Performance measures are not always what they appear. At times they reveal a hidden story that can only be found by peeling back the onion. Let’s pursue this concept with an example. A customer is attempting to identify a new supplier and reaches out to four potential suppliers to complete a survey. The survey includes a question for the supplier to document their on-time-delivery performance (table 1).
If you were the customer which supplier is the best performer? Many companies would pick supplier B. It is impressive that they do have an On-Time-Delivery performance of 100%. But do they meet their need? The customer requires daily deliveries by their supplier’s carrier that must be at the facility by 6 a.m. so they are received and ready for production by 7 a.m. Thus, their selection of supplier B would be a good choice. But is it? Let’s look deeper at each one of these performance measures and how they are determined.