While most modern manufacturing companies have invested in performance management tools, they often fail to drive improvement in anticipated ways. Without a performance management methodology that glues the pieces together and creates a culture that truly drives business decision-making based on metrics, companies can’t realize the value of key performance indicators. Myrtle Consulting’s Management Operating Systems Deployment Methodology leads to better decisions and increased profitability be serving as the glue for performance management tools.

1. A White Paper from
Myrtle Consulting
Delivering Operational Improvement
It’s not how many Performance
Management tools you have, it’s
how you fit them together that drives
improvement. KPIs, SOPs, LEAN tools and
Escalation Processes are vitally important,
but they need a solid management
framework to really deliver.
You Have All the Right Pieces,
but Do You Have the Right Glue?
By Doug Newman
Abstract
While most modern manufacturing companies have invested in performance
management tools, they often fail to drive improvement in anticipated ways. Without
a performance management methodology that glues the pieces together and creates
a culture that truly drives business decision-making based on metrics, companies can’t
realize the value of key performance indicators. Myrtle Consulting’s Management
Operating Systems Deployment Methodology leads to better decisions and increased
profitability be serving as the glue for performance management tools.

2. A White Paper from
Myrtle Consulting
Delivering Operational Improvement
Introduction
In today’s volatile, globalized economy, nearly every major company has performance management tools in place. However, there’s a
difference between something being “in place” and it being “in practice.” Often what’s actually “in practice” is a series of disjointed,
disconnected elements of performance management systems that haven’t been fully implemented - and managers who are underusing the
tools available to them. What’s going wrong?
No stickability means no sustainability
Company leadership teams must articulate their vision, share ownership, establish key performance indicators (KPIs) and then monitor and
communicate progress to encourage ongoing buy-in. The glue in all this - and one of the things that separates high performance companies
from the pack - is a comprehensive performance management system that:
• Encourages real collaboration by making the right information available when and where it’s most needed;
• Ensures timely decision making and action at each level of the organization on a daily basis;
• Role models the optimal set of behaviors required throughout the organization to drive a culture of performance – starting at the top;
• Relentlessly focuses on the discipline of getting things done. Only when this is in place and working fluently can leaders really
maximize their performance management tools by giving their best people the authority and accountability to study the data and
encourage well designed experiments to deliver improvements.
Supervisors are critical – if they actually supervise
Most performance management systems break down at the ground floor level, or where the ground floor connects with middle
management. Middle managers will often resort to fair weather reporting to senior management – and in the absence of clearly cascaded
KPIs - it could be argued that this is better than nothing. However, the people at the front line can often lose their line of sight. Was today’s
performance good or bad? What can I change about it if it was bad? Where is the empowerment everyone talks about?
Supervisors and first line managers are critical to a company’s performance, but they’re often ill equipped to perform. Many are
promoted before they have the training, skills and behavioral set to manage performance, so they shy away from difficult conversations
and decisions. They spend their time trying to manage, but desperately wanting to return to the front line, resulting in extremely high
non-value added (NVA) time.
Who is really having an impact on performance?
In 2014, Harvard Business Review issued a survey about the role of frontline managers today. While 77 percent of respondents indicated
that they believed that frontline managers were important to helping their companies reach their business goals, only 33 percent said their
organization’s frontline managers were competent in business-based decision making.*
Companies must microscope supervisor activities and determine which portions of the day can be altered to make more effective use of
their time. This means examining specific roles to ensure that the right employees are performing the right tasks. Loosely defined roles and
ineffective practices create a frustrating daily work experience, with a great deal of lost time. Implementing a simple architecture with clear
roles and responsibilities is the first step in breaking this cycle and improving performance.
Myrtle’s MOS Deployment Methodology is Performance Management
Glue
The problem of non-value added activities among employees tends to be stronger the further employees are from customer contact. This
is especially true for companies that operate in silos, with a focus on departmental performance, rather than effectiveness across the entire
organization. Supervisors and managers play a vital role in managing the risks of operating in a complex environment, acting upon errors
that often go unchecked until they have set back the whole operation.

3. A White Paper from
Myrtle Consulting
Delivering Operational Improvement
A holistic perspective and process allow management to
make the right decisions, improve communication and
reduce the negative effects of errors from one
department to the next. In addition, a team that
understands its contributions and feels connected to the
entire business is more motivated to deliver results.
Myrtle Consulting’s Management Operating System
(MOS) Deployment Methodology is the glue of
performance management and continuous improvement,
not only because it thoroughly links people and processes,
but also because it’s always developed with the people
who will actually use it.
The ‘to be’ system is assessed in the early stages to
highlight what tools and techniques are currently in place
and how they’re working. Are the processes fit for purpose?
Are there too many meetings? Inadequate follow up or a
lack of information flow? What KPIs do we really need?
How will meetings be run around them? How will
variance be managed? Are we getting at root causes and
effectively solving problems? What behaviors do we want
or not want?
A benchmark of what constitutes good practice is useful,
but it’s rarely accepted at face value because the
objective is to evaluate performance and then develop a
faster, more effective operational rhythm.
The installation process is then rigorously measured on
a weekly basis so that each management level can
understand exactly what needs to improve further. This,
coupled with extensive coaching and training, develops
the real behavioral and cultural change that ensures a
business can maximize its performance management
tools and achieve continuous improvement that is
exactly that – continuous.
Conclusion
By optimizing their performance management, companies have a significant opportunity to improve their operations, reduce
waste and improve their business results. With Myrtle Consulting’s MOS Deployment Methodology, savvy companies can open the
door to unlimited opportunity.
About Doug Newman - Doug Newman is a partner with Myrtle. In his more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing and
consulting, Doug has developed a unique combination of experience that makes him a resourceful and creative problem solver with the
vision and communication skills to formulate enterprise based solutions. His consulting career includes time at Ernst & Young, Atos, and
Celerant where he focused on operational and technical issues. For the past 10 years he has focused his work on business and operational
improvement consulting, leading major engagements with several global 500 companies. Doug earned his MBA from the JL Kellogg
Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and his Bachelor of Science from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana
University.
Case Study
One global CPG company launched a strategic initiative to
transform the company from “Biggest to Best” in the world
while increasing EBITDA margin to 30 percent. Myrtle was
invited to implement its MOS Deployment Methodology to
make this company a top-tier, cost-efficient manufacturer by
optimizing performance, reducing costs, sharing best practices
and realizing economies of scale.
• Myrtle took a global approach, developing the necessary
program management, training and support structures.
• Two pilot sites were selected to test program
effectiveness for rapid global rollout.
• The client staff and Myrtle consultants formed
integrated project teams, which in turn worked with
local managers and employees at each site.
• Rollout was accompanied by continual gap assessments
and gauged improvement potential.
• The approach delivered rapid results, local buy-in, in-
depth knowledge transfer and the skills and confidence
for a successful global rollout.
• Myrtle’s MOS Deployment Methodology delivered
substantial financial improvements, and clearly
demonstrated the feasibility of attaining the overall
benefits target.
“Myrtle’s MOS Deployment Methodology is how we out-
execute the competition. Our work with Myrtle proved we
can give ourselves that edge everywhere we operate,” said
the company’s Chief Operating Officer.