Abstract
Performance measurement is one of the crucial methods that an industry or an organization uses in maintaining issues that govern productivity. People influencing production processes in an organization, like the managers and supervisors, always ignore the aspect of performance measurement leading to poor industry performance. The use of measurement and evaluation in performance management a manufacturing industry uses many concepts, methods, tools, techniques and strategies. The discussion analyzes various performance evaluations used by the Coca-Cola Company. The evaluation involves the methodology, strategies, and program implementation, integration and improvement.
Introduction
Performance measurement is one of the crucial methods that an industry or an organization uses in maintaining issues that govern productivity. People influencing production processes in an organization, like the managers and supervisors, always ignore the aspect of performance measurement leading to poor industry performance. Maintenance activities are multidisciplinary in nature requiring a large number of inputs and outputs calling for a need for performance measurement and evaluation. The fast ongoing changes in the global business environment have come up with new challenges and opportunities in manufacturing industries. The intensifying global competition and unstable demand are the two most influential aspects controlling a business environment. Performance measurement and evaluation assists in dealing with all these aspects and ensuring every activity taking place in an industry is accounted for.
Performance evaluation for Coca-Cola Company
The use of measurement and evaluation in performance management a manufacturing industry uses many concepts, methods, tools, techniques and strategies. The following discussion focuses in the importance of utilizing measurements and evaluations and their impacts in running of Coca-Cola Industry. In addition, the discussion focuses on the four pillars of measurement and evaluation. These are needs, assessment, models and approaches. Finally, the discussion explores the importance of implementing and integrating measurement and evaluation results in improving human performance technology projects.
Methodology
The intensifying global competition and increased customer expectations on manufactured products has forced industries to focus attention on evaluation and measurement chains. The methodology a manufacturing industry adopts in implementing the measurement and evaluation strategies determines the level of productivity. According to Moseley & Dessinger (2010), lack of necessary measurement and evaluation methods have resulted in greater losses for industries. Company management requires information on maintenance performance and evaluation for planning and controlling maintenance practices. The Coca-Cola industry adopts an effective and efficient method of measuring company performances by focusing on the most crucial activities and processes (Cocacola, 2012). In addition, the industry management carries out a routine monitoring of various human resource systems that aid in performance evaluation. The main methods used in the evaluation include performance management, compensation, staffing, and resolving problems in a fair and consistent manner.
On the other hand, Coca-Cola Company has revised a Task Force Agreement aimed at designing a career development program for the staff members. The task force monitors and reviews the performance and evaluation processes and provides an annual report with recommendations. In addition, the industry task force attends various meetings with government industrial officials to get briefs on the industry requirements. The method has assisted in obtaining more information about the business and human resources challenges facing the industry. An industry must identify and analyze different issues that relate to maintenance and performance measures and indicators. Three dimensions are used in implementing the methodology used by Coca Cola Company in analyzing the performance measurement. These are effectiveness, efficiency and changeability (Cocacola, 2012). According to Andersen and Fagerhaug (2007), effectiveness refers to the ability of an industry to satisfy customer needs. Secondly, efficiency is the economic and optimal utilization of enterprise resources. Thirdly, changeability refers to the strategic awareness of an organization to handle changes within the business environment.
The importance of measurement and its potential for negative effects within an organization
Performance measurement and evaluation forms the major building block in the daily management of an industry. Most industries measure performances through financial performance in relation to profits and losses made within the duration of 1 year. The Coca-Cola Company has been using the traditional performance measures that take into account the coat accounting information. The following method has provided little support to the company since it fails in mapping the process performance and improvements seen by the customers. As such, the company management has focused on customer satisfaction in addition to results delivered to stakeholders in evaluation and measurement of company performances (Cocacola, 2012).
Performance measurement has many benefits to an industry and customers as discussed below. Firstly, perfect performance measures support much management. Managers and supervisors easily identify the operating strengths and weaknesses, recognize improvements, and identify areas requiring improvement. Secondly, performance measurements help in identifying and tracking processes that occur against the organizational goals. At Coca-Cola Company, the task force has identified various processes that have contributed to the slow accomplishment of company goals. The management has employed strategic planning tools, management reporting tools, and change management support tools to enable quick accomplishment of company goals and aims (Tangen, 2004).
