AAOM Handbook

INTERNAL

The BPF defines the minimum set of measures that support the timely identification of a change in either the Purpose or Theory delivery as the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the process. The KPIs should be continually measured and monitored. Other measures of the technical theory or strategy are used during the Analyse and Improve process, to help in understanding issues and opportunities around the stability or capability of the process. These non-KPI measures, referred to as control measures in the BPF, do not need to be monitored continually, and hence may not need to have permanent measurement systems installed. The decision on whether permanent measurement systems are required for control measures should be guided by two considerations. These are; the rate at which the process can undergo a change and, the 'visibility' of the change. In a chemical process where changes in concentrations or reactions can occur fairly rapidly (perhaps in minutes or hours), and cannot be easily or safely detected by human senses, specialised instruments will be needed to measure the change. Since significant time may be required to put these instruments in place, it will typically be necessary to install permanent instrumentation for this type of control measure. Then, when a KPI indicates that an intervention is required, the data from the measure will be available in time to make an appropriate analysis and intervention. In a process such as a mine shovel loading broken ore, many of the potential control measures are readily observable, either directly or with simple tools, and therefore do not require permanent instrumentation. For example, if a control chart of the daily loading rate (an effectiveness measure for the process) indicates a drop in performance, it is relatively quick and easy to take a stop watch and measure by observation the times for the loading cycle steps, to determine if the swing time or dig time are longer than target. Examining process performance via these Purpose and Theory parameters allows performance to be assessed, using the same measures and definitions, for a process comprising a single activity or item of equipment, or for a process comprising several activities or items of equipment. This ensures that there is consistency in the measures through the Business Structure. When constructing measures we also need to consider the boundary conditions, i.e. what is included in the measure and what is excluded. Two types of boundary conditions need to be considered, the physical boundaries of the process and the data boundaries for the measure. Within the BPF the physical boundaries of a process are defined by the Business Structure, specified by constructing a layered series of flow sheets based on the transfer, transform and store activities that can be identified within a layer of the flowsheet. Each of these transfer, transform and store activities can be viewed as a process with its distinct purpose and theory measures. The physical boundaries are therefore the boundaries of these flow sheet elements. Since the measures of a process are intended to indicate the delivery of the Purpose or the Theory, the conditions in which these are delivered should guide the specification of the data boundary conditions for

© McAlear Management Consultants 2007

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