Performance Monitor: The Opportunity Costs of Revenue Management

Revenue management (RM) brings rational approaches to pricing for goods and/or services with a limited shelf life. The practice of dynamically pricing a perishable product across different market segments continues to be applied across an ever-increasing set of business arenas. While numerous consulting and software development firms preach the bottom line impacts of RM practice, little effort is applied to monitoring the success of RM systems once in place. The continued success of RM hinges upon the ability to link organizational performance to the pricing and capacity decisions of RM systems. This link both reinforces the financial gains attributable to RM and indicates opportunities for future improvement. This paper outlines Performance Monitor, a phased approach to performance measurement designed and implemented at Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. The focus is on the impact of RM practice via a dissection of the lost revenue opportunities of historic decisions

Performance Monitor

Revenue management has experienced tremendous growth since its inception in the airline industry. The practice of dynamically pricing a perishable product across different market segments continues to be applied across an ever-increasing set of business arenas. The proliferation of revenue management can be attributed to its microeconomic foundations (grounded in supply and demand), as well as the numerous well-cited success stories (American Airlines, National Car Rental) and failures (People’s Express) that follow from its application or lack thereof. The continued success of revenue management hinges upon the ability to link organizational performance to the pricing and capacity decisions of revenue management systems. This link both reinforces the financial gains attributable to revenue management and indicates opportunities for future improvement. This paper outlines Performance Monitor, a phased approach to performance measurement designed and implemented at Dollar Car Rental. We also present and discuss some examples of Phase I, which is currently in use

Operations flow effectiveness: a systems approach to measuring flow performance

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: Effective operations management systems (OMS) measurement remains a critical issue for theorists and practising managers (Neely, 2005; Bititci et al., 2012). Traditional labor efficiency measures sufficed when all that was made could be sold or when mass production systems filled warehouses with stock and the OMS had little relationship with “the consumer.” Modern manufacturing systems require a different form of flow optimization (beyond labor efficiency) measurement (Schmenner, 2015). The essential unit of measure for all OMS designs is the optimal use of time for process value adding and the flow of materials into and from the conversion process. Timely flow, therefore, satisfies the needs of multiple organizational stakeholders including cash flow (accounting), consumer reaction times (marketing) and the general steady state flow of materials (sales and supply chain). The purpose of this paper is to present the results of testing a new performance measure of operations flow effectiveness (OFE) with ten purposively selected cases. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is theory building using ten, purposively selected, longitudinal case studies drawn from the UK high-value manufacturing (HVM) sector using a pluralist methodology of interviews, observation and secondary data. Findings: The OFE measure provides a holistic view of material flow through the input-process-output cycles of a firm. The measure highlights OMS design weaknesses and flow inhibitors that reduce cash flow using a time-based approach to measuring OMS performance. The study validates the OFE measure and has identified six key design elements that enable high flow performance. Originality/value: The paper tests a new process-focused flow performance measure. The measure supports a holistic approach to the manufacturing enterprise and allows different OMS designs to be evaluated so that organizational learning may be enacted to support performance improvement

Using abm in managing territorial health services: the “home-care”.

In recent years in Italy, as in other European countries, profound changes have been introduced in health care at both the central and the regional levels. Most of them were oriented towards a shift from “hospital-centred” healthcare to healthcare based more on territorial services. This transition pursues two objectives: giving more effective responses to citizens’ needs and reducing public health expenditure. Changes that involve organizational structure must also be carried out with the introduction of measurement tools that can help in planning and can control the changes. Starting from the experiences of the healthcare system of the Tuscan Region of Italy, the paper aims to provide an experience of the ABM approach to measure both output and efficiency of territorial health services. Activity Based Management provides an appropriate method to examine territorial activities and to meet the fact-finding needs of national and regional policy, by considering the issues indicated by the territorial managers of the Tuscan healthcare system and the regional and national experiences in recent years. ABM focuses on managing activities as the route to improving value for users and for the local healthcare unit; this is accomplished by the measurement of activities and resources that determine the costs and performance of territorial services. This approach requires organization and integration of sets of data belonging to different systems such as financial and operational systems. The ABM model is complex but it can be used by policy makers for strategic perspective and for continuous improvement. Moreover, ABM meets managers’ demands, as the Tuscan territorial managers have confirmed in interviews. On the basis of experience obtained in territorial long term homecare , the paper underscores the principal issues arising from the process of conducting an ABM project in territorial health services through strong involvement of healthcare workers. The paper also presents the main outputs achieved.Home care, performance measurement, ABM.