On the other hand, performance measures have potential negative effects within an organization. The effects occur because of the failure of the management in properly implementing the proposed strategies. Maintenance of performance measures is extremely expensive and requires skills and experiences. Most upcoming industries find it hard marinating performance measures and sometimes are unable to account for different production processes. Progress in an industry cannot occur unless the performance feedback is provided from all departments. The most common negative effect associated with performance measurements is the provision of wrong results. An organization developing performance measures should involve data collection and methods of calculating performance measures. When wrong results are provided there is a high probability of the company recording negative performances. Moreover, incompatibility of performance measures in the company functional areas leads to potential negative effects. Some small companies adopt demanding performance measures and evaluations that end up utilizing a lot of resources leaving making the company incur unnecessary costs (Hinton and David, 2005).
Tools, Techniques, Tips, and Strategies
Performance based evaluations uses different tools, techniques and strategies. Accountability and performance measurements are the most common performance based evaluation tools used in most companies. Productivity refers to the efficient with which resources are utilized in the effective delivery to the customers. Performance measurement as a tool ensures a gain in productivity is achieved without reducing the quality of products. In addition, performance measurement should go hand-in-hand with performance strategies necessary for achieving the expected production level. A perfect performance evaluation tool identifies areas with performance deficiencies where improvement strategies are capable of yielding greatest returns. In addition, the company management has a responsibility of identifying the strengths and weaknesses. The performance measurement strategies assist in simplifying production efforts and marinating proper running of company processes.
The Coca-Cola Company management has introduced various performance measurement tips centered on the outcomes of the business. The first tip the management uses in selecting a performance measure is through aligning the underlying premises with culture and company’s vision. This ensures that every measurable aspect has a motivating and is meaningful for the company stakeholders. Secondly, the company introduced a balanced scorecard that assists in making a decision on what to measure and where to take the measurement from. Moreover, the company management must decide on the most worth measurement to adopt. Most organizations measure people in their performance evaluations. Coca-Cola Company does not measure people, but instead measure processes sand outcomes. Thirdly, the management defines each outcome before developing a measurement evaluation because it gives the team humble time of making a perfect analysis (Cocacola, 2012).
Performance evaluation also makes use of various models restricted to financial measures. Through the evaluation models organizations increase workers effectiveness that eventually leads to production improvement. The evaluation models used in an industry supports growth through offering clear expectations, clear feedback, and clear growth plans (Zhu, 2009; 87). The balanced scorecard is the most common evaluation model used. The balanced scorecard includes financial measures that provide a report on operations related to customer satisfaction, internal processes, and company improvements (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). 4 key aspects allow the effective operation of a balanced scorecard. These are internal business processes, customer perspective, financial perspective, and learning and growth. The Coca-Cola balanced scorecard puts vision, communication and strategies at the centre.
On the financial aspect, the company follows the strategy of appearing to stakeholders in a presentable manner in order to succeed financially. Likewise, the customer satisfaction aspect deals with strategies of achieving the company vision. The management has come up with strategies meant for pleasing customers and meeting all the customer needs. In addition, the internal business aspect make the company comes up with strategies that achieve shareholder and customer satisfaction. Finally, the fourth aspect on learning and growth makes the company focuses on plans to achieve improvement and sustain growth.
Implementation, Integration, & Improvement
In the present business environment, organizations depend more on technology for all their daily processes. Proper implementation and integration of performance evaluations assist in improving human performance technology projects utilized in various industries. The most implemented strategy is the data protection and recovery system because it keeps all the information of an organization. In Coca-Cola Company data protection relies on the many backups and remote replications that use the modern technology. All the performance evaluation methods, plans, techniques and tips are stores in the form of data. The company has adapted the use of snapshot technology in enhancing simplified data recovery processes. The snapshot works by creating a point-in-time image of the stored data by creating a full copy of the volume used. In order to achieve quantitative performance, the company has designed and implemented a block of storage target using a protocol. The protocol communicates with various servers within the database system commanding them to store the information feed in the device drivers (Cocacola, 2012).
The following techniques assist in improving human performance since people are prone to errors. The use of technology in storing vital company information plays a great role in keeping it secure. Moreover, with the advancement in technology these strategies are prone to improvement every now and then. A well organized and successful control database in a company assists in keeping a close look at the workers’ services and the quality performance of an organization. The company is in the process of acquiring performance evaluation software in order to enhance efficient storage of company information. In addition, the improvement would serve as a tool for identifying any loop-holes within performance evaluations adopted by the company.
Conclusion
Performance evaluation is an essential aspect for every organization irrespective of the size and the sector it fall under. Performance evaluation makes use of tools and models that govern the evaluation strategies and implementation of such strategies. The performance evaluation for Coca-Cola Company shows a perfect example of how companies should plan and implement various evaluation techniques capable of bring growth and development in an industry. In addition, the discussion above provides managers with the necessary tools to use while designing the best approach to use in the future.
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