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a logistics score card may look like this;
A) On Time delivery percentage - Must be judiciously measured
B) Cost to Customer must be perceived as being of sound value - Comparative costing
C) Cost of non - conformances due to poor execution.
D) Time to execute logistics from time product provided to Shiping Department ( Internal Controls
Many people get really confused about KPIs or Key Performance Indicators, in Logistics and Supply Chain operations. Which ones to use, how many to use?
Sadly it’s not such an easy question.
Of course they need to be SMART. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time phased.
But my take on KPIs is this.
So that unfortunately means, that many of your supply chain KPIs may not be stock standard ones. But in Supply Chain you would normally expect to see this standard set, along with those that are more specific to your business needs.
If you’d like to read more about Supply Chain KPIs, you can download (free) a chapter from one of our Best Selling Books on the topic.
Click here to download your Free book chapter
1. Overview
As in any business activity, supply chain operations need to focus constantly on improvement to compete in the market place. But how do you know if your supply chain performance is being maintained, or if it’s getting better, or worse?
This is where KPIs come in.
What’s a KPI, Anyway?
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator, and can be defined as a practical and objective measurement of progress, either:
It might help to think of a KPI as something like an instrument on a car dashboard. Take a speedometer for example. If you are driving your car and you wish to maintain a speed of 50 KPH, you will use your speedometer to maintain that speed. You will drive a little faster if your speedometer needle drops below 50KPH or you will slow down if it climbs above the required speed.
You will use a KPI in the same way as your car’s speedometer. The only difference is that in most cases, you won’t wish to lower performance when a business activity exceeds the required standard. In fact, if your car has a fuel consumption gauge and you use this to try and drive economically, then you are making use of a bona fide KPI.
Why Are KPIs Important?
Using KPIs for performance measurement ensures that you are always evaluating your business activity against a static benchmark. This means that fluctuations are immediately visible and if performance moves in the wrong direction, action can quickly be taken to address the situation.
When a KPI shows that performance is consistently meeting or exceeding the required level, you can decide to raise the bar and set a higher standard to aspire to. For this reason, KPIs are essential for any business improvement strategy.
Apart from an internal desire to improve and compete, KPIs are likely to play a part in attracting and retaining customers. This is especially true in any business where customers tie into agreements or contracts. Service level agreements in particular will be monitored through KPIs agreed between a business and its customer, with the probability of penalties being applied when performance falls below agreed levels.
In short, KPIs provide visibility of business performance and allow objective quantitative and qualitative evaluation. When aligned with business goals, KPIs take away the guess work and enable focus to be centred on progress towards the goals.
Supply Chain KPIs
When measuring the effectiveness and cost of your supply chain you will need to set up and monitor KPIs which give visibility of cross functional activity as well as those which apply to individual supply chain components. Later in this e-Class we’ll look at some examples of functional and cross functional KPIs. Broadly speaking though, the following areas are those where KPIs will be necessary:
Cross functional KPIs are likely to provide snapshots of the following end to end performance factors:
Cross functional KPIs should be constructed in such a way that each function can see its contribution towards the overall supply chain performance.
key performance indicator.
DIFOT - Delivery in full on time
Service Level - %age availability
These two are the main. Rest differ from business to business. A multitude of others can be
Stock accuracy
Receiving efficiency
Picking accuracy
stocktake variance
truck turn around time
and many many more
1. OTIF (On Time in Full) %age
But deliveries can be made partially therefore IN FULL may not apply in each case.
2. Damage Free delivery %age
3. Responsiveness of Service provider (In case of 3PL)
Key performance indicators in logistics are used to track logistical performance. For example:
- Number of orders in full on time
- Order lead time
- Picking accuracy
- dock to stock time
- Accurate invoicing
KPI in Logistics are meant for logistical performance criterion.
1-On time delivery.
2- Sales plan fulfillment.
3-Warehouse utilization.
4-Cost of distribution.
Each and every task has it's own KPI's as agreed with the customer in terms of picking, packing, dispatching, delivery, transit time, cycle counts, Inventory management.
