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Setting objectives is a fundamental aspect of quality management that helps your business identify and tackle risks, challenges, and opportunities. In this article, based on a �����Ůɫ��Ƭ webinar hosted by , a quality specialist and consultant with more than 25 years of experience in quality management, we dig into establishing relevant and measurable objectives.

Why measurement is important

In the context of management systems, measurement goes beyond simply monitoring. Monitoring is observing the status of something, whereas measuring provides objective information about the characteristics of something. Measurement offers clarity, precision, objectivity, and certainty in a way that merely monitoring does not.

The facts about something – whether it’s a thing or a process – gathered through measurement, can inform effective decision-making and ultimately lead to greater performance. Measurement helps you avoid cognitive biases by taking your unconscious and subjective errors of thinking (such as confirmation bias, recency bias, availability heuristic, and frequency illusion) out of the equation, while documenting facts and data that support decisions. (We go into more detail about cognitive biases in .)

Determining what to measure

There is no limit to your options of what to measure, so you need to be strategic. Choosing what to measure should be based on answers to these four questions:

1. What do you believe your risks and opportunities are?

Maybe maintenance is your biggest risk, or machine downtime or external contractors. Whatever you consider your biggest risk, that’s where you need to focus your measurement. Likewise, if there’s an opportunity for improvement – say, in hitting the bottom of your spares minimums – measuring will help you move in the right direction.

2. What is important to your customer?

Your customers may consider on-time delivery as the most important thing, or it may be some other factor, like precision, or speed of service, or warranty support. You should be measuring how well you’re delivering on your customers’ needs.

3. What is important to your business?

Beyond bottom-line goals like profit, your business may have other important considerations such as legal requirements, social or community obligations, or long-term strategic goals. Build your measuring rubric to align with those considerations.

4. What’s actually practical to measure?

How and what to measure can be limited by the practical capabilities of your organization, such as time and human resources. Measurements have to be both practical and feasible in order to provide real value and insight into performance and improvement.

Setting SMART objectives

According to ISO 9001, objectives must be measurable. You can’t just say that your objective is “We will be the best machine shop in Alberta in 2024.” That’s not a quality objective. Instead, make your objectives SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound. Applying the SMART framework will create a quality objective like, “We will reduce customer rejects by 50% in 2024.”

To meet a quality standard like ISO 9001, you’ll also need to reference your plan for achieving the objective, who is responsible for executing the plan, what resources you must dedicate to the plan, and how you’ll know you’re successful.

Watch out for common pitfalls

There are a number of common mistakes that can undermine your efforts. Keep an eye out for these common pitfalls of measurement that can get in the way of success:

• Lack of alignment with top management concerns, customer requirements, and risks
• Failing to update objectives over time
• Leaving key parts of the organization without defined objectives
• Statistical errors or flawed measurements
• Perverse incentives that may inadvertently reward poor service or undesirable outcomes
• Limiting objectives solely to traditional or end-of-process metrics
• Creating objectives that are either too easy or too hard

Quality objectives are necessary for a proper quality management system. That said, it’s not just about hitting targets; it’s about getting better. A quality objective should serve as a catalyst for continued improvement and progress towards business goals.

�����Ůɫ��Ƭ helps businesses identify ways to improve processes and save money through auditing services and registration to ISO standards so they can reach operational goals. Learn more about our registration services at .