WHAT: Normally all Vital Signs are measured by Family or by Item (or a subset like all the MPS Items or all the Purchased Items). Note that Inventory Record Accuracy is measured by item and location.

You may choose to use a sampling method (some selection taken at random) or measure all the activities occurring during the period. Normally, the measurements of Data Quality are based on a sampling method (for example, 100 items selected each week at random). The other measurements include all the items, orders, or families planned or scheduled in the period (for example, all the orders for MPS Items scheduled during the week).

PERIOD: This is the time frame over which the statistics should be captured.

TYPICAL FORMULA: This is a typical formula. It is not the only formula, or even the appropriate formula for the way you operate your business. For example, you may operate your manufacturing process to a demand pull signal (KANBAN). In this situation, you should still measure manufacturing performance, but you should do it by measuring the percentage of unfilled KANBANS.

Sometimes your internal systems do not capture enough data to actually take the measurement as suggested. For example, you may not keep the customer "request date", but you do keep the date you promised the delivery (the due date). In this case, measure against the promised date until you can either modify your systems or have them modified by the software supplier.

TOLERANCE: Most measurements need tolerances. Tolerances recognize limitations in equipment, in system capabilities, or in human abilities. For example, the inventory record quantity for an item that is "scale counted" may not be exactly what is on hand. This may be because of the precision of the scale itself, or the variability of the item's weight. Or sometimes a tolerance is based on your expectations, such as for an item that comes in a day earlier or a day later than scheduled but which is still considered "on time" from a performance perspective. Ultimately, the question is not whether there should be a tolerance, but what reasonable tolerances are.

Tolerances can be established using rules of thumb to start. Later, more accurate tolerances can be used. The important thing is to start with tolerances that are reasonable and get on with measuring, and not get caught up in a massive program to establish tolerances.

MINIMUM: Where a minimum is shown, this represents the minimum performance required for Class A certification. For example, 95% on time delivery against the MPS is the lowest number acceptable for claiming Class A MPS performance - even though the objective is 100%.

Some metrics show "X" as the minimum acceptable performance. This indicates that there is no one standard that applies to all companies. For example, forecast accuracy is a function of the markets that you sell to and the characteristics of your customers. Forecast accuracy for a company making beverages might be very different from forecast accuracy in a company making chemicals or another making pumps. In other words there is no "standard" for these kinds of measurements, and you should define your own minimum based on your market or industry situation.