Goals/questions/metrics method and SAP implementation projects

During the last years some researchers have studied the critical success factors (CSFs) in ERP implementations. However, until now, no one has studied how these CSFs should be put in practice to help organizations achieve success in ERP implementations. This technical research report attempts to define the usage of Goals/Questions/Metrics (GQM) approach in the definition of a measurement system for ERP implementation projects. GQM approach is a mechanism for defining and interpreting operational, measurable goals. Lately, because of its intuitive nature the approach has gained widespread appeal. We present a metrics overview and a description of GQM approach. Then we provide an example of GQM application for monitoring sustained management support in ERP implementations. Sustained management support is the most cited critical success factor in ERP implementation projects.Postprint (published version

MEASURING THE PERFORMANCE OF XYZ GOVERNMENT AGENCY WITH THE BASIS OF MALCOLM BALDRIGE METHOD

Government agency is collective designation which includes work unit and organizational unit of ministries or departments, non-departmental government institution, secretariat of state high institution, and other central and regional government agencies; including state-owned enterprises, state-owned legal entities, and regional-owned enterprises. One of the very effective models in improving the quality of performance of an agency is by using the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. This research was conducted with the aim of: 1) measuring the performance of XYZ Government Agency so that their performance consistency can be monitored and 2) finding out the opportunities and obstacles in measuring the performance of XYZ Government Agency by using the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award (MBNQA) criteria. The type of this research is descriptive research that uses XYZ Government Agency as the research object. The measurement conducted in this research applies the Malcolm Baldrige method. The findings showed that the criteria with the highest percentage score is operation (39.8%) and the lowest percentage score is strategy (35.1%). The total score is 377.5 from a maximum score of 1000 points. It showed that the performance of XYZ Government Agency is at the level of “initial growth” (scale point of 376-475

Framing quality improvement tools and techniques in healthcare: the case of Improvement Leaders' Guides

The paper presents a study of how quality improvement tools are framed within healthcare settings.\ud \ud The paper employs an interpretive approach to understand how quality improvement tools and techniques are mobilised and legitimated using a case study of the NHS Modernisation Agency Improvement Leaders’ Guides.\ud \ud Improvement Leaders’ Guides were framed within a service improvement approach encouraging the use of quality improvement tools and techniques within healthcare settings. Their use formed part of enacting tools and techniques across different contexts. Whilst this enactment was believed to support the mobililsation of tools and techniques, the experience also illustrated the challenges in distributing such approaches.\ud \ud The paper provides a contribution to our understanding of framing the 'social act' of quality improvement. Given the ongoing emphasis on quality improvement and the persistent challenges involved, it also provides information for healthcare leaders globally in seeking to develop, implement or modify similar tools and distribute leadership within health and social care settings.\ud \ud \u

Continuous Improvement in Education

In recent years, 'continuous improvement' has become a popular catchphrase in the field of education. However, while continuous improvement has become commonplace and well-documented in other industries, such as healthcare and manufacturing, little is known about how this work has manifested itself in education.This white paper attempts to map the landscape of this terrain by identifying and describing organizations engaged in continuous improvement, and by highlighting commonalities and differences among them. The findings classify three types of organizations engaged in continuous improvement: those focused on instructional improvement at the classroom level; those concentrating on system-wide improvement; and those addressing collective impact. Each type is described in turn and illustrated by an organizational case study. Through the analysis, six common themes that characterize all three types of organizations (e.g., leadership and strategy, communication and engagement, organizational infrastructure, methodology, data collection and analysis, and building capacity) are enumerated. This white paper makes four concluding observations. First, the three case studies provide evidence of organizations conducting continuous improvement work in the field of education, albeit at different levels and in different ways. Second, entry points to continuous improvement work are not mutually exclusive, but are nested and, hence, mutually informative and comparative. Third, continuous improvement is not synonymous with improving all organizational processes simultaneously; rather, research and learning cycles are iterative and gradual in nature. Fourth, despite being both iterative and gradual, it is imperative that improvement work is planned and undertaken in a rigorous, thoughtful, and transparent fashion

TRIZ: an alternate way to solve problem for student

Inventive problem solving is an alternative way of solving problem for student. 60 years ago, in 1956, Altshuller published a new, constructive and methodical approach ideas on problem solving to offer to the world. Even though TRIZ originally meant for fields of industry domains, it has solved problems in other field using some common principles. Thus, this methodology has spread to over 35 countries across the world. It is now being taught in several universities and it has been applied by a number of global organizations who have found it particularly useful to solve their problem. In 2017, KSSM curriculum has been revised to cope up this 21st century demand. This paper is a potentially useful for TRIZ beginner, as an alternative to solve problem comparable to common problem solving method. This paper also discussed the limitation of other common problem method which leads the advantages of using TRIZ

Beyond Cost-per-Hire and Time to Fill: Supply-Chain Measurement for Staffing

Identifying and acquiring talent is one of the most important processes in human resource management. It is a key element in being competitive in a knowledge driven, talent constrained economy. In addition, it is often the first contact that potential employees have with the organization, so it can be the basis for the entire employment relationship. Increasingly, organizations recognize that a professionally excellent staffing process can be a source of competitive advantage. Moreover, the emergence of fundamentally new information technologies and communication processes – such as the Internet, virtual job fairs, online testing, and global job boards – increase the opportunities and the risks associated with staffing process management. Unfortunately, existing staffing process measurement systems typically fail to provide the information necessary to understand, evaluate and make rational decisions about investments in the staffing system, and fail to support decisions about staffing by HR professionals, line managers, applicants and employees. As a result, organizations often base decisions about their staffing systems solely on information about the volume of applicants or new hires, or the costs and time involved in staffing activities. This leads to potentially disastrous decisions, and opens the door for competitors. In this article, we propose a framework for a staffing measurement system that truly supports professional excellence, partnership and optimal investment decisions