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What Gets Measured Gets Done
Establishing good performance management
Tom Peters, the well known management guru of Management Excellence said that if we want to have something done, be sure to put the proper measurement against it. He observed through a study that organizations that are focused on a set of objectives and measurement schemes to monitor the progress; generally do well in meeting those objectives. Sometimes, even exceeding it.
While the above concept is no longer foreign to many people routinely involved in the management of people, applying the right measurement is sometimes tricky. Even more so in the maintenance management field where most of us are developed through natural progression in a technical function role where we are heavily accustomed to manage the performance of physical assets rather than the human asset of organization. (Some said that is easier to manage equipments as they are more predictable than people).
That being the case, most of us are still uncertain of the right indicators that we should use in managing the performance of our maintenance organizations. When asked the type of measures they use in managing the performance of their maintenance organizations, many simply point to the standard reports automatically generated by their computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) without the real understanding why the measures were used in the first place.
As a result, in many cases, these frequently (and automatically) produced reports were not even looked at as they render meaningless indicators. Or even worse, the indicators could be wrongly interpreted and used to drive conflicting actions detrimental to the achievement of the maintenance organization's objectives. Hopefully this doesn't sound like your organization.
However, if it does, or if you are simply interested in understanding on how to establish proper performance management, please click here.