Indicators for a process

According to ISO 9001:2015 you must have at least one indicator per process. When one think about process indicators, one can think of three types:

• Effectiveness indicators;
• Efficiency indicators;
• Quantity indicators.

For me, the most important are the effectiveness indicators, they measure if the purpose of the process is being met.

For example, for a company that has a strategic direction around innovation and has a process called “Develop new products” one can ask:

- What is the purpose of such process?
- Quickly develop new products that are market hits.

Effectiveness indicators will measure “Quickly” and “hits”. For example:

• Average time to market
• Revenue from new products
• Average price of new products

Efficiency indicators are the classic QCD indicators:

• Quality
• Cost
• Delivery

For example, for a company that installs wireless networks for telecom companies, with a process called “Install network”, efficiency indicators can be:

• Number of daily nonconformities raised by the customer
• Actual network installation costs versus budgeted costs
• On-time delivery percentage

Quantity indicators give information about the need to manage resources accordingly. For example, number of incoming calls at a call center is a way of evaluating the need to contract more people to handle more calls without raising waiting time.

Please consider our free webinar on demand - Measurement, analysis, and improvement according to ISO 9001:2015 - https://advisera.com/9001academy/webinar/measurement-analysis-and-improvement-according-to-iso-9001-2015-free-webinar/ There you can find the rationale for developing effectiveness indicators and a monitoring plan.

On our free webinar on demand – The Process Approach - What it is, why it is important, and how to do it - https://advisera.com/9001academy/webinar/iso-9001-process-approach-free-webinar-on-demand/ you can find an example of a flowchart that describes the flow of activities, very useful to define efficiency indicators.

The following material will provide you information about indicators:

• Free online training ISO 9001:2015 Foundations Course – https://advisera.com/training/iso-9001-foundations-course/
• Book - Discover ISO 9001:2015 Through Practical Examples - https://advisera.com/books/discover-iso-9001-2015-through-practical-examples/