Implementation and impact of performance measures in two SMEs in Central Scotland

This paper describes how performance measures were selected and then implemented in two small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Central Scotland. It then goes on to consider the impact of these measures on the performance of those businesses using data generated from an action research approach. A review of academic literature on the barriers to implementation of performance measurement systems in general, and those specifically relating to SMEs, suggested that considerable difficulties can be found in implementing performance measures. These perceived difficulties are considered and discussed in relation to the SMEs in question and the approaches used to minimize and overcome them are described. A systematic approach that is well resourced and focused on measuring variation in performance of entire 'operate' processes during execution is found to enable business improvement activity. The impact of using this approach on operations management strategy in each SME is reported. The research suggests that implementation of performance measures in an SME will have considerable impact on business performance if the process for implementation is well structured, resourced and focused on improving the capability of 'operate' processes

Implementing a web enabled performance measurement system

A Web-enabled-performance-measurement system was designed, implemented and used to improve the business performance of a company processing aluminum foil in central Scotland. The benefits of the system are analyzed in the context of the business-process-based structure of the performance measurement system and the evolution of a business improvement culture led by an enlightened general manager. The importance of the use of statistical quality control techniques by the management team to monitor impact of critical input variables on process performance is emphasized

A review of decision-support tools and performance measurement and sustainable supply chain management

In recent years, interest on sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has risen significantly in both the academic and business communities. This is confirmed by the growing number of conferences, journal publications, special issues and websites dedicated to the topic. Within this context, this paper reviews the existing literature related to decision-support tools and performance measurement for SSCM. A narrative literature review is carried out to capture qualitative evidence, while a systematic literature review is performed using classic bibliometric techniques to analyse the relevant body of knowledge identified in 384 papers published from 2000 to 2013. The key conclusions include: the evidence of a research field that is growing, the call for establishing the scope of current research, i.e. the need for integrated performance frameworks with new generation decision-support tools incorporating triple bottom line (TBL) approach for managing sustainable supply chains. There is a need to identify a wide range of specific industry-related TBL metrics and indexes, and assess their usefulness through empirical research and case-base analysis. We need mixed methods to thoroughly analyse and investigate sustainable aspects of the product life cycle across the supply chains, through empirical evidence, building and/or testing theory from and in practice

Fuzzy Symbolic handling of industrial instantaneous and trend performance expressions

International audienceThis study subscribes to the performance expression and the control of theachievement of an industrial objective. Temporal trajectory is considered fordescribing such an achievement, which links the initial instant of the correspondingaction plan to the final one. At each milestone, instantaneous andtrend performances are expressed. The purpose is thus to simultaneously handlethe previous kinds of expression in order to define a meaningful piece of informationthat takes into account the obtained results along the considered temporalhorizon. A rule-based aggregation is retained in this sense. Moreover, accordingto the visual management principles, symbolic fuzzification and deffuzzificationare used, and colored emoticons are proposed in this sense

An extensible framework for analysing resource behaviour using event logs

Business processes depend on human resources and managers must regularly evaluate the performance of their employees based on a number of measures, some of which are subjective in nature. As modern organisations use information systems to automate their business processes and record information about processes’ executions in event logs, it now becomes possible to get objective information about resource behaviours by analysing data recorded in event logs. We present an extensible framework for extracting knowledge from event logs about the behaviour of a human resource and for analysing the dynamics of this behaviour over time. The framework is fully automated and implements a predefined set of behavioural indicators for human resources. It also provides a means for organisations to define their own behavioural indicators, using the conventional Structured Query Language, and a means to analyse the dynamics of these indicators. The framework's applicability is demonstrated using an event log from a German bank