Only what is measured can be systematically improved
No matter which sport you devote yourself to, one thing is inevitably noticeable: nowadays the best of the best are absolute athletes. Top performances in tennis, football or other physical sports require superhuman-looking physique. Even in chess, the world’s top players openly talk about the relevance of physical fitness. The advantage is measurable!
In addition to physical advantages that are obvious in physical sports, superior physique also leads to athletes being able to keep calm and collected under exertion and in stressful situations, which enables them to make better decisions for longer (this is also measurable1).
You might be thinking “everyone knows that” or “what does that have to do with our industry?”. Well, for sport as for the printing industry, it is a surprisingly long way from the simple realisation that something is measurable to the optimal use of this realisation. The latter requires that what is theoretically measurable is actually reliably measured and that the measurement results are competently evaluated on a regular basis.
And here is the rub: certainly we can agree that there is no lack of measurable factors in our industry. But how thoroughly, regularly and ideally automatically are these factors actually recorded? How regularly and professionally is the collected data evaluated?
The experience of Apenberg & Partner shows that only what is measured can be systematically improved. Incidentally, the respected Six Sigma school is based on the same insight. We have already published a number of articles on this topic in the past:
And because the topic is of such central importance, we have also taken the trouble to develop a pragmatic transformation concept – we call it the Integrated Print Factory.
Feel free to come to us with your questions or suggestions on “measurable performance”, there are few topics we love to discuss more!
1 For example: Mujika I, Santisteban J, Impellizzeri FM, Castagna C. 2009. Fitness determinants of success in men’s and women’s football. Journal of Sports Sciences. 27(2):107–114.