Setting Standards and Measuring Performance

Abstract

A standard is anything that can be used as a basis of comparison. It can be Greenwich Mean Time, the length of British King Henry I’s arm (said to be the basis for the modern 36-inch yard), the Air Quality Index, tons per man hour . . . in fact anything usable as a point of reference or measurement. In business, a standard is generally a formal statement of the required level of quality or composition of a product as in purity or viscosity, or the expected performance and productivity of machines. MTBF—mean time between failures—is a standard for the “uptime” of computers and similar equipment. In the warehouse, there are literally thousands of standards covering virtually every operation performed: time required to lift and position a palletload on the first, second, third and fourth levels respectively; time required to dismount from a fork lift truck; time required to position a dockbridge; and so forth. There are as many standards for manufacturing operations, and also for many of the routines that would be involved in customer service operations. A keystroking standard would be an example, as would a mail-opening or file retrieval standard.