How to Promote Short Interval Management Culture in Your Organisation with a Balanced Scorecard?

Think of an automobile manufacturing firm in which a few hours' delay would greatly affect the manufacturing process. One day, a machine slightly misaligned and caused minor defects. SIM is constant practice in the company and team leaders arrived and check in with line workers every two hours. They conducted team meetings and discussed quality issues, output rate and equipment malfunctions. With SIM they could notice the issue of machine misalignment and addressed right away. This significantly helped the company to maintain output quality and they could save their time by reducing wastes.

Consider a large hospital where there is no spare time, and any single delay affects both the patients and other healthcare workers. For example, in the surgical department, there are tasks like preparing rooms, mobilising staff and ensuring the right tools are ready. A small delay in one area can create ripple effect. Short Interval Management (SIM) combats this issue through short daily team meetings where they briefly discuss the work progress. Such brief check-ins, an hour or more, provide an informal platform for the staff to relay any emergent changes or identification of additional needs.

Picture a large supermarket chain that refilling the shelves with goods that are in high demand more so during festive seasons or events. Teams need to know whether there is enough stock, if the display has been properly done or if there is enough staff to attend to customers. However, the high level of traffic poses a massive challenge.

With Short interval management, teams can perform a quick stand up every few hours. During these short meetings with managers and team members, one can schedule what is working well and what requires an intervention. For instance, they may find that one of the products is selling much faster than the others; they can quickly restock that product or get more products from the central store.

Regular quick meetings are necessary for improvement, but it should not be affecting the working time. Hence keep the meetings brief, typically 15 to 30 minutes. Starting and finishing on time is essential: This is a good way of setting an acceptable tone, being consistent as well as keeping everyone engaged. Frequency and brevity ensure quick sharing of updates and make the team jump back into their tasks.

SIM meetings should centre around Key Performance Indicators. KPIs and production targets must apply in a real-time basis thus quick identification of any immediate gaps will be easy. These individual emphases allow teams to know what needs attention most for achieving daily goals.

The SIM process must be more team oriented. This also fosters a stronger sense of ownership amongst the operators and the staff as well as helps in developing more creative solutions. Every member contributes their input as everyone is involved in the daily activities and has fresh observations that need immediate change.

Quick decision making and problem solving are the core objective of the SIM meetings. Hence identifying obstacles and brainstorming solutions must be taken in priority.

Balanced Scorecard is a visual control board that displays essential metrics in real time. Look at an example from a manufacturing firm, operators can quickly see the status of work, downtime and production rates. When a particular machine is performing below the expected level the team can make necessary actions. So that there is little to no time that is wasted within the production line.

In short interval meetings, the Balanced Scorecard give clear direction on the KPIs that may be below the daily expectations and goals, making it easier to identify what needs fixing at a glance.

Taking an example of a retail distribution centre, if the Balanced Scorecard reveals that the percentage efficiency of picking efficiency has declined by 10% in the morning shift, the supervisors can get the feedback from the team members at the same time.

By displaying data and updating them frequently, you foster an environment in which teams do not wait until the end of the day to address issues. SIM meetings are designed in such a way that they are solution-oriented and BSC supports this always.

Since the BSC is implemented digitally, it can serve as a communication link between two different shifts at work. The team members from one shift could document notes, metrics, and observations that are immediately available to the next shift, so nothing is overlooked.