Monitor and review performance: Content guide

Contents

Monitor and review performance: Content guide

Overview

Key terms

Monitoring for continuous improvement

Why monitor?

Steps to monitoring

Monitoring the results

Using technology to monitor

Flow charts

Strategies and techniques for improving quality

Creative problem solving

The PDCA cycle

Quality circles

Process re-engineering

Benchmarking

Gap analysis

Service improvement

Who are our customers?

Customer-driven organisations

Adjusting plans

Benefits of planning

Environmental influences on planning

More resources

Sample answers to ‘My workplace’ questions

Overview

Continuous improvement is all about finding ways of doing business better. Using reliable tools you will be able to collect and analyse data and plan for further improvements. This Content guide gives information and short activities to help you:

  • apply monitoring systems to obtain useful feedback on your plans and ideas
  • evaluate strategies and techniques for improving quality
  • develop plans for improving service to internal (staff) and external customers
  • evaluate progress to plan and make any necessary adjustments to ensure objectives are met.

Key terms

Benchmarking

Provides a reference point so that comparisons can be made between current and past performance in a single department or across an organisation. Comparisons can also be made with competitors within the same industry, including the market leaders.

Control chart

A simple graph used to show variation in results. An upper and lower limit are set, in an attempt to identify when performance moves away from the ideal.

Cross-functional teams

Teams that involve employees from all departments of an organisation,fFor example, people from the production floor, retail, marketing, sales and finance. This helps improve communication across the organisation and allows for realistic operational plans.

Hazard register

A check sheet where information on workplace dangers can be recorded for immediate action. The register is checked and signed off on a daily basis by a staff member assigned this responsibility.

Job description

A detailed description of the activities and responsibilities of a position. A standard of work performance is also included, as well as anything else relevant to the position, such as who a person reports to and those reporting to the position.

Monitoring

The process of measuring and comparing actual results or work in progress with the planned performance.

Performance

The way in which a person or team behaves, and the extent to which they complete their work tasks.

Questionnaire

A list of questions seeking information for statistical or other purposes.

Total quality management (TQM)

TQM refers to an integrated approach by organisational leaders to focus all levels of the business on quality. Continuous improvement systems and processes are employed to improve quality in all aspects of the business. This ultimately results in a better quality product and consequently to greater customer satisfaction.

Variance

In a quality management system, variance is any deviation or variation from a particular level of performance outcome. Specific tools are used to measure and manage variance.

Monitoring for continuous improvement

Why monitor?

Improving quality is all about directing your team to effectively meet customer needs. It is a continuous process that involves:

  • achieving a better understanding of the market
  • being innovative when developing products and processes
  • managing and distributing products and materials
  • providing high quality service to customers.

The success of quality improvement is based on how well you measure the success of your organisation's products and services against your customers' expectations.

You have probably heard the term: if you fail to plan, then plan to fail. Planning is essential for business success. But monitoring is just as important as planning. Without continual feedback on how a plan is going, the plan itself becomes meaningless. Developing and reviewing progress reports and adjusting plans when necessary, will ensure that quality improvements are achieved.

Steps to monitoring

Step 1: Where do you need to monitor?

Ask the question: What change would make the single biggest difference to your workplace?

Some of the following examples of organisational improvements may apply to your organisation, or there might be other ones that are important for your team to function at their best:

  • customer service on the telephone
  • reducing waste
  • increasing profit
  • improving production/supply
  • advertising and marketing your goods/service.

Step 2: What will you measure to provide quick and clear information?

You will need to know what you are measuring and why. For example, there is no use measuring the effectiveness of a new telephone customer service program by surveying all your customers — you need to speak with those customers directly affected by the new service. This way you will receive specific and timely feedback so that progress can be checked against the plan for improved service.

What will you need to look for in an effective measurement tool?

It must be:

  • accurate
  • specific
  • well-timed — providing quick and easy feedback when you need it
  • cost effective.

Step 3: What is the gap between current performance and the goal or standard?

Ask the question: How is your team performing now compared with where you would like to be?

You should establish a basis to work from and then measure progress towards your goal.

Step 4: What action do you need to take?

Making unnecessary changes will demotivate your team. However, collecting and analysing carefully measured results will give you the information you need to do one of the following:

  1. Make short-term quick fixes in the interim until you have worked out a better long-term adjustment.
  2. Change plans if the goal has been unrealistic, for example sales targets might need to be adjusted if your product has experienced a delay from the overseas suppliers, a situation that couldn’t have been predicted.
  3. Make corrections so that barriers to performance can be eliminated.
  4. Prevent problems that have been identified by your monitoring system.
  5. Develop and follow a contingency plan of action if there are unforeseen circumstances that have taken you temporarily off target.

