How do we know we are improving? If we are improving, do we know where and why?
Awaiting every Miller’s production group each morning are numbers and spreadsheets generated to give them an immediate and very accurate assessment. These numbers compare our performance in quality, timeliness and productivity, both group and lab-wide, with the same period last year. Constant, steady improvement is our goal. Although our percentages steadily continue to approach 100%, we know they can be improved. Developing this information was a large task, but we know it is the only way to evaluate ourselves. We have had this invaluable information available to us for the past seventeen years so we certainly have a handle on our performance. Each year adds another year of experience. To our knowledge, no other lab has this detailed of a monitoring program in place.
How we perform is such a priority that it is the basis of our company vision statement, “to deliver our services with the greatest quality and speed in the industry”. Our criteria of quality, timeliness and productivity is the true litmus test to our performance – our value to you.
You are the one who directly determines our quality. Each order that leaves the lab is carefully tracked. If an order comes back to us, either as a remake or credit memo, the statistic is assigned to the work group that was responsible for the order. We use these statistics to not only monitor quality, but to also set goals for improvement in each area.
How about our timeliness? It is even better than last year at this time. How often have you been pleasantly surprised by receiving one of your Miller’s orders earlier than expected? Here is an interesting statistic. Roughly 1 in 200 orders is shipped later than the promised delivery date while better than 1 in 3 is shipped ahead of the promised delivery date!
Many believe that a business must decide on either quality or timeliness. This is not the case as long as proven systems are in place and adjustments can be made on the spur of the moment.
Our labor efficiency (sales/salaries) is our measure of productivity. How does this affect you? Because of our improved efficiency, we have been able to hold our prices since 2001 on almost all products within the lab – in spite of our increase in wages. We take great care in carefully managing our labor costs. Our staff has been trained to be very flexible and quick to adjust its schedule. Work schedules even adjust daily depending on incoming volume, flight and weather delays as well as other conditions beyond our control.
Without these daily statistics, we can only guess on performance. They are accurate feedback but they also bring to light the specific areas where we need to improve.
So why is this collection of numbers so exciting? This year’s performance – in all three categories – is the highest in our recorded history! Hopefully, you have noticed.
Striving for continuous improvement – this is our promise to you!