INTEGRATED PERFORMANCE-MEASUREMENT - A REVIEW OF CURRENT PRACTICE AND EMERGING TRENDS

This paper reviews some of the recent developments in the design and application of performance measurement systems. External measurement of a company's performance, as seen by its customers, is perhaps the most crucial. Performance in terms of features, cost quality and delivery, needs to be understood and tracked. A knowledge of competitors' performance along these same dimensions is also vital. The manufacturing business achieves its external, performance through an appropriate set of internal activities. Excellent performance in certain key activities will be essential in achieving external goals, while others can perform more modestly. Internal activities which are vital to many manufacturing busineses include quality, production, people and new product introduction. The business manager needs to ensure that his internal and external measurement systems are coherent, and that the financial constraints and targets are observed. The third part of the review introduces four approaches, which in different ways, seek to integrate performance measures. Finally, some preliminary field observations of performance measurement systems are presented and the paper concludes with a brief discussion of a research agenda for the subject.