura

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6 Goal, Reality and Perception analysis

It is necessary to give an answer whether the problem is a goal, reality or perception problem according to De Leeuw (2002). This is necessary to analyse whether the problem the organisation expresses to have is possible to research. It could be possible that the goal Ventura Systems has set is an impossible goal or a goal where costs would be way too high for it to be worth it. Or could the problem expressed by management be a perception problem? For example, is it really a problem that Ventura Systems cannot deliver 97% of their products on schedule to the customer or deliver products with 3% or less defects? Has the company received complaints or requests to do this? If it is neither a goal nor a perception problem, the problem can be seen as a reality, thus possible to research.

After talking with the initiators of the problem, the problem owners, it seems that there is a real problem within Ventura Systems. The goal that has been set by Ventura Systems has been set because of signs from the market and the need to differentiate themselves from other suppliers, mainly because of their prices. Furthermore, it has become clear according to recent measurements that the company can perform better than it is currently doing. The delivery reliability and quality has been higher in the past and the performance is varying over time. Ventura Systems is according to their customers doing fairly well when it comes to delivery reliability but receiving complaints from some customers related to the quality of their products. So there is certainly room for improvement.

So it can be seen as a reality problem.

However, it has also become clear that Ventura Systems is not entirely sure if their current measurement methods are right. This could mean that they are performing even worse than they think, or might be performing better than they think.

Their does seem to be a problem within Ventura Systems, however how critical this problem is will

be discussed during a later stage of the research, whether for example the goal that has been set is

realistic or not.

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Appendix III: Literature study

The first part of the literature study is focused on the difference between larger companies and SMEs and the maturity of a company to assess whether there are differences between the two and whether the maturity of a company needs to be taken into account. Moreover an analysis focused on the strategy deployment and performance measurements. Other subjects discussed are the delivery reliability and quality specifically and related possible causes according to literature.

Small to Medium Enterprises and Business Process Maturity

The research discussed in this report takes place in an SME context as described earlier. Therefore, during the research within Ventura Systems the fact that it is an SME should be kept in mind if there are differences between SMEs and larger companies, which can have an impact on realising performance improvements, strategy and so on. Furthermore, possible improvements suggested during the redesign might have to be designed with these possible differences in mind as well.

Theoretical research done by Hudson et al. (2001a) suggests that SMEs do have characteristics that differentiate them from larger companies. These have been generally described in different researches; a collection of these different characteristics of SMEs are listed below (Hudson et al., 2001a, p. 1105):

 Personalised management, with little devolution of authority;

 Severe resource limitations in terms of management and manpower, as well as finance;

 Reliance on small number of customers, and operating in limited markets;

 Flat, flexible structures;

 High innovatory potential;

 Reactive, fire-fighting mentality;

 Informal, dynamic strategy

The significant differences that have been found between larger companies and SMEs indicate that it is necessary to keep these differences in mind according to Hudson et al. (2001a) while developing new processes or managing existing processes effectively. Different research by Wong and Aspinwall (2004) characterised SMEs in terms of Total Quality Management (TQM) aspects and their advantages and disadvantages compared to larger companies. What can be formulated as different characteristics compared to larger companies of which some of the different characteristics can have a positive influence on making improvements within the company, while other characteristics might make it harder to achieve improvements. The following has been described by Wong and Aspinwall (2004):

Ownership and management: High management visibility, closeness to point of delivery and easier to permeate new change initiatives (Yusof and Aspinwall, 2000a). However, owners might not delegate tasks but try to control every aspect of business, suppressing teamwork and involvement (Yusof, 2000). Management team frequently deals with day-to-day crises as discussed earlier by Hudson et al., (2001a).

Structure: A flat structure and short decision making process allows shorter and faster information flows, improving communication (Yusof and Aspinwall, 2000a).

Culture and behaviour: Its unified culture provides a good foundation for change, for

example, the adoption of TQM and the high incidence of innovativeness can nurture a

continuous improvement culture; reduced bureaucracy helps improve the chances of success

for new initiatives (Yusof and Aspinwall, 2000a). However, decisions are restricted by

financiers, customers, legislation and the organisation’s owners (Hudson, 2003; Hudson et al.,

2001b).

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Systems, processes and procedures: A low degree of specialisation results in having a broader perspective of issues and problems rather than narrow specialists’ functional views; better in providing improvement ideas (Yusof and Aspinwall, 2000a). However, improper and inadequate systems and procedures can affect efficiency and will result in dissatisfaction from employees (Yusof, 2000); SMEs are using less advanced manufacturing technologies than larger organisations (Kennedy and Hyland, 2003). Lack of financial resources which can affect investment in new products and processes (Yusof, 2000).

Human resources: Training and staff development being ad hoc and small scale can hinder the improvement effort (Yusof, 2000).

Customers and markets: Easily suppressed/dictated to by larger multinationals (if they are customers).

A study with entrepreneurs by Deakins and Freel (1998) discuss how companies in their early years grow very fast and then the growth levels off: It “has revealed that the learning process in SMEs is a crucial part of the evolution of SMEs. The entrepreneur, through experience, acquires the ability to learn. Rarely is this learning process planned; rather it is the result of a series of reactions to critical events in which the entrepreneur learns to process information,. Adjust strategy and take decisions (Deakins and Freel, 1998, p.146). The study revealed that strategic development and change occurred more by learning and as a reaction to critical events. Other relevant literature discusses the Business Process Maturity (BPM) of companies.

