KPIs: Two for every core process?

[ChrisM]

I hope that something got muddled up in discussions here..... from what our AS9100 auditor said, I believe it is one KPI per process, but they are looking for two KPIs per functional area - e.g. two KPIs in Production, 2 in Sales, 2 in Stores etc

 

[Randy]

And what's the ball on the nose in that photo? And were you napping or inspecting something there?

The "ball" is the 40mm grenade launcher M-5 subsystem, it could lob a 40mm grenade out over 2,000 meters and is the same round used in today's M-19 you see mounted on all types of vehicles.........You don't want to be on the receiving end. Here's a pic of the "can" being loaded and my asst Crew Chief (we called than "rag-men")

I won't lie, napping and thinking of ways to harass the 2 college educated children that were my assigned pilots.

 

[Randy]

Completely aside here, @Randy - I've been doing Vietnam military equipment lately with my model building.... I'm about to start building a model of a UH-1B... do you have any photos I can use for reference for weathering and markings? I want to take my time and enter this in a model show in the spring and providing photos that it's based on is a big plus... I can PM you.

And what's the ball on the nose in that photo? And were you napping or inspecting something there?

Scott, the B Models were long gone during my time, I crewed a "M" or "Mike" model which had originally been a "C" model...Both were derived from the Bell 204 or "B" model airframe. The noticeable difference between the standard Huey (Bell 205) people think about and the "204" is the size, the 204 only has 1 window in the door, whereas the 205 had 2 windows and a longer fuselage. There were 100 other differences as well and then there were the Air Force, Navy & Marine versions. The AH-1 Cobra (Bell 209) was originally a "M" model from the transmission back and of course the fuselage completely redesigned basically repositioning the flight controls and of course pilot seating.

Here's my bird that I crewed with Detachment 1, Attack Helicopter Troop, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment in the Arkansas National Guard. Its number was 66-15188 and the paint was put on after it got rebuilt from getting shot down in Vietnam (twice actually). The second picture you can see how the paint back then faded (that's me with a very good friend who was also worked for me on my police department....Extremely nice guy and good cop, now deceased)

 

[Bev D]

I hope that something got muddled up in discussions here..... from what our AS9100 auditor said, I believe it is one KPI per process, but they are looking for two KPIs per functional area - e.g. two KPIs in Production, 2 in Sales, 2 in Stores etc

So that really is the OP’s question. What and/or how many “KPIs” are REQUIRED? What are the relevant sections in the standard and can we quotes them? How does what the Auditor is “looking for” translate to a requirement?

Let’s help the OP

 

[Randy]

Maybe someone needs to ask his definition of "process". The management system itself is a "process" so would 2 kpi's for the QMS be adequate. Or is it every clause of the standard a "process", or is every single thing the organization does an individual "process".

One can go terminal stupid ^hit ( ) real fast with this.

 

[qualitytoad]

We went through this recently and we had to identify our key processes and make a turtle diagram for each. The processes we identified were:

Sales (KPIs - New Sales Opportunities & EBITDA)
Design & Development (KPIs - Customer Focused Applied Labour & Drawing Submittal Errors)
Purchasing (KPIs - Supplier OTD & Supplier NCRs)
Manufacturing (KPIs - Labor Utilisation & Inventory Turns)

We needed to show 12 months of data to the auditor and if we ever missed our target we had to justify why and what we did about it.

 

[ChrisM]

We similarly had 4 key areas/processes noted and four PEARs were calculated, one for each..... it seemed to me that a vast majority of the auditor's time was devoted to calculating the PEARs and very little time went into "traditional" auditing. On a management level, we have quite a number of KPIs, far in excess of the basic 4 that we need according to our auditor, but which we find useful for monitoring the business and its performance level. I began to circulate the idea that for the sake of keeping a probing auditor out of what really isn't his business, we could look at having "not-so-key performance indicators" which we continue to use but which we remove from the information that the external auditors would see

 

[Golfman25]

The concept of keeping requirements for conformity assessment practices separate from the standard is so basic that I will leave at that.

So your position is they can add things that aren't in the standard in order to show conformance?

 

[ScottK]

... if we ever missed our target we had to justify why and what we did about it.

I have a problem with that statement. Targets should not have to be hit every period. What if your target on a KPI is 95% and your starting point is 80%? Should you hit the target right away just because leadership says "that's the target"? No reasonable auditor should expect that. I would expect to see progress towards the target over time. And when you do hit it or exceed it consistently for a period, increase it.

 

[Golfman25]

So that really is the OP’s question. What and/or how many “KPIs” are REQUIRED? What are the relevant sections in the standard and can we quotes them? How does what the Auditor is “looking for” translate to a requirement?

Let’s help the OP

It is not in the standard, is it? Don't think so.

Years ago, the auto standard, IATF, had language that said measurements for "effectiveness and efficiency." Many auditors read that as two were required -- one for effectiveness and one for efficiency. At least that language was in the standard. IATF eventually clarified the requirement recognizing that not every process requires both.