"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me." (George Bernard Shaw)

When implementing MRP at Federal-Mogul, we discovered that our traditional operational measurements would not help us transition to a leaner environment. Measuring operational effectiveness by machine usage doesn’t work in an MRP/JIT/Lean project. Existing statistics were not producing the needed results and in fact were leading to conflict and foot dragging. By changing operational performance measures, we were able to achieve the expected results but also identify additional opportunities for improvement.

You’ve probably heard the statement “You can’t improve what you can’t measure”. Taken on its face value then, we couldn’t possibly make an improvement without taking measurements. I guess whoever said this was speaking in quantifiable terms that in order to demonstrate that you actually have improved something, you must compare two coordinates in order to prove that you have moved from position A (previous situation) to position B (current situation). However many times we can tell we’ve improved by the reduction in “pain” we’ve been experiencing. I guess my point is that don’t let the inability to take measurements stop you from making process improvements that you know need to be made!

You can walk around a factory and ask anyone whether things are better as a result of an improvement effort. They’ll tell you. It has something to do with the “confusion factor” as referenced by Daryl Landvater in one of the Oliver Wight education series videos. No one really measures the confusion factor in a company, but we all know its there. And sometimes it’s worse than others. And if we achieve improvements many times we can tell if the confusion factor has subsided, without measuring it.

Measurements help define the “where you’re at” and “where you’re going” coordinates when it comes to the logistics of change. Measurements establish the current condition and help establish goals or vision of an improved process. When undertaking improvement projects, take the time to really define what you’re trying to accomplish. Don’t make statements that are too general in nature, get down to the nitty gritty! The devil is in the details!

For example, earlier this year, I worked with a client to correct a chronic problem with the behind schedule condition in their shear shop. Initial measurements showed the workcenter dispatch list contained 98 behind schedule orders, a current situation. Here are some of the measurements that we should have taken

1. The amount of time spent sorting through a two foot stack of shop paper to determine what to work next 2. The number of daily trips that the supervisor had to make to the shear area to schedule work 3. The number of jobs released late to the shear

After the improvement, I spoke to the supervisor. Where he once was making 6-10 trips a day to the shear area to schedule work, he now makes one or two trips and some days he doesn’t make any! The shear workcenter now runs with little scheduling supervision. We also changed the process of releasing orders to shear. Nothing is released to the shear more than one week early and the shop dispatcher performs the closing of the order release operation. This process improvement identified that over 30% of jobs were released late. We are now working to reduce late releases to operations … the JIT journey continues!

With that said, let’s go about the business of measuring some more quantifiable things: Inventory accuracy, jobs behind schedule, BOM accuracy, jobs released short of lead time, lead time accuracy. These are more quantifiable. We can perform counts and audits, take measurements and compare them as we implement improvements over time. We can determine if what we are doing is making a significant difference.

Measurements are great tools to determine if process changes are producing the improvements desired. Measurements can provide a great deal of job satisfaction and enthusiasm for a project. Make sure that you identify the detailed results that you wish to accomplish and get your improvement project started!