Ted Watts

New performance measurement and management control systems

Purpose - Focusing on how performance management systems support control, this article seeks to provide two “next-generation” performance scorecards – the Performance Wheel, suitable for most organizations and the Small Business Performance Pyramid, which acknowledges the unique requirements of small business. This development considers the historical development, increasing variety and often the poorly integrated status of performance measurement systems – one of business managements most important tools. Design/methodology/approach - The paper considers the issues of various performance measurement models – the Performance Pyramid, the Results and Determinants mode, the Balanced Scorecard – through the integration of perspectives, metrics and terminology. Further, it integrates the emphases of different approaches into a menu from which each enterprise can select the wisest option. Findings - The Performance Wheel and the Small Business Performance Pyramid suggest these seemingly different models of control can be reduced to one overarching model. It incorporates and addresses the identified weaknesses of previous models and provides a comprehensive model of performance management that can be adapted to meet the needs of any form of enterprise – small to large, service to not-for-profit to manufacturing. Research limitations/implications - The implication for business is the development of two equally important models that allow the optimal application of practice to align with organizational-specific decision making. Originality/value - These new models overcome the “top-down” or “bottom-up” shortcomings of popular systems, incorporate the insights of enterprise control and integrate the importance of mission, strategy, critical success factors and key performance indicators as they apply to organizations.

Structural limits of capacity and implications for visibility

Purpose – Two reasons are identified for studying the impact of capacity measurements on organizations. First, firms which make the best use of their resources can be expected to outperform their competitors. The second arises from the potential structuration effect of capacity metrics. Such an investigation makes capacity a visible, and hence an actionable, construct. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – To explore these issues, a combination of analytics and qualitative field research methodology was used. The measurement dimensions were developed by analyzing the different reports, baseline measures, and metrics included in the various capacity models as suggested by the literature. These analytics were enriched with observations obtained from field research.Findings – Maximizing the value created within an organization starts with understanding the nature and capability of all the companys resources. The outcome is the identification of capacity systems specifically s...

Improving productive potential in the airline industry by exploring the productive limits of capacity

This paper fills the gap between defining and measuring the productive limits of a service or system and the impact of various assumptions about the productive potential of the nature and informativeness of capacity cost management systems for the service industry. The focus rests on the various ways in which multidimensional limits (for example, time, space, volume and/or value-creating ability) can be used to define productive capacity. This research suggests that the limits used in establishing the capacity cost management system restricts the amount and nature of the information the system is capable of providing to management. The methodology used was a combination of analytics and qualitative field research. The outcome is the identification of capacity systems specifically suited for service operations. Such a framework allows the organisation to develop economies, make visible the drivers of waste and productivity and to identify the primary assumptions and implications of capacity limits.