Free Custom «Measure of Process Performance» Essay Paper

The firm targets to enhance the level of performance by regulating the number of defects and number of items reworked. Policies will be put in place to minimize the number of hours that the machine is idle. These moves will serve to enhance high performance and reduce the wastage (Figge, Hahn, Schaltegger, & Wagner, 2002).

Productivity or Productivity Improvement

The firm targets to achieve high productivity before the year end by measuring the average output per employee in an effort to introduce means that improve productivity per employee. The firm will increase the production capacity as well as introduce proper controls around the production area. These strategies will increase the general productivity of the firm.

Operations Metrics

The firm plans to initiate the right executive plan in the running of the activities of the firm. The firm will use the appropriate product and service mixes to ensure operations made easier in the firm. The firm will use the appropriate controls in the relevant areas so as to ensure the efficient handling of operations.

Learning and Growth (Employee) Perspective:

Employee Satisfaction

The firm targets to increase the employee satisfaction by increasing salaries, according to the productivity of each employee. Also the firm will offer motivational talks, incentives, and development channels targeted in increasing employee satisfaction. Lastly, implement a laissez faire system of leadership targeted to make employees the part of the organization.

Employee Turnover or Retention

The firm targets to increase the employee retention for the next three accounting periods by offering benefits like medical schemes that cover both employees and his or her families.

Level of Organizational Capability

The firm plans to achieve a relevant organizational structure that highlights the flow of activities from the executive managers to the employees in the lowest rank. The organizational structure will enhance smooth communication between the departments. Therefore, team building will be possible with possible benefits of the teamwork.

Nature of Organizational Culture or Climate

The firm plans to establish policies targeted to establishing ethical guidelines and standards in the workplace. This will be possible through the use of HR department. The firm’s culture will affect how the employees respond to the relevant issues affecting them.

Technological Innovation

The firm targets to come up with the latest technology in an endeavor to increase the production capacity as well asefficiency of the firm.

The balanced score card has been instrumental in ensuring that the firm can align its objectives with its vision. The vision of the firm simply states where the firm wants to be within a given time frame (Niven, 2006). Therefore, the long term success of the firm determinedby the competencies and capabilities it has endeavored to develop. Furthermore, the vision provides a skeleton of the firm’s projections and long-term plans that the firm wishes to achieve. In developing the balanced scorecard, this becomes imperative to consider the future of the firm. For instance, companies are always aiming to increase their market share up to a certain level. If the firm happens to achieve the target, it projects for another level to be achieved within a specified period. Therefore, the balanced scorecard is an instrumental tool for organizational appraisal.

Mission

The mission of an organization usually states the goals and the general standard it wishes to uphold in providing in providing products and services to its customers. Therefore, in developing a balanced scorecard, quality of products given to customers is a big consideration. The mission states that customer value is the first priority. Furthermore, the good customer relations are always considered imperative for a business aiming to be successful. The balanced scorecard embraces the mission of the firm by having objectives aligned, according to the customer value perspective (Kaplan, 2010). Offering quality goods and personal services are some of the firm’s goals included in the balanced score card.

Values

The firm’s values are shape the cultural background of the firm. These values mostly shapedby the ethical guidelines and standards of the firm. It is worth mentioning that the balanced scorecard is a nonfinancial performance measure. Therefore, it contains some attributes that other statements do not have. Values enable an individual to incorporate the related objectives in the balanced scorecard by establishing the level of organizational capability (Figge, Hahn, Schaltegger, & Wagner, 2002). The balanced scorecard borrows a mostly from the values of a firm in regard to the objectives included. Furthermore, the nature of organizational norms and technological innovations form part of the firm’s norms. Hence, coming up with objectives incorporated in the balanced scorecard is hugely influences the firm’s values.

SWOTT Analysis

In constructing an effective balanced scorecard, one of the most essential elements is the SWOTT analysis that entails analyzing the firm’s environment - both internal and external. The external environment highlights the areas of threats and opportunities that face the organization (Niven, 2006). The internal environment analyzes the weaknesses and strengths endowed in the firm. Therefore, in developing a balanced scorecard, it is imperative for an individual to conduct first a SWOTT analysis. A firm using obsolete technology itself is a weakness. Hence indeveloping a balanced scorecard, the major focus should be on improving the level of technology. Alsoif the firm is faces major threats from the competitors, it is essential for the firm to include in the balanced scorecard, the strategies, and tactics employed in coping with the competition.

Strengths in a firm are shown by a large production capacity, able to maintain customer satisfaction and able to ensure that the employees satisfaction is high. In the balanced scorecard, a firm will highlight the objectives that the firm wishes to achieve to either enhance the weaknesses or increase the strengths of the firm. On the other hand, a firm is facedwith many opportunities from the external environment may choose to include in the balanced scorecard the objectives of capitalizing on the opportunities. Therefore, it is imperative to consider the SWOTT analysis before developing a balanced scorecard (Sinha, 2006).

Balanced Scorecard and Its Importance as a Strategic Management Tool

The balanced scorecard is a tool for an organization to identify the priorities, plans, budgeting policies, andconflictinginterests in the firm. The balanced scorecard as a strategic management tool serves the following roles in a firm;

Translating the Vision

A firm can achieve its long-term goals when the workers and the top management are able tounderstand the firm’s vision. Therefore, before any implementation process, an organization needs to be completely sure about the purpose for its existence. The organization should also be to identify its business definition and be able to identify where it wants to see itself after a specific period. The managers should create an agreement of the business strategy to use with the overall organization’s vision (Sinha, 2006). Therefore, a balanced scorecard clarifies the firm’s strategic objectives and helps align them, according to the firm’s vision.

Communicating and Linking

Most of the times, communication of the strategies and vision is usually not sufficient. The specific objectives and measures evaluatesto show the congruence. The long-term goals evaluated and translated into departmental goals so as to facilitate execution when the time is due (Kaplan, 2010). Therefore, communicating the goals to each employee of an organization is imperative. If all employees can understand the information about the firm’s objectives, business unit targets, corporate targets, and departmentalobjectives will be achieved. Therefore, only the balanced scorecard can effectively communicate the firm’s strategies to the employees.

Business Planning

Balanced scorecard is also instrumental in resource allocation process. It is worth noting that objectives are important in deciding the allocation of resources to various processes, activities, and departments. Strategies that do not correspond to the level of allocation in a firm do not amount to any productivity (Sinha, 2006). Hence, the balanced scorecard aims at integrating between the budgeting exercise and strategic planning.