Further reading

To find out more about the ‘four steps to monitoring’ see Cole, K (2001) Supervision. The theory and practice of first-line management 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall: Sydney, Chapter 5, pp 172–174.

Monitoring the results

In the past, most organisations approached quality control by inspecting products and services after they were produced or accomplished. Quality assurances were typically audits done by specialists using pre-determined standards of performance as their criteria, but they were done after the product or service had been supplied! Traditional organisations anticipated that there would be errors in the results and devoted generous resources to fix the problems.

Total quality management (TQM) focuses on improving the processes and systems that create the products or services, so that they are error free and there is minimal waste of resources.

TQM puts quality control and quality assurance further back in the production and service process by empowering team leaders and workers.

My workplace

1. Does your work team monitor progress or just the results? What changes could you make to the monitoring systems in your work environment?

Answer:

Using technology to monitor

Traditional management also tends to rely on technological advances such as automation and computers to produce improved quality and productivity. These tend to be one-off improvements, and this means that you must then wait for the next major technological advancement to initiate the next improvement.

TQM does not ignore these breakthroughs but places more value on small, incremental gains resulting from daily attention to enhancing how work is done. Continuous improvement relies on feedback from the customers — both internal and external. This feedback can be both informal, for example using stakeholder analysis, and formal, for example using focus groups and surveys.

In a TQM system, technology is used to measure and manage variance — this is any deviation or variation from a particular level of performance outcome. The specific tools that are used include:

  • stratification charts
  • flow charts
  • process control charts
  • scatter plots.

They are tools used by an organisation to determine if a process is within control limits.

Flow charts

Flow charts are very popular tools. This is because a flow chart is apictorial representation of the steps of a process. A flow chart shows the order and relationship of steps in a process. As you move down the page of the flow chart, you see a graphic illustration of the activities in the process. The value of it is that it helps the team leader or supervisor look for bottlenecks or other places where efficiency can be enhanced.

By studying a flow chart, you can uncover any loopholes in your logic. A flow chart can describe the flow of an invoice, materials or the steps involved in developing a training program. It can be elaborate or very straightforward.

Using a flow chart as a planning tool will assist you in the design and evaluation of a process before it is implemented. A flow chart can also be used to evaluate and improve existing systems and processes.

Further reading

For more information about TQM tools refer to Cole, K (2001) Supervision. The theory and practice of first-line management.2nd Edition, Prentice Hall: Sydney, Chapter 9, pp 262–268.

Strategies and techniques for improving quality

Creative problem solving

Sometimes it is hard to know how to get started when it comes to creative thinking. But there is a process that can assure that you receive the best results time after time. This process has three stages:

1. Preparation

This is where the problem is defined. You must take the time to gather the facts, do the initial research and get organised. Some of the most helpful techniques to use during this stage are:

  • reframing — stating the problem in different ways
  • cause analysis — identifying the real cause of the problem.

For example, Arens, a team leader at a local council, has a poorly motivated team of outdoor workers because of restructuring and job insecurity. Some of the possible causes include:

  • organisational changes
  • increased pressure to perform
  • poor training
  • lack of communication
  • change in ratepayer expectations
  • faulty equipment.

2. Generate ideas

This is where you explore all of the options and opportunities. It helps to stay open-minded and encourage input from all concerned. Some creative thinking ideas that work well in this stage are:

  • Brainstorming

This is a great group process where a small group of motivated people (fewer than eight) are encouraged to build on the ideas of others in the group.

Brainstorming works well when:

  • you have a well-defined problem
  • someone is assigned to document group ideas
  • someone is assigned to keep it on track and moving.
  • Checklists

Checklists are lists of questions that are designed to make you consider all aspects of a problem.

Here’s an example where a plant bakery team leader, Ken, needed to identify hazards in the workplace.

Table: Ken’s checklist for hazards in the workplace

Question / Ken’s problem
S / What can you Substitute? / Faulty equipment for new equipment.
C / What can you Combine? / Group effort to come up with new ideas to reduce risk.
A / What can you Adapt? / Ideas used in other departments.
M / What can you Modify? / Minimise incidence of accidents on the production floor.
P / What can you Put to another use? / Encourage staff to be proactive in spotting risks rather than not reporting them.
E / What can you Eliminate? / Unnecessary errors as a result of coaching staff on the use of new tools, ie check sheets.
R / What can you Reverse? / Trend towards increasing workplace injuries due to faulty equipment.

