From our Working Leadership Online program:

Question:
I need help with my field work. I met with my manager to discuss my goals. I can list several specific goals that are interrelated but my issue is that they are mostly on-going. It is difficult to nail down the Time Span.

For example, my biggest goal is to manage the backlog so that we maintain 100% Due Date Performance. This goal, like most of mine, will never be complete. My goals are measured daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. However, they are dynamic and I am struggling to put them in QQTR (Quantity, Quality, Time, Resources) terms.

Response:
In many environments, your work may not be project oriented with specific due dates. In some cases, the Time Span connection has more to do with evaluation periods. In your case, you describe daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual Time Spans.

I am most interested in the longest Time Span goals, or those goals which are judged in longer Time Spans. I am certain you look at metrics on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to capture data so you can make adjustments. Those short term metrics measure production performance. And production performance is important.

But, for you, as a Manager, I am looking for those longer Time Span goals, not measuring Production units, but measuring your system that drives Production. I am looking for metrics about your system and the way it manages efficiency, throughput, scrap, waste, safety, slowdown and acceleration to meet order flow.

Let me take a stab in my imagination.

Prior to the end of each year (Time Span), the Due Date Performance of our backlog will be measured for the previous 12 month period. During that time, the average on-time delivery will deviate no more than 5% from the specified Due Dates.

As time goes by, that 5% goal might be reduced to 4%, then 3%, then 2%, then 1%, then 0%.

Or, if due dates are always consistent and more accurately described as lead times, your goal for a twelve month period might be to reduce the lead time delivery for every order from 40(?) days to 30(?) days. or even shorter.

In your position, as manager, I am not looking for production goals with one or two day Time Spans, but performance measured in longer Time Spans that would indicate production systems maintenance, or production systems improvement.

Let me know if this helps. By the way, thinking about goals, in this way, is different than you may have ever thought about. But, then, that’s the point. To think about your role in a new way. -TF