Its one thing to be aware of and keep an eye on the metrics that reduce cost and increase productivity.
Its another thing to blindly and irrationally pursue an obviously flawed metric simply for its own sake.
In the UPS of today, it is perfectly acceptable to spend $10 to save a nickel....as long as the nickel shows up on your report and the $10 shows up on someone elses.
As our esteemed Pretzel Man once said...."when the metric itself becomes more important than the business element it was intended to measure, we have a problem."
I stand by that statement..... I disagree with the "flawed metric" concept however.....
This may be long, but I will explain where my thoughts came from....
A long time ago, I was an I.E. assigned to a region. I was given that assignment because I was successful as both a manager in operations and I.E. in a couple of districts. I told the region manager that one of the reasons for the success was that I did a lot of training, auditing, and measuring using some of the new information that was becoming available.
I suggested that I go around the region and do the same for every division manager. If you think about it, I started creating metrics....
I noticed something in the training classes. Some of the division managers were hands on. They wanted to understand the reports. Understand the systems that created them, and what the metrics really meant. Others seemed less interested. One division manager said something to me that I will never forget.
As I was explaining how to read and understand a report, he said, "I don't need to know that. Just tell me if you want the number to get bigger or smaller".
He moved the numbers faster than the others. The others however moved the numbers in the long term and also improved many other numbers at the same time. Their operations got better in every measure.
So, my point is that while its true that "when the metric itself becomes more important than the business element it was intended to measure, we have a problem.". Yes, I beleive that.
The solution is NOT to disregard the metric. Its to train managemnt on what it means.
You say we have a flawed metric. I say we have a misunderstood metric that need to be put in context. I guess is that like anything else, all metrics are flawed.
My statement was meant to say that metrics need to be understood by management, not diregarded. Take for latest discussion on the metric of SPC. Its a good and important metric. The answer is to teach how to properly use it.
P-Man