Feedback Link is a Process Component or Periodic Exercise!
How many organizations systematicaly design their business processes with continuous feedback link and how many use feedback as a annual or periodic event?
If you look around in your organization and just pause for a moment to ask yourself: How much effort or time & cost is being incurred in measuring the output than in producing? The answers you are likely to find could be:
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10% of total production cost
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Cost of QA/QC is the cost of measurements
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Not possible to quantify
The difference between high performance firm and average or below average performing firms is in the level of resources allocated to measurement system.
The measures can be identified by five categories:
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Operational measures: labour productivity, unit cost of production, turnaround time or output/day.
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Qualitative measures: Defect rates, rejection rate, warranty claims etc.
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Customer Satisfaction Indicators: Compliants register, claims for refunds, customer churning rates
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Employee feedback system: Compensation benefits, career growth, attrition rates etc.
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Benchmarking Indicators: Industrywide or internal set standards, innovations etc.
Some firms stay at level - 3 while others continue till level - 5.
It is not only the level of measurements but two most important initiatives to be adopted for becoming a high performer in the market are:
a) Continuous monitoring (measuring) followed by
b) Follow up action to close the gap and continue till you are ready to raise the bar and set an example for others to follow.
These firms are called "Learning Organizations".
To conclude, feedback link is the tuning knob for your firm's performance optimization. Make sure you use it often!