3. Selecting and implementing solutions

Typically you will have defined your problem and used one or more of the creative thinking techniques to generate ideas and options. Only when you are sure you have explored every option, can you start to narrow things down.

This is the stage where you make your choice and plan the implementation of your idea. One of the most powerful techniques to use here is the force field analysis. A force field analysis allows you to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of an idea or situation so that you can plan for further changes if needed.

Following on from our checklist example, Ken has now developed a hazard register. This is a check sheet where information on workplace dangers can be recorded for immediate action. Here’s an example where a force field analysis is used to test Ken’s hazard register.

Table: Force field analysis of Ken’s hazard register

Current situation

Negative forces / Positive forces
- time out of production to train staff in use of hazard register / + reduction in workplace accidents
+ involving staff in generation of ideas
+ empowering staff to take responsibility for a new initiative

As you can see from this simple example, the advantages for Ken when introducing the use of a hazard register strongly outweigh the disadvantages, so it makes sense to implement the idea. However, the force field analysis indicates to Ken that time out of production and extra training costs will need to be budgeted for in the short-term.

Further reading

To find out more about these tools, refer to Morgan, M (1993) Creating workplace innovation. Business and Professional Publishing: Sydney, Chapter 5, pp 109–111.

The PDCA cycle

The Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle is an important tool for any team leader or supervisor implementing continuous improvement initiatives. It provides a consistent approach for the implementation of ideas and the measurement of results.

Step 1: Plan

Identify your problem

Collect data (eg, using check sheets)

Set targets

Step 2:Do

Analyse information and develop a plan

Do a trial run

Step 3: Check

Check your results (eg, using control charts)

Step 4:Act

Take action to make changes permanent by building them into the process, communicating the changes and documenting evidence of your initiative.

The PDCA cycle helps you to identify potential improvements, plan and implement them and incorporate them into standard functions and operations.

Quality circles

TQM improvements are successful mainly because many small-scale improvements that are cheap and quick to implement result in the greatest gains. They usually come from shop-floor employees who have a detailed appreciation of the benefit each change might make to the process concerned. By implementing many small improvements, you create a substantial overall effect.

One of the most well-known techniques of the TQM approach is the idea of quality circles.

Quality circles can be defined as a group of workers who do similar work and who meet:

  • voluntarily
  • regularly during work time
  • under the guidance of their team leader or supervisor
  • to spot, describe and solve work-related problems
  • to recommend solutions to management.

Successful quality circles usually follow some or all of these guidelines:

  • Circles should involve 5–10 people to ensure everyone has an opportunity to contribute.
  • Meetings should be held in a staff room or away from the work area so that members can concentrate without interruptions.
  • The group should meet for about one hour, once a week to start with, and then on a needs basis.
  • A clear purpose and agenda should be set.
  • Expert help can be called upon if needed.

My workplace

2. What strategies and techniques could you use in your current workplace to bring about small quality improvements?

Answer:

Process re-engineering

The focus of quality circles is small changes. The process of re-engineering is the opposite. Re-engineering is about monumental changes that bring about dramatic improvements. Process re-engineering involves rebuilding organisational processes from the bottom up. The purpose usually centres on meeting customer needs by reducing inefficiencies throughout the organisation.

In the past, some organisations that have undergone a restructuring process have found that staff morale has dropped. This is usually due to large-scale retrenchments, poor communication or implementing changes that are not aligned with the strategic plan or vision of the organisation.

The best use of re-engineering is when an organisation has clearly identified a need tomake big changes to remain competitive. As a result of this process the gains usually result in:

  • more cross-functional teams
  • better use of resources
  • reduced outgoings
  • increased output
  • improved customer service.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is all about comparison — between individuals, teams, departments and competitors. If we are to stay competitive in the market then it is necessary to know where we stand compared with everyone else.

Let us look at Ken again, as the production manager in a large commercial bakery. Ken can compare his production team to:

  • other departments (packing)
  • competitors (another bakery in different suburb)
  • the leading bakery in the country.

Ken can also compare his team members with each other, for example, comparing their individual work outputs.

Benchmarking could assist Ken in setting a standard to work towards at all levels.

Further reading

For more information on benchmarking, see Cole, K (2001) Supervision. The theory and practice of first-line management.2nd Edition, Prentice Hall: Sydney, Chapter 9, pp 264–278.

Gap analysis

A gap analysis shows where an organisation is now, compared with where it wants to be. A gap analysis involves an organisation doing some research to determine their performance and compares it with the performance of the leading competitor, to provide ‘gap’ information.