The organization should also understand
what is driving performance issues
so that significant concerns can be
addressed effectively. In many cases, the
root cause of a performance issue differs
by location, depending on the local business
environment, product line, and customers.
As a result, it is unlikely that the
same action taken across the entire organization
will have the same results. The
more distributed the organization's operations,
the more important it becomes to
push objectives and related monitoring to
lower levels, based on the facts and circumstances
for each business unit or location.
Understanding the drivers behind
performance differences is imperative.
Once management understands the dif-
. ferences that may affect performance
within each location, business unit, or
product line, a set of metrics should be
designed to monitor for changes and
ensure the organization is still considering
comparable data. Organizations
should continually test assumptions and