Home - Glossary - Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Related expressions

Performance , environmental performance, Life cycle assessment, Life Cycle Cost (LCC), Economic performance.

 

Explanation

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organization. KPIs can be used to assess the present state of the business and to prescribe a course of action for improvements. The act of monitoring KPIs in real-time is known as business activity monitoring. KPIs are frequently used to "value" difficult to measure activities such as the benefits of leadership development, engagement, service, and satisfaction. The KPIs differ depending on the nature of the organization and the organization's strategy; there is no universal list of indicators. They help an organization to measure progress towards their organizational goals. Typically, numerous KPIs are needed by each organization to measure their performance.

When identifying KPI's the acronym SMART is often applied. KPI's need to be:

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Realistic
  • Timely
Some examples of Key Performance Indicators are:
Yield from the breakdown operation in sawmilling. This measures the output in cubic metres, or in monetary terms, of sawn products in relation to the input of raw materials (logs)

Weekly fuel consumption. This can be used by eg. distribution companies. Commonly the KPI needs to be evaluated in relation to the distributed volume/value and the driven distance. This KPI is an example of an environmental as well as an economical KPI.

Registered number of defect items from production. This is a KPI used to monitor and improve the quality of operations.

Application/usage in Indisputable KEY

In the context of Indisputable KEY, wood supply chain performance, that is to say the entire supply chain's ability to meet a specified demand on e.g. efficiency or product quality, comprises performance of three aspects:

  • Quality
  • Economics
  • Environment
The performance of the wood supply chain will be assessed and evaluated for these three criteria. Supply chain performance crosses both functional lines in companies as well as company boundaries.

Based on the data related to the origin and processing history of the material, KPIs will be used to assess and quantify the performance (quality, economical and environmental) of the wood supply chain. The KPIs will be defined to be compatible with product quality measures (= reflect product quality) to facilitate holistic supply chain management. A life-cycle perspective is employed and some of the KPIs will be based on life-cycle inventories (LCI) and life-cycle cost (LCC) data respectively.

One of the Indisputable KEY objectives is:

"Integration of real-time, entity specific, environmental and economic KPI's for holistic optimisation and responsible eco-management of forest and wood resources." This means that the KPIs should be used to assess economical as well as environmental performance
In Indisputable KEY KPIs will be used to assess the overall impact of the project on the performance of the wood supply chain. The material is valuable as an internal project benchmark, but will also be used in dissemination and as a basis for a possible further commercialization of the project results.

Indisputable Key pedagogical material
Training Module D2
D3.3 Report on selection and definition of environmental and economic KPIs
D3.11b Environmental and economic impact of implementation of developed approach and on further possibilities and challenges in wood chain traceability
Usage of RFID in the Wood Products Industry and Contribution to Environmental Protection
These documents are available in the download area.

Available text books and training material

Guideline “ Environmental Key Performance Indicators - Reporting Guidelines for UK Business ” from Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

White Paper: “ Key Performance Indicator Tracker ”: This template includes a model to identify company objectives, performance measurements, ideal targets, and action plans to reach goals. It can adjust the model to meet the needs of the organization.

KPI frequently asked questions

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