Overview

If you don't measure it, you don't manage it.
Joseph Juran

If you do measure it, you will manage it, and it will improve. With this in mind, it is critical that the measures selected be the correct ones, and that they be effectively communicated. The basic tools and strategies are covered in the main body of the book. However, we must make sure we measure those things that are supportive of our use of these tools and of our corporate objectives. We need leading indicators: are we doing the right things? And, we need lagging indicators: are we getting the right results? Further, management must provide the systems for all measures to be easily made to facilitate data collection, reporting, and action.

Leading indicators tend to be shop floor oriented, for example:

• Operators leading indicators:

  • Operator care PM conformance

  • Process conformance/non-conformance

  • Equipment downtime/delay times/life

  • Housekeeping conformance

  • First pass-first quality yield

  • Other measures that operators directly control or influence

• Maintenance skilled trades leading indicators:

  • % PM compliance to schedule

  • Mean time between repairs

  • Seal life: number of seals per month

  • Bearing life: number of bearings per month

  • Lube compliance

  • Number of leaks per month

  • Other measures that technicians directly control or influence

If we're doing the right things, then we should see substantial improvement in our lagging indicators, which tend to be management-oriented, but also tend to be more like looking in the rear-view mirror lagging indicators show us where we've been, not where we're going. Leading indicators show us where we're...