An owner of a diagnostic analyser assembly unit once kept a wall chart of units built per technician. The fastest name sat on top every month. Field complaints, though, kept tracing back to that same technician's boards: dry solder joints, a loose ribbon cable, a sensor seated a fraction off. So the chart rewarded the very habit behind those faults. It measured the easiest thing to count.
Device units are especially prone to this. Their real output is a lot that a hospital buyer accepts and a machine that keeps running on a ward. Pieces per hour hides most of that. This guide sorts measures into ones worth tracking and ones worth dropping, role by role, and shows how to run a monthly review on them. Sector-wide strains appear under HR across device and equipment makers.
Measures worth tracking on the floor
- First-pass acceptance by bench or cell. Share of each lot clearing final inspection without rework, traced through the lot tag to the bench that finished it.
- Entries made live, not afterwards. A supervisor spot-checks travellers and bench logs mid-shift and notes blanks or back-filled lines.
- Solo-authorised operations. How many operations on the skill matrix each person may finish without a recheck, and how that number moved this quarter.
- Escapes found downstream. Defects that slipped past a bench and were caught at final inspection, at the buyer or in the field.
- Line clearance and handover quality. Whether the next shift found a clean bench, a reconciled label count and a written note.
Numbers that mislead
- Raw output with no acceptance filter. It pays the rusher and penalises the polisher who redresses a ratchet properly.
- Overtime hours as proof of commitment. Long hours in a tender rush often show poor planning, and tired hands cause more rejects.
- Attendance streaks on their own. Useful for planning, unhelpful as a quality signal. A steady attender can still skip the bench log.
- Lots passed by an inspector. Rewarding a high pass count invites leniency; rewarding a high fail count invites nit-picking. Track agreement with a senior's recheck instead.
- Training hours logged. Hours sat in a room mean little. Count sign-offs earned on the floor.
Moulding and disposables lines
Volume lines making syringes, IV sets or catheter hubs measure differently again. Individual counts mean little when a press, a robot picker, a pouch sealer and a packer all touch one part. Track at line level instead. Short shots and flash caught before packing. Seal peel checks logged on schedule. Sealer jaw temperature and dwell recorded each hour, not invented at shift end. Mould changes finished without a scrap run. For setters, add one personal line: cavities brought back to drawing after a change, first time.
Engineers and testers need different lines
A design or service engineer does not make pieces, so floor measures do not fit. Better lines exist. Repeat call-outs to one hospital for one fault. Repairs closed with a written fault note. Drawings or test procedures released without bouncing back. Juniors who earned sign-off on an analyser or monitor family. Call-out logs can feed this, as the reporting notes for medical equipment makers explain.
Test technicians sit in between. Track how often their results agree with a periodic retest, how promptly they release units, and whether they ever sign off a unit they built. Role clarity helps here; splitting builder and tester duties at diagnostic equipment makers is worth a read.
Setting up a monthly review sheet
- 1
Pick six or seven lines per role
Mix acceptance, record quality, skill range and one behaviour line such as handover or teaching. Fewer lines get read; long sheets get ignored.
- 2
Make every line traceable
Each number must come from a lot tag, a traveller, matrix sign-offs or a call log, not from a supervisor's impression.
- 3
Show the sheet to the person first
Ten minutes with the supervisor before any manager sees it. Disputes about a number get settled at the source record.
- 4
Turn gaps into training, not ranking
A grinder with escapes on one pattern gets time beside a master on that pattern. Rankings by name on a wall tend to drive the wrong people out.
- 5
Review the measures each quarter
Drop a line that never moves or that people have learned to game. Add one whenever a fresh range, say a new retractor set or a syringe size, joins the floor.
Tying measures to grades and ladders
Numbers shift behaviour once they touch something people value. A skill grade. A pay step. The chance to teach. In instrument workshops that link often runs through a pass-based piece rate, described on the surgical instrument makers performance page. For engineers, it runs through a career ladder with clear stages.
A short starting plan
Take one role this month, perhaps grinders or assembly technicians. List what you currently measure and strike out anything on the mislead list. Add first-pass acceptance and solo operations. Run one review cycle and ask the team whether the sheet felt fair. Designing sheets for every role, packer to field engineer, is what our performance management process projects cover, including review rhythm and the link to training.
