🚀 go-pugleaf

In discussing subjective criteria, Dan says:
> In evaluating suppliers, one often wants to measure
> subjective criteria.
> this is done with a survey instrument of some type. Some of the
> possible things you may ask about are, "Is the supplier cooperative?"
> or "When he material hits the receiving dock is it packed well?"
> or "Is the shipping documentation easy to find?".
>
It seems as if we have an issue of the semantics of metrics on our hands.
Cooperation can be measured by things like response time, effectiveness of
corrective action, numbers of changes made without prejudice, etc.  If there
is an operational definition for proper pack, or a standard for pack, that,
too can be quantified: number of times pack incorrect, etc.  If the packing
spec entails shipping documentation, that too can be quantified: proper
location for shipping documentation, etc..  None of these are subjective.  A
good control plan would cover them all.  Subjective measures are opinions.
They have nothing but other opinions to benchmark their value.  You might
still want to ignore the notion of subjectivity (it smacks of the same
mental models which insist on 'employee performance ratings' and the like)
and just evaluate suppliers on things you can actually measure.

One subjective measure is the TQM notion of "customer delight".  Can you
measure it? Can you recreate it? Of course you want to do it, but it's kind
of like falling in love, you know it when you feel it, but customer delight
and falling in love don't last, they both turn into loyalty and constancy.
Those you can measure.

Peace,
John F. Zavacki
jzavacki@greenapple.com <mailto:jzavacki@greenapple.com>