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Chapter 20 Organizing for improvement 615
The ‘excess?’ zone – factors in this area are ‘high-performing’, but not important to
customers. The question must be asked, therefore, whether the resources devoted to
achieving such a performance could be used better elsewhere.
EXL Laboratories is a subsidiary of an electronics company. It carries out research and
development as well as technical problem-solving work for a wide range of companies,
including companies in its own group. It is particularly keen to improve the level of
service which it gives to its customers. However, it needs to decide which aspect of its
performance to improve first. It has devised a list of the most important aspects of
its service:
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Worked example
The quality of its technical solutions – the perceived appropriateness by customers.
The quality of its communications with customers – the frequency and usefulness of
information.
The quality of post-project documentation – the usefulness of the documentation which
goes with the final report.
Delivery speed – the time between customer request and the delivery of the final
report.
Delivery dependability – the ability to deliver on the promised date.
Delivery flexibility – the ability to deliver the report on a revised date.
Specification flexibility – the ability to change the nature of the investigation.
Price – the total charge to the customer.
EXL assigns a score to each of these factors using the 1–9 scale described in Figure 20.8.
After this, EXL turned their attention to judging the laboratory’s performance against
competitor organizations. Although they have benchmarked information for some
aspects of performance, they have to make estimates for the others. Both these scores are
shown in Figure 20.10.
EXL Laboratories plotted the importance and performance ratings it had given to
each of its competitive factors on an importance–performance matrix. This is shown in
Figure 20.11. It shows that the most important aspect of competitiveness – the ability to
deliver sound technical solutions to its customers – falls comfortably within the appropriate
zone. Specification flexibility and delivery flexibility are also in the appropriate
zone, although only just. Both delivery speed and delivery dependability seem to be in
Figure 20.10 Rating ‘importance to customers’ and ‘performance against competitors’
on the nine-point scales for EXL Laboratories
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