Friday, July 21, 2006

Performance management report I have become a fan of the research reports of AberdeenGroup, an industry analyst firm in Boston. I like them not only because they provide them to the public but also because they do some extra research on the responding companies and then look at what the best in class ones do versus what the poorer performing companies do and then highlight suggested ways of improvement. Over the last couple of years other research reports have been available for sale at a price higher than what most of us wish to pay, and they typically look at the manufacturing model the firm has developed then discuss how the products of various companies fit the model. Anyway, AberdeenGroup's latest report, now available for download, is "The Manufacturing Performance Management Benchmark Report." According to the study, 84% of manufacturing companies are still relying on spreadsheets and ad hoc performance monitoring for their manufacturing intelligence data. The report finds that best in class companies are out in front  and getting better at utilizing commercial IT solutions to automate the process and provide more frequent feedback to managers. "Best in Class companies emphasize interoperability along with price, quality and delivery," says Cindy Jutras, Vice President and Service Director of Aberdeen[base ']s Manufacturing practice. "They utilize Lean manufacturing to eliminate waste, accelerate real time data collection and leverage workflow technologies and alerts. Better performance also correlates directly with frequency of measurement." More than 145 companies participated in the quantitative study, probably many of the readers of this blog. Thanks to everyone who sacrificed a little time to help out. The report was underwritten by ActivePlant, Informance and Siemens Energy & Automation in order to make it available to the public. Performance management is a topic that has been in gestation only about 5 years or so and is just now getting some real traction in the market. The August issue of Automation World will have a feature article explaining the concept and showing some successes. This will be followed by another article in October (written by moi). 2:37:24 PM    comment []