Summary
The implementation of complex management systems cannot ignore the need to measure, beyond being a basic control requirement, it is the only guarantee of knowing the effectiveness of the related processes and control required by the organization that decides to manage under a systemic approach. your operations or part of them, to take advantage and generate functional savings. For the system to work according to the organization and not the other way around, it will be necessary to establish clear objectives, periods and responsibilities in time that are measurable and understood by those involved. Otherwise any measurement will be isolated, and absurd.
Definitions
- Indicators: It is the design of a measurement, to quantify magnitudes related to the performance and fulfillment of the success criteria of a process or activity. Measure: It is the process of obtaining data required for the indicator, which will be transformed into information. Scope: General measurement of processes within a management system.
Measurement in management systems. What to Measure?
Management systems as work models to manage processes, operations and activities within organizations, are a set of resources that when combined in a planned way must cover the initial objectives of their creation, and include the strategic, tactical and operational level. It is precisely at the point where the information on the different levels and objectives of the system is generated that the magnifying glass is required for the development of indicators, and it will be the key to verify whether the management system implemented is effective for the planned purposes. In this way it is guaranteed that the system will always work according to the objectives and therefore they will not be isolated processes within the organization, look at figure A to graphically understand where the points of attention can be generally located to measure:
Figure a
Measurement in management systems
Now, it seems that this scheme does not present more than a vision with common sense of the key points where to generate indicators. However, it seems a generalized trend to find measurements outside of this context that are institutionalized within organizations as untouchable, generating an almost negative added value below a list of frequent characteristics:
- Indicators with long periods of time showing the same value Indicators unrelated to corporate strategy, tactics or operations Indicators with mysterious, hidden or unknown interpretations No one knows about the indicators, they are only managed by the head of the area or senior management All they know they are on the billboard, but no one knows how their management contributes to those results.
The idea of managing and maintaining an indicator should not be seen as a whim or requirement of a system, it should be a work tool that contributes and allows generating functional savings by making the right decisions based on real information about the process that is measured. In this way, the indicators will not only be key for all employees, but the system can become a service area at the command of the main organizational processes, covering the real objectives for which it was designed. Without forgetting that they cannot be eternal, indicators change as the organization moves, if they go hand in hand –indicators and processes- the numbers will give clear signals when the time comes to improve, change or replace one indicator with another.Special attention should be paid when the indicator covers the goal. The objectives have not necessarily been achieved…
Conclusions
Observation of the real objectives is required in each stage or key process, to discover the points that deserve to be measured, in this way resources will not be wasted in vain, and the measurements will always provide a value that will benefit the organization.