Literature related to BPM models, describe how companies can improve their strategy realisation (i.e. deployment). One of these models by Persse (2001) has a level in line with the research by Hudson et al. (2001a) who mentions reactive fire-fighting behaviour as a characteristic within SMEs.

This level is called the Initial stage: “there is fire-fighting management. Success depends on the competence and heroics of individuals and not on the use of proven processes” (Weber et al. 2008;

cited by Röglinger et al. 2012). The Capability Maturity Model by Persse (2001) is shown in figure 2 displayed below:

The Capability Maturity Model displays different stages of BPM; according to literature companies should strive to achieve the highest level of maturity. As McCormack et al. (2009) states “Higher process maturity in any business process result in:

Better control of results;

Improved forecasting of goals, costs, and performance;

Greater effectiveness in reaching defined goals;

Improving managements’ ability to propose new and higher targets for performance”

Figure 2: Capability Maturity Model (Persse, 2001)

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Strategy deployment, goal setting and performance measurement

According to Neely et al. (1997) traditional performance measures are used to analyse whether certain actions are efficient and effective. Flapper et al. (1996) for example, state that: “A good manager keeps track of the performance of the system he or she is responsible for by means of performance measurement. His/her staff carrying responsibility for certain activities within the system, need performance measurement to see how well they are performing their tasks. This also holds for the employees actually executing the various process steps. So performance indicators are important for everyone inside an organisation, as they tell what has to be measured and what are the control limits the actual performance should be within.” The performance within Ventura Systems is in this research an important aspect in relation to the strategy and the goals that have been set by management. Since these different aspects are all interrelated, the literature will be reviewed to view what is important regarding these three.

When it comes to customer requirements, effectiveness is how well customer requirements are met by a company, and the efficiency how the resources are used to meet the desired customer satisfaction by a company. In order to quantify these two, performance measurements are chosen, implemented and monitored within companies. Several researches state (Fortuin, 1988; Neely et al., 1997) that performance measures are the metrics that should be used to quantify efficiency and/or effectiveness of actions within a process (or parts of the process) or of an entire system in relation to the goals. Performance measures should capture the most important aspects i.e. Critical Success Factors (CSF) within a company, the essence of a company to be able to exist/survive (Gunasekaran et al., 2004).

Authors like Lynch and Cross (1991), Dixon et al. (1990), Kaplan and Norton (1992, 1996) also emphasise the link between performance measurements and the strategy of a company. In order to realise a strategy, certain key performance indicators (KPI) should be in place regarding the aspects the company wants or thinks they need to excel at, which can be seen as Critical Success Factors (CSF). Furthermore the way a measure is designed according to Globerson (1985) is also related to specific, stretching, but achievable goals (targets). Performance measures are essential for strategic planning, strategic control cycles (Neely et al., 1997), evaluating strategy (Globerson 1985) and evaluating whether certain objectives have been met (Goold and Quinn, 1990).

Not only should performance measures be linked to strategy, it should be linked to all hierarchical levels of the organisation, i.e. Strategic, Tactical and Operational (Braz et al., 2011). Furthermore, performance measurements can be linked to the decision-making processes and provide control over the lowest levels of the company (Gunasekaran et al., 2004).

Feedback Measurement Frequency

(Short term plans) Organization

Mission/Vision

Stakeholder requirements

Requirement and Capability

Identify Critical Success Factors

(CSFs)

Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Performance Management and

Appraisal

Develop Responsibility

Action Plans:

Reward and Recognise Performance

Measure Performance vs

KPIs

Implement Action Plans

Feedback (Long term plans)

Figure 3: Strategy development and goal deployment (Chang, 2006)

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A framework for strategy deployment and goal deployment has been developed by Chang (2006) which can be seen in figure 3. Key steps for strategy development are shown; Chang (2006) summarized the following steps:

1. An organisation mission statement based on recognizing the needs of all organisation stakeholders.

2. Identification of Critical Success Factors (CSF) for the achievement of the organisation’s requirements and capabilities.

3. Definition of performance measures for each Key Performance Indicator (KPI), including:

sources of data and methods used for analysis, measurement process and frequency, targets for customer requirements and competitor performance.

4. Development of (and assignment of responsibility for) action plans at the organisational level for achievement of desired performance against KPI targets.

5. Measurement of performance against organisational KPIs, and comparison with targets.

Communicate performance and proposed actions throughout the organisation.

6. Reward and recognize superior organisational performance.

Part of the mission of Ventura Systems is as stated before “to become the best door systems manufacturer in the eyes of the customer”, the strategy to accomplish this within Ventura Systems is by excelling at other aspects instead of price. Therefore, carrying a higher price compared to other competitors has to be justified in terms of for example quality. How this should be done is by first assessing Critical Success Factors (e.g. excelling at quality and delivery reliability), followed by Key Performance Indicators to monitor this over the whole organisation. The strategic alignment pyramid gives a short overview, see figure 4.

Figure 4: Strategic Alignment Pyramid (Bauer, 2004)

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11 Delivery reliability in the supply chain

In order to identify possible causes of low delivery reliability literature is analysed based on this subject. Jahnukainen et al. (1999) discuss the need to pay attention to the total performance of the supply chain. According to Jahnukainen et al. (1999) most of the problems of MTO supply chains exists between the different parts of the chain. Streamlining the different operations by linking them in processes should therefore help. Common problems according to Jahnukainen et al. (1999) can be seen in figure 5.

