Anyone who reads the following article in Detroit News would be laughing; surprised to the very least. By matching Toyota in one metric (Labor hours/car), Chrysler has the nerve to call itself matching Toyota in efficiency. This is a beautiful example of taking one metric, skewing it up, matching with a competitor and say that they are equals. Chrysler would possibly never run into discussions on vehicle quality, fuel efficiencies or overall financial performance in comparison with Toyota.
And this is the problem with single metric comparison. It would have been very easy for Chrysler to add some automation systems and claim that their efficiency has bettered; worse, they could have outsourced labor and claimed that their labor hours/vehicle has actually reduced!. I am not suggesting that they did that, but all this is certainly possible. Skewing one single metric is not a tough mandate at all!!
This is the same issue with metrics captured in IT Services companies. Things like man-hours, lines of code, bugs per 100 lines of code/bug density - these are metrics that are still being religiously followed even in top tier IT companies. There is hardly any realization that these metrics have died their death and any further use will only leave us with useless information. When a metric is defined, it is important to understand the purpose of capture of that information. Just because a BPO calculated number of toilet trips by men and women employees so as to set ideal number of toilets at optimal distance for each gender, it doesn't mean that once the numbers are reached, the BPO can claim a 100% efficiency!
However most of these metrics rest on the smartness of managers who question the need, the data gathering process, the inferences and the side-effects. If not, all we can expect is Chrysler to outperform Toyota!
And this is the problem with single metric comparison. It would have been very easy for Chrysler to add some automation systems and claim that their efficiency has bettered; worse, they could have outsourced labor and claimed that their labor hours/vehicle has actually reduced!. I am not suggesting that they did that, but all this is certainly possible. Skewing one single metric is not a tough mandate at all!!
This is the same issue with metrics captured in IT Services companies. Things like man-hours, lines of code, bugs per 100 lines of code/bug density - these are metrics that are still being religiously followed even in top tier IT companies. There is hardly any realization that these metrics have died their death and any further use will only leave us with useless information. When a metric is defined, it is important to understand the purpose of capture of that information. Just because a BPO calculated number of toilet trips by men and women employees so as to set ideal number of toilets at optimal distance for each gender, it doesn't mean that once the numbers are reached, the BPO can claim a 100% efficiency!
However most of these metrics rest on the smartness of managers who question the need, the data gathering process, the inferences and the side-effects. If not, all we can expect is Chrysler to outperform Toyota!
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2 comments:
Loved your BPO Analogy.
good to see you blog once again. good luck
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