knowquestion :: Stephen Bounds

Pinched with gratitude from Bob Lewis and stored here for future reference:

[To improve] organizational effectiveness, [rank these six dimensions] in order of importance for each business function targeted for attention:

• Fixed cost – the cost of turning the lights on before any work gets done
• Incremental cost – the cost of processing one more item
• Cycle time – how much time elapses processing one item from start to finish
• Throughput – [capacity;] how much work the function churns out in a unit of time ...
• Quality – the absence of defects
• Excellence – [whatever makes the output of the process a desirable thing, ie features, flexibility, robustness]

If you want to know more, check out Bob's books. They are short and practical without the typical padding of most tomes.