Figure 5: The problems of the delivery process (originally from Luhtala et al., 1994 adopted by Jahnukainen et al., 1999)

Others discuss the importance of Production Planning and Control (PPC) decisions within MTO companies as seen in the overview in figure 6, by Land and Gaalman (1996), the different input and output controls. The process of order acceptance and delivery date promising is the first input control followed by order release and priority dispatching. Output control is usually in the form of capacity changes during the main processes to realize the orders. Soepenberg et al. (2012) have, in relation to these control decisions, made a distinction between the processes underlying the delivery reliability performance. The relevant processes are the process of promising the delivery time and the realisation process. The last one can be sub-divided into pre-shop floor processes and shop-floor processes.

Figure 6: Input and output control decisions by Land and Gaalman (1996)

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In short; the starting point that can be the reason why delivery reliability performance cannot be achieved according to literature, is the first decision making process within the supply chain. This is the order acceptance and delivery date setting stage which could be the cause by setting wrong or unreliable delivery dates mainly because of the lack of relevant information. Furthermore, the pre- shop floor process could be the cause, for example complications during product design due to lack of information etc., the purchasing department or head of production and logistics due to incorrect planning. Another option could be mistakes or delays during the realisation process itself, in Ventura Systems their case Logistics and Production or the suppliers. Missing or non-conform parts can be seen as a factor of Logistics and Production, especially in an assembly process, where the procurement of parts is a very important aspect.

Quality in the value chain

More literature has been analysed in order to identify possible causes of insufficient quality leading to Non-Conformity Reports (NCRs). Because NCRs can also be caused by complaints from the customer it is important to discuss the term quality. Customers complain when a certain product does not have the desired quality, raising the question how customers perceive quality. Quality can be defined in several ways, Reeves and Bednar (1994) have found several definitions, and some of these definitions are:

 Quality is excellence (Pirsig, 1992; p.73);

Quality is value; “When price tags are attached to ideas or services or products, it is the best bargain that wins.” (Abbott, 1955; p.108);

 Quality is Conformance to Specifications (Juran, 1974);

 Quality is Meeting and/or Exceeding Customers' Expectations (Buzzell & Gale, 1987).

Each of these definitions describes a different view or use of the term quality. These different terms of quality show that quality can be interpreted in different ways and that meeting the desired quality of a customer depends on their expectations. Whether a customer decides to file a complaint therefore also depends on their definition of quality. An important part of quality within Ventura Systems is therefore knowledge of how a customer perceives their product and which aspects of a door system require extra attention.

Some researchers have placed the causes of quality in different categories, for example the categories by Rooney and Hopen (2005, p.17), 4M and PIE: Machinery, Methods, Materials, Measurements, People, Information and Environment. Since some of these categories are almost non-existent within an assembly process with a lot of manual labour, which is the case at Ventura Systems (i.e. no complex machines), a different approach to categorize quality can be taken. The causes of insufficient quality due to processing steps within the assembly are not that complex to locate, it is more valuable in this case to locate where these issues are caused the most in the value chain.

A useful approach is therefore quality in relation to the value chain as described by De Toni et al.

(1995):

 Inbound quality

o Vendor quality performance

 Internal quality

o Product design quality o Process engineering quality o Manufacturing quality

 Outbound quality

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Appendix IV: Customer satisfaction research

Source: Customer satisfaction research by B. De Nooijer, Ventura Systems (April, 2012)

1 Kennis

Hoe beoordeelt U:

1.1 De branchekennis van Ventura Systems van uw bedrijfstak?

1.2 Vaktechnische kennis van Ventura Systems?

1.3 Het innovatief vermogen van Ventura Systems?

1.4 Het kennisniveau van Ventura Systems ten opzichte van de concurrentie?

2 Prijs

Hoe beoordeelt U:

2.1 De prijs kwaliteitverhouding die Ventura Systems levert?

2.2 De helderheid van prijsstelling die Ventura Systems hanteert?

2.3 De helderheid en juistheid van facturering van Ventura Systems?

2.4 Het prijsniveau van Ventura Systems ten opzichte van de concurrentie?

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3 Communicatie

Hoe beoordeelt U:

3.1 De duidelijkheid met betrekking de tot functies van uw verschillende aanspreekpunten binnen Ventura Systems?

3.2 De communicatie en betrouwbaarheid van uw contactpersonen met betrekking tot het nakomen van gemaakte afspraken?

3.3 De responstijden van Ventura Systems?

3.4 De communicatie met Ventura ten opzichte van de concurrentie?

4 Dienstverlening Hoe beoordeelt U:

4.1 De mate waarin de dienstverlening voldoet aan uw verwachtingen?

4.2 De mate waarin u zich als klant gewaardeerd voelt door Ventura?

4.3 De acceptatie door Ventura Systems van door u gedane suggesties en adviezen?

4.4 De kwaliteit van de dienstverlening van Ventura Systems ten opzichte van de concurrentie?

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15 5 Kwaliteit

Hoe beoordeelt U:

5.1 De kwaliteit van de producten van Ventura Systems?

5.2 De duurzaamheid en de storingsgevoeligheid van de producten van Ventura Systems?

5.3 Het installeren van de producten van de Ventura Systems?

5.4 De kwaliteit van de producten van Ventura Systems ten opzichte van de concurrentie?

6 Algemeen

Hoe beoordeelt U:

6.1 De leverbetrouwbaarheid van Ventura Systems?

6.2 De klantgerichtheid van Ventura Systems?

6.3 De toegevoegde waarde van Ventura Systems voor uw organisatie?

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Appendix V: Performance measurement recommendations

(Neely et al., 1997, P.1137)

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Appendix VI: PM development framework

(Neely et al., 1997, P.1151)

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Appendix VII: PM analysis Ventura Systems Review of the current delivery performance measurement

1. Title: Delivery reliability

2. Purpose: To enable Ventura Systems to track their performance of delivery

reliability and track improvements.

