AAOM Handbook

INTERNAL

AI.00 Analyse & Improve Context

No process can be left unattended or indefinitely, two inevitable factors will over time create the need for an intervention. The first is that the natural pattern is for all things is to degenerate over time (something significant enough to be stated in the second law of thermodynamics), and the second is that new and stronger competitors will always emerge to take our place in the landscape if we do not continue to improve (encapsulated in Darwin's theory of natural selection). In the Anglo American Operating Model (AAOM) the Analyse and Improve process has the dual functions of preventing the degradation of process performance and delivering continuous process improvement. Businesses face the potential for competition from new sources of supply, more efficient facilities and alternative materials. If they are going to sustain a viable business they must continually become a stronger competitor on reliability and capacity to supply, and on the quality and price of product or service. This means that we cannot blindly accept that what we have done in the past is going to be adequate to provide us with a secure future. We must continually examine our performance and look for opportunities to improve. Measure To manage a process well we use a collection of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In the AAOM context the KPIs of a process are defined as the minimum set of measures that fully inform us about the delivery of the Purpose (outcomes) of the process, and of the appropriate elements of the Theory of the process. Theory measures may include in-process and input measures. The purpose of a measure is to indicate when an intervention in the process may be required. An effective measurement process must;  exclude noise (ie data values generated from sources external to the measured process) but include all data values that represent what the process is doing,  reveal all meaningful changes in the process (in terms of both the quantum and the rate of change). Assess Stability & Capability Without proper processes and guidelines for interpretation of measures, the most common outcomes are that people either do not respond when necessary, or they overreact by making a change when none is required. The result of both these situations is poorer performance from the process.