TL 9000 - Help Interpreting Normalization Unit for Measurements

[NatashaD]

We are a TL 9000 registered company, and with some changes to our company's scope we changed product categories from 7.1.1 (installation services) to 7.8.2 (temporary staffing). The Normilzaiton unit for the NPR measurement is Positions filled. Would this be interpreted as new positions filled during that month, or all positions that we have filled during that month. We sometimes get problem reports coming in from a customer relating to a person that has been on the customer site for several months, so I'm not sure how I should be interpreting this?

Also for on-time delivery, is on-time delivery having the employee on-site the day the customer requests them there? For installation it is when the installation was complete, but for staffing, having the person there when the customer wants them, seems more correct (much like delivering a product on the requested date).

Thanks in advance!

[Jennifer Kirley]

The delivery concept is up to you and your customer to define. You could try to find out how others do it in your field. But unless there is a promised timeframe for the installation to be completed (like a restaurant dinner served in 15 minutes) it makes sense to me to have on-time delivery mean the technician's arrival at the agreed upon time.

As for temporary staffing, "temporary" is not a job description like "installation services" was. "Temporary staffing" means nothing to anyone not in-the-know about the labor contract. So I would resume calling the people "installation services" whether they are temporary or permanent.

[NatashaD]

Thank you for your reply. We changed product categories in advisement from our auditor. The "installation services" category was no longer the best fit for us, as we were not getting the correct metrics, and we no longer manage an entire installation project. Our customers' model has changed to where the installation is managed by them, and we supply any additional staffing needs they have. Because of this change we were no longer getting installation caused outage metrics, or installation audits from customers, so along with the auditor we felt this was a better fit. We also provide techinicians for network integration and other services beyond installation.

Since there is no defined end date -or finish date, on-time delivery will be defined by the technician's arrival. Our customers have mandated TL 9000 in our contracts, but have not ever asked to see our metrics, or review them with us in anyway.