3. Relates to: Business objective: “Becoming the best supplier of door systems in the eyes of the customer, by being reliable and delivering high quality goods”. By achieving 99% delivery reliability and 1% quality defects.

4. Target: Delivering 99% of the orders as promised.

5.

Formula:

6. Frequency of measure: Weekly

7. Frequency of review: Weekly

8. Who measures? Operational director

9. Source of data: Data from the Sales and Service departments in the ERP system. The Sales and Service departments assess if the order has been delivered in time according to the first promised delivery date, if this is not the case they will determine who or what caused it. Either the customer or Ventura, and for the latter which department caused it.

10. Who owns the measure? Operational director

11. What do they do? Operational director analyses all of the collected data from a certain period by using a tool implemented in the ERP system.

12. Who acts on the data? Operational director

13. What do they do? The Operational director gives feedback by reporting the overall performance of the company during a certain period to motivate

people to improve.

Notes and comments:

As discussed by Neely et al. (1997) the title should be clear and so should the purpose be,

furthermore the measure needs to relate to the business objective. These elements of the delivery

reliability measure are in line with literature. The fourth element however, the target should include

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a time scale according to Neely et al. (1997) to achieve the explicit target and the target should be based on competitors. The fifth element, the formula, is described as being the most challenging one. This seems to be the case for Ventura Systems as well, which is also related to the source of the data. The Sales or Service department can in this case for example promise long delivery dates to be on the safe side. Furthermore, the Sales or Service department can manipulate data by not assigning the right or any reason code (1, 2 or none) simply to avoid conflict with the responsible party. The frequency of the measure is weekly, which can be valuable to motivate people by showing the overall performance. But this requires that all of the data has been filled for each of these orders for this week because of the limited amount of orders. Furthermore, the current way of data gathering and analysis does not provide an accurate analysis to gain more detailed information related to performance or reasons of late delivery because the company does not deliver many orders each week. The most important element is what action is taken based on the performance that has been analysed: “…because it makes explicit the fact that unless the management loop is closed, there is no point in having the measure” (Neely et al. 1997). Within Ventura, the overall performance is shown on a weekly basis on a board for everyone to motivate their employees.

Review of the current quality performance measure

1. Title: Quality

2. Purpose: To enable Ventura to track their performance of quality

and track improvements.

3. Relates to: Business objective: “Becoming the best supplier of door systems in the eyes of the customer, by being reliable and delivering high quality goods”. By achieving 99% delivery reliability and 1% quality defects.

4. Target: Only receive 1% quality complaints.

5. Formula: Quality = (Internal & supplier quality + Customer complaints)/ 2

6. Frequency of measure: Monthly

7. Frequency of review: Monthly

8. Who measures? Head of quality assurance

9. Source of data: The data is collected by quality assurance by entering all of the

received NCRs into an excel file.

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20 10. Who owns the measure? Head of quality assurance

11. What do they do? Head of quality assurance analyses collected data from a certain period to assess the overall quality performance.

12. Who acts on the data? Head of quality assurance

13. What do they do? Head of quality provides a monthly dashboard by reporting the overall performance of the company during a certain period to motivate and make people aware of the current quality within the

company with the goal to improve.

Notes and comments:

The first three elements are simple to understand and logical in relation to the business objective.

However, the fourth one, just like the delivery reliability measure does not include a time scale and therefore it will be unclear of the company is improving fast enough to keep up with competitors.

The fifth element for the quality measure, the formula, is the biggest issue here. The global quality performance measure basically consists out of different formulas. Internal and external quality combined together and divided by two to get an overall percentage of quality within Ventura Systems. The internal quality and supplier formula is based on written and open NCRs caused or reported internally. The amount of these NCRs is divided by the amount of purchase orders. Dividing it by the amount of purchase orders can cause a distorted view on the internal quality. Not only because of varying amounts of parts that can be bought as one purchase order, but also because purchase orders are made for service and production orders, which means that the suppliers can cause it to be really low while it seems that both cause low quality. The other measurement, the quality based on customer complaints generates a distorted view because of the amount of door systems sold that are used. Customer complaints are received as NCRs after products have been delivered to the customer. So it is possible that NCRs from customers are received weeks after a door system has been produced. When there are a lot of NCRs coming in during a month where production is very low, from last month or even earlier when production was running on full capacity, the measurement will not be reliable at all.

Another issue with the quality measure is the source of data. The source of data for quality is the NCRs written internally and received by customers. It is possible to set strict rules or classifications when to write an NCR for internal or supplier non conformities. However, the customer can have illegitimate claims or have caused some quality defects themselves. When an NCR is accepted or should be rejected is hard to determine, which makes it less easy to control.

Last important part of the quality performance measure is what is done with the quality

measurements. Head of quality owns the measure and should act on the measure. The current

performance measure is mainly used to report to employees within the company how the global

quality performance is to motivate and create awareness amongst the employees. Recurring

problems are solved by the quality assurance department.

