Performance Check

Ten questions.
A first management perspective.

Not every question needs an immediate answer. What matters is whether the relevant people in the company arrive at a comparable answer and can support it with reliable information.

Questions for reflection

01.
Two products generate a comparable margin. What information would the company use to decide which one should be developed more strongly?

02.
Does management know-how the internal cost of a product is composed, why these costs arise, and which technical, operational and commercial levers are available to influence them?

03.
A product is growing significantly in sales. Is it clear whether this growth also creates value when production effort, capacity requirements and technical complexity are taken into account?

04.
Production does not achieve the planned performance. What information would the company examine first to determine the actual cause?

05.
Demand temporarily exceeds available capacity. What criteria would determine what is produced and what is not?

06.
A production asset operates significantly below its theoretical capacity. Could management explain which part of the gap is technically determined, operationally influenceable or economically reasonable?

07.
A product significantly exceeds the customer specification. Is it known whether this additional technical performance is relevant to the customer or merely creates additional cost and complexity?

08.
A technical change improves product performance but also increases manufacturing cost and reduces production speed. How would the decision on implementation be made?

09.
Sales, technical and production teams assess the same product differently. What common fact base would be used to make a decision?

10.
A product is commercially attractive, technically demanding and operationally inefficient. Who decides whether, and under what conditions, this business makes sense?

Would your management answer consistently?

The decisive question is not whether every question can be answered immediately. What matters is whether Commercial, Technical and Operations look at the same facts and arrive at decisions that can be explained.

If several of these questions produce different answers, information is missing or decisions depend mainly on individual knowledge, the interfaces within the organisation deserve a closer look.

Review the perspectives together →

Ten questions.A first management perspective.

01.Two products generate a comparable margin. What information would the company use to decide which one should be developed more strongly?

02.Does management know-how the internal cost of a product is composed, why these costs arise, and which technical, operational and commercial levers are available to influence them?

03.A product is growing significantly in sales. Is it clear whether this growth also creates value when production effort, capacity requirements and technical complexity are taken into account?

04.Production does not achieve the planned performance. What information would the company examine first to determine the actual cause?

05.Demand temporarily exceeds available capacity. What criteria would determine what is produced and what is not?

06.A production asset operates significantly below its theoretical capacity. Could management explain which part of the gap is technically determined, operationally influenceable or economically reasonable?

07.A product significantly exceeds the customer specification. Is it known whether this additional technical performance is relevant to the customer or merely creates additional cost and complexity?

08.A technical change improves product performance but also increases manufacturing cost and reduces production speed. How would the decision on implementation be made?

09.Sales, technical and production teams assess the same product differently. What common fact base would be used to make a decision?

10.A product is commercially attractive, technically demanding and operationally inefficient. Who decides whether, and under what conditions, this business makes sense?