Define a new indicator
Turn what a team wants to measure into an indicator: what it measures, its formula, its unit, which way is better and how often it is measured.
The task in figures
- Gives you back
- It does not recur every month
- Elmira today
- Helps
- Frequency
- As needed
- Who does it today
- Engineer, Senior
- Version
- Elmira Junior
What hurts today.
Each area measures the same thing with another formula, and the figures cannot be compared.
The definition stays in the head of whoever built it, and is lost when they leave.
Nobody knows whether more is better or worse, or how it adds up across teams.
When a team wants to follow something new (a machine’s failures, the time to answer a customer), someone has to turn it into an indicator that is measured the same way every time and can be compared with other teams. It is almost always the continuous improvement engineer: they look for a similar one that already exists, write the definition, agree where the figure comes from and set it up. Skip a step and each area ends up measuring the same thing its own way, and the figures can be neither added up nor compared.
Done today with
- Expert
- In-person meeting
- Spreadsheet
- Email and chat
- BI dashboard
Each step, today and with Elmira.
Obeyaka on the web shows you the similar indicators that already exist and, when there is none, asks the model for a draft with its definition, its unit and how it adds up; you agree it with the team and set it up.
| Step | Today | With Elmira |
|---|---|---|
| Look for one that already measures the same thing | Expert, Spreadsheet15 min – 30 min | Obeyaka (web) |
| Write what it measures, its formula, its unit and which way is better | Expert, Spreadsheet30 min – 1 h | Obeyaka (web) |
| The team confirms it measures what matters to it | In-person meeting | Your call |
| Agree where the figure comes from and how often it is measured | In-person meeting, Email and chat15 min – 30 min | Obeyaka (web) |
| Set it up where the team sees it | Spreadsheet, BI dashboard15 min – 30 min | Obeyaka (web) |
The conversation
No example conversation: the Obeyaka web app does it, or it comes later.
Does this happen to your team?
Book a demo and we will show you Elmira doing this task.
More cases of indicators and measurement
- Answer how an indicator is doingEvery question interrupts whatever the analyst was doing.
- Collect indicator dataThe figure arrives late, or never, and the meeting starts without it.
- Flag deviations in timeWhen things get busy nobody checks, and the deviation shows up at the monthly meeting.