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Appendix VIII: Supplier delivery performance

Supplier delivery performance of production orders 2012 (O-orders)

Requested date <

Total Delivered on desired day? Delivered on promised day? min. Start data Arrival for order

Days delivered late Orders Desired 1+ day 4+ days Promised 1+ day 4+ days True Untrue and same day On time Later % 3 days left Metaal 2000 BV 13371 38,4% 61,6% 21,1% 39,1% 60,9% 19,6% 87,0% 8,0% 96,3% 90,0% 10,02% 5,75%

Aludex bv 7402 63,5% 36,5% 2,5% 62,8% 37,2% 0,9% 90,3% 9,7% 98,2% 96,8% 3,24% 1,92%

Essit Assemblage 5803 70,8% 29,2% 4,5% 71,8% 28,2% 3,1% 89,4% 10,6% 98,7% 96,0% 3,96% 2,41%

Aluprof Processing B.V. 4897 5,8% 94,2% 8,8% 12,4% 87,6% 1,7% 92,1% 7,9% 97,4% 89,7% 10,31% 6,37%

Droste Bejah bv 3309 35,1% 64,9% 4,4% 39,1% 60,9% 1,0% 81,5% 18,5% 93,8% 90,8% 9,25% 2,81%

Segla 3010 38,0% 62,0% 4,1% 38,2% 61,8% 3,1% 88,1% 11,9% 97,6% 93,4% 6,64% 3,02%

Gogo Metaal B.V. 2345 21,7% 78,3% 2,3% 21,9% 78,1% 1,7% 93,2% 6,8% 96,2% 95,4% 4,56% 3,58%

Gummi-Welz GmbH 1722 18,4% 81,6% 25,1% 20,7% 79,3% 22,2% 88,9% 11,1% 94,4% 93,4% 6,56% 5,69%

Metaalplus BV 1746 36,8% 63,2% 22,5% 36,9% 63,1% 22,3% 65,4% 34,6% 83,8% 72,7% 27,26% 16,61%

HPR Techniek 1043 78,4% 21,6% 0,4% 75,4% 24,6% 0,0% 90,0% 10,0% 98,8% 96,9% 3,07% 0,96%

VDM B.V. 832 63,7% 36,3% 7,9% 63,7% 36,3% 4,7% 87,5% 12,5% 92,4% 91,8% 8,17% 4,93%

VDL Postma bv 744 44,5% 55,5% 6,6% 44,8% 55,2% 5,6% 90,3% 9,7% 96,8% 92,2% 7,80% 3,90%

SMI Plaatwerk BV 800 42,5% 57,5% 20,6% 47,4% 52,6% 19,0% 75,6% 24,4% 96,5% 89,5% 10,50% 7,88%

Captron Electronic GmbH 537 91,6% 8,4% 5,4% 93,3% 6,7% 3,0% 95,0% 5,0% 99,4% 98,3% 1,68% 1,68%

Parker 286 78,0% 22,0% 3,5% 82,9% 17,1% 1,4% 94,1% 5,9% 97,2% 94,8% 5,24% 3,50%

National Gummi 249 77,5% 22,5% 6,0% 79,1% 20,9% 2,0% 88,4% 11,6% 89,2% 86,7% 13,25% 4,42%

Betech Kunststoffen bv 193 69,4% 30,6% 16,1% 63,2% 36,8% 22,3% 86,0% 14,0% 98,4% 87,6% 12,44% 11,92%

Camozzi Benelux B.V. 190 76,3% 23,7% 1,1% 76,8% 23,2% 0,5% 95,3% 4,7% 97,4% 96,3% 3,68% 1,58%

MNAC Electricm. Industrial Lda 113 77,0% 23,0% 4,4% 77,9% 22,1% 3,5% 92,0% 8,0% 96,5% 95,6% 4,42% 3,54%

EAO Benelux bv 111 82,9% 17,1% 11,7% 91,9% 8,1% 4,5% 77,5% 22,5% 94,6% 91,9% 8,11% 4,50%

Total # orders and percentage 48872 43,8% 55,9% 10,7% 45,1% 54,6% 8,6% 87,4% 10,9% 96,0% 91,8% 7,90% 4,56%

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22 Supplier delivery performance of production orders 2012 (S-orders)

Total Delivered on desired day? Delivered on promised day? min. Start data Arrival for order Days delivered late

Orders Desired 1+ day 4+ days Promised 1+ day 4+ days True Untrue Later %

On

time Later %

Metaal 2000 BV 747 42,3% 57,7% 28,0% 44,8% 55,2% 24,1% 42,0% 38,7% 71,9% 57,4% 42,57%

Aludex bv 196 52,6% 47,4% 5,1% 56,6% 43,4% 0,0% 69,4% 30,6% 86,7% 81,6% 18,37%

Essit Assemblage 178 67,4% 32,6% 12,4% 66,3% 33,7% 12,4% 44,4% 55,6% 60,7% 55,1% 44,94%

Aluprof Processing B.V. 349 17,2% 82,8% 5,2% 20,3% 79,7% 1,1% 73,9% 26,1% 81,7% 75,9% 24,07%

Droste Bejah bv 115 40,9% 59,1% 12,2% 44,3% 55,7% 4,3% 57,4% 42,6% 80,9% 62,6% 37,39%

Segla 359 42,6% 57,4% 3,3% 43,5% 56,5% 1,9% 51,8% 48,2% 73,3% 66,3% 33,70%

Gogo Metaal B.V. 231 27,3% 72,7% 1,7% 26,4% 73,6% 0,9% 56,3% 43,7% 58,0% 61,5% 38,53%

Gummi-Welz GmbH 184 33,7% 66,3% 17,4% 32,6% 67,4% 16,3% 35,3% 64,7% 66,3% 46,2% 53,80%

Metaalplus BV 77 36,4% 63,6% 29,9% 35,1% 64,9% 29,9% 40,3% 59,7% 59,7% 63,6% 36,36%

HPR Techniek 213 73,2% 26,8% 0,0% 70,4% 29,6% 0,0% 37,1% 62,9% 67,1% 61,0% 38,97%

VDM B.V. 37 83,8% 16,2% 8,1% 86,5% 13,5% 2,7% 29,7% 70,3% 56,8% 64,9% 35,14%

Total # orders and percentage 3497 45,2% 49,2% 11,3% 46,7% 47,7% 8,7% 45,8% 44,5% 64,3% 57,7% 36,75%

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23

Appendix IX: NCR form

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24

Appendix X: NCR analysis

Supplier Ventura Customer

Miscellaneous A1 Transport damage 1 5 0

A2 Packaging 0 0 0

A3 Incorrect documents 0 4 0

A4 Lost parts 0 0 0

A5 Old stock 0 1 0

A6 Insufficient stock 0 1 0

A7 Wrong amount of parts 0 0 0

A8 Damage 53 50 0

A9 Identified wrong 92 7 0

A10 Different parts delivered 0 1 0

Engineering B1 Drawing mistake 0 25 0

B2 Hard to assemble design 0 1 0

B3 Wrong specifications 0 9 0

B4 Unclear drawings 0 0 0

B5 Changes in design/drawing 4 10 0

B6 Engineering: Miscellaneous 0 3 1

Pneumatics C1 Leakage 68 3 2

C2 Damage 1 1 0

C3 Does not buffer 4 0 1

C4 Miscellaneous 14 0 0

Instructions D1 Incorrect 0 0 0

D2 Did not work according to instructions 28 6 0

NC drawings E1 Size error 74 4 0

E2 Wrong color 0 0 0

E3 Missing parts 37 20 0

E4 Wrong parts 51 18 1

E5 Assembled wrong 25 11 0

E6 Wrong revision used 2 0 0

E7 Not conform: Miscellaneous 5 0 0

Powdercoat F1 Damage 27 92 0

F2 Local mistake 104 2 0

F3 Color 10 0 0

F4 Gloss 0 0 0

F5 layer thinkness 6 0 0

F6 Adherence 0 0 0

F7 Miscellaneous 2 0 0

Prod. Quality G1 Welding 12 0 0

G2 Finishing 94 11 0

G4 Corrosion 6 2 0

G5 Miscellaneous 13 2 1

Kabelboom H1 Pins connected wrong 2 0 0

H2 Plug caps numbered wrong 0 0 0

H3 Numbering wrong/missing 1 0 0

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25

Electric I1 Miscellaneous 16 6 0

Glass J1 Scratches 17 20 0

J2 Screening 10 0 0

J3 Crack 1 13 0

J4 Miscellaneous 24 3 0

Unknown 0 0 0

Left blank 0 1 0

Totaal 804 332 6

67,85% 28,02% 0,51%

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26

Appendix XI: Supplier development steps and possible pitfalls

Source:

 Handfield, R.B., Krause, D.R., Scannell, T.V. and Monczka, P.M. (2000): Avoid the pitfalls in supplier development. Sloan Management review, winter, 2000, pp. 37-48

Step 1: Identify Critical Commodities

Not all companies need to pursue supplier development. Some may already be sourcing from world class suppliers because they have made effective sourcing decisions and supplier selections. Or their purchases may be so small in proportion to total costs or sales that investing in suppliers is neither strategically nor financially justifiable. Therefore, managers must analyze their situation to determine whether supplier development is warranted.' and. If so, which purchased commodities and services require the most attention. To focus the effort, a corporate-level executive steering committee must assess the relative strategic importance of all goods and services that the company

buys and produce a "portfolio" of critical commodities (products or services essential for succe.ss in a targeted industry segment). This assessment is an extension of the company’s overall corporate- level strategic planning and should include participants from the functions affected by sourcing decisions (finance, marketing, information technology, accounting, production, and design). A matrix is used to assess the relative importance of company’s purchases.

Step 2: Identify Critical Suppliers

Next, managers must assess how' suppliers of strategic supplies are performing to determine which ones to develop. A common approach involves a Pareto analysis of current supplier. In this case, the underlying axiom is that 20 percent of suppliers is responsible for 80 percent of the poor performance. This, pareto analysis is useful in identifying suppliers with potential for development, as well as those that are underperforming, low-volume suppliers. Identifying poorly performing suppliers requires systematically analyzing supplier performance data. Many leading companies monitor supplier performance on a plant-by-plant basis, ranking suppliers from best to worst. They target suppliers that fail to meet minimum performance objectives in quality, timely delivery, cost, technology, or cycle time for analysis and eventual supplier development. The buying firm meets with supplier representatives to determine the cause of the problems and the required corrective action(s). If supplier development is warranted, both firms must harness the resources to drive the improvements. If improvement is not forthcoming, the item(s) may be sourced from an alternate supplier.

Step 3: Form a Cross-Functional Team

Before approaching suppliers to ask for improvements, a buyer must first develop internal cross-

functional consensus for the initiative. Such consensus shows the supplier a 'unified front" and

ensures that all buyer functions .send the supplier consistent messages. Purchasing executives

continually emphasize that improvements begin from within through buyer-focused activities. A

buyer must have its own house in order before expecting commitment and cooperation from

suppliers. Furthermore, to optimize supplier contributions, a buyer must first establish its supply-

chain strategies and roles of procurement so that its business objectives are clear.

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27 Step 4: Meet with Supplier Top Management

Next, the buyer's cross-functional commodity team approaches the supplier's top-management group and establishes three keys to .supplier improvement; strategic alignment, measurement, and professionalism. Strategic alignment requires not only an internal business-technology alignment but also buyer-supplier alignment that focuses on each customer's requirements throughout the entire supply chain. Supplier measurement requires a total cost focus as well as credibility and participation of purchasing and other key technical functions (such as engineering, quality, information .systems, and manufacturing) in both organizations. Approaching a supplier's top managers with a good business case for improvement sets a professional tone that reinforces the relationship. fosters communication. produces specialized expertise, and develops trust.

Step 5: Identify Key Projects

After identifying promising opportunities. Managers must evaluate them in terms of feasibility.

Resource and time requirements, and potential return on investment. The goal is to decide whether they are achievable, and if so, what the goals should be. Additional criteria used to evaluate opportunities include willingness and ability of supplier (and buyer) to implement changes, duration of product/service life, .strategic importance of the product/service and its impact on the business, return on investment, impact analysis, and standardization.

Step 6: Define Details of Agreement

After identifying A potential improvement project, the parties need to agree on the specific metrics for monitoring its success. The metrics may include percent of cost savings to be shared, percent of quality improvement to be achieved, percent of delivery or cycle-time improvement desired, key product or service performance targets, technology availability, and system implementation targets.

The agreement also must specify milestones and deadlines for improvements as well as the role of each party — who is responsible for the project’s success, and how and when to deploy the allocated resources. Upon reaching an agreement, the project begins.

Step 7: Monitor Status and Modify Strategies

To maintain momentum in the project, managers must monitor progress and constantly exchange information. Revisiting objectives after attaining a milestone may bring to light the need for new or revised objectives. The parties may need to modify the original plan because priorities may change and additional resources may be needed. In short, the strategy must be revisited to stay "in .sync"

with events.

Supplier-Specific Pitfalls

In early meetings with a supplier's top managers, a buyer's team must clearly delineate potential rewards for the supplier organization; otherwise, supplier management may not be fully committed to the effort, unconvinced that development will benefit their organization. They may even agree to initial proposals but fail to implement them due to this insufficient dedication. The following are solutions companies have used to avoid this lack-of-commitment pitfall.

 Show them where they stand

 Tie the business relationship to performance improvement

 Illustrate benefits first-hand.

 Ensure follow-up through a supplier champion.

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28 Insufficient Supplier Resources

Some suppliers lack the engineering resources, equipment, information systems, employee skills, or training required to implement the improvement ideas identified in a supplier-development exercise.

To surmount this potential pitfall, many companies we studied invested significant effort in boosting their suppliers' infrastructures using the following techniques.

 Keep initial improvements simple.

 Offer personnal support

 Build training centers Buyer-Specified Pitfalls

Buyers are reluctant to fully commit to supplier development primarily when they see no obvious potential benefits. Small-quantity purchases from numerous suppliers may not justify the investment in one particular supplier. Or a supplier may not be important enough to justify such an investment.

Lack of immediate monetary benefits or the wavering support of top management may also lower a buyer's commitment, finally, lofty expectations that go unrealized may reduce enthusiasm for future supplier development efforts. Following are some tactics for avoiding such buyer-centric pitfalls.

 Consolidate to fewer suppliers

 Determine cost of ownership

 Keep a long term focus

 Set small goals

 Make executive commitment a priority

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29

Appendix XII: The main characteristics of a PMS

The main characteristics of a PMS (Chalmeta et al., 2012).

 Performance measures should be derived from the company’s strategy.

 PMS must reflect the competitive position of the organisation.

 Non-financial measures should be adopted.

 All stakeholders (customers, employees, etc.) should be involved in the selection of the measures.

 It must allow the deployment of strategic objectives in order to include the processes at lower levels of decision.

 It must focus on the core areas of the business.

 It must be dynamic and facilitate the continual redesign of business processes.

 The purpose of each performance measure must be made explicit.

 Methods used for data collection and for calculating the level of performance must be made clear.

 The performance measures that are selected should take the organisation into account.

 The process should be easily revisitable, that is, measures should change as circumstances change.

 Performance measures should provide fast feedback.

 PMS should stimulate continuous improvement rather than just monitor the situation.

 Use the firm’s historical data to set targets for improvements and to reach them.

 It must make it possible to integrate people, processes and technologies.

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30

Appendix: XIII: Collection of performance measurements

This appendix will give an overview of several scientific articles discussing performance measurements and examples.

The Balanced Scorecard - Measures That Drive Performance by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Hudson, M., Smart, P.A., and Bourne, M. (2001a): Theory and practice in SME performance

measurement systems.

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31

Gunasekaran, A., Patel, C., and Tirtiroglu, E. (2001): Performance measures and metrics in a supply chain environment, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, Vol. 21. No. ½.

2001, pp. 71-87

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32

Appendix: XIV: PMS-IRIS Methodology

Chalmeta, R., Palomero, S., and Matilla, M. (2012): Methodology to develop a performance measurement system in small and medium-sized enterprises, International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 25, No. 8, August 2012, pp.716-740

Phases of the PMS-IRIS methodology.

Phase I: Planning the Project

In this phase the Project plan is created. This involves defining the activities to be carried out, the

sequence they are to be carried out in and the resources needed, as well as the quality control

mechanisms and planning of the management of change. The owners of the SME must allow its

members to take part in the definition of the project. The aim is to get Management to start

delegating certain responsibilities among its executives in organisations that are managed on an

excessively personalised basis. The ‘ideal’ project team should be made up of specialists in finances,

human resources, production processes of goods or services, technologies and quality, as well as

other members from the different areas of the enterprise that are also involved. Nevertheless, in an

SME with a very flat structure not all these units are likely to exist in an explicit form, and therefore a

small group of people will have to take responsibility for all these aspects. Careful planning of the

project (which involves identifying the human resources that are best suited for carrying it out,

providing them with appropriate motivation and offering clear explanations of the goals of the

project and its benefits) will make it possible to overcome the obstacles that were identified at the

end of Section 2. These impediments are as follows: lack of communication and no culture of using

indicators for performance measurement, the difficulty involved in keeping skilled, competent staff

in the organisation, the flat structures and personalised management.

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33 Phase II: Definition of the enterprise environment

In this phase, the competitive environment of the SME is analysed from both an internal organisational perspective, by reviewing and specifying its mission, vision, values, strategies and policies, and an external perspective, by analysing the competitive environment in which the organisation will have to act in order to compete in current or potential markets. The results of this analysis will make it possible to define the Critical Success Factors (CSF) that will allow its goals to be reached. If this phase is carried out properly, it will be

possible to overcome the following obstacles that are present in SMEs and which hinder the implementation of a PMS: informal and non-documented definition of vision and strategy, which is defined by the owners, its members do not have a clear notion of the corporate strategy, personalised management and there is no prior process of strategy review and data analysis.

Phase III: design of the key performance indicators at the strategic level

This phase is where the set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) derived from the strategy are designed. As the basis for the design, a so-called PMS Strategic Map must be produced and this requires a thorough analysis of all the objectives that are to be reached and their relationships. The PMSIRIS methodology proposes six perspectives for a PMS Strategic Map of an SME: customers and suppliers, processes, financial, technology, human resources and social responsibility.

Phase IV: process analysis and redesign

Once the strategic aims of the enterprise and the indicators for measuring the extent to which they are being fulfilled have been defined, the business processes must be analysed in case it were necessary to redesign them so as to be able to fulfil the strategic objectives. A map of processes must be developed that describes the current situation (AS-IS model) and shows the deficiencies, opportunities for improvement and changes that must be introduced (TO-BE model). The limited resources that exist in SMEs make it necessary to determine the key processes for the success of the project, so as to be able to act upon them. Once they have been identified, the improvement process is carried out in four stages: AS-IS process modelling, redesign, feasibility analysis and implementation of the improvement plan. The map of processes must include specification of the following aspects:

 Name and description of the process.

 Type of process (support/customer).

 Inputs and outputs.

 Process diagram showing the sequence of activities.

 Indicators for evaluating the process.

 CSF of the process.

 Plan of improvements to the process.

Phase V: Development of the measurement by levels

Despite the simple structure of SMEs, the objectives and indicators defined at the strategic level

must be deployed in a set of tactical and operational objectives and indicators. The intention here is

to link the proposed indicators by evaluating the strategic decisions with the indicators in order to

measure the results at the tactical and operational level throughout the different business units or

processes. The models of the processes produced in phase IV make it easier to identify the

appropriate indicators for each of them. It thus becomes possible to stimulate all the members of

the SME to participate in an effort to achieve the fulfilment of the business strategy. Proper

performance of this phase completely overcomes the obstacle SMEs do not usually have the capacity

to identify, design and quantify indicators in an integrated manner, that is, by establishing relations

among the indicators from the strategic to the operational levels.

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34 Phase VI: Validation

During this phase all the proposed indicators must be revised by comparing them with other indicators that were already being used. This will make it possible to detect possible shortcomings as well as any indicators that have been proposed but which in fact are not relevant. It is important to stress that there should be an appropriate number of indicators and the initial tendency to define a large number of them should be avoided since many will not eventually be of any use. Another point to be taken into account is to check whether the deployment of the indicators from the strategic to the tactical and operational level has been carried out properly.

Phase VII: technological infrastructure

In this phase of the PMS project, the SME will have to design the information and communications

infrastructure that is capable of extracting the data for calculating the indicators, processing them

and communicating them. It should be pointed out, as suggested by some authors, that this is one of

the main obstacles preventing SMEs from having an adequate PMS (Alfaro et al. 2009). Therefore,

computer equipment must be used in a suitable fashion to optimise the process of obtaining the

indicator, to the point where what usually happens is that if the data for calculating an indicator is

not part of the enterprise’s database or the process used to extract it has not be automated, then

that indicator will most likely never be used. The results from phases III and V of the PMSIRIS

methodology define the functional and data requirements of the technological infrastructure. On the

other hand, the models developed in phase IV make it easier to identify the databases that contain

the data needed to calculate the indicators. Moreover, if any of the data needed to calculate an

indicator do not exist in the firm’s computer databases, it is a good idea to go back to phase IV to

redesign a business process so that one of the firm’s employees has to enter that data into the

computer system as part of his or her job.

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