Beyond Benchmarks
Adequately addressing the need for public education and outreach can be one of the most challenging aspects of managing any kind of recycling program.
Like seeking “Symbiotic Relationships” and using “Just-In-Time” inventory systems, tossing around the term “Benchmark” can automatically rank someone as a lean and savvy manager. Agreeably, performance benchmarks are a good thing.
Originally used to define a permanent reference point chiseled onto a stone by a surveyor, the term “benchmark” has come to represent any solid, reliable reference point.
Some common benchmarks in a landfill operation include:
- waste compaction;
- tons per machine hour;
- cover-soil ratio; or
- per-ton revenue.
This type of information is often monitored on a quarterly or annual basis using a spreadsheet or database, and with a little keyboard skill it can be presented in flashy tables or snazzy color charts. Such information is frequently used to rank job performance and in the case of private industry, often plays an important role in the size of a manager’s bonus.
But benchmarks, if used only to provide broad historical trends, are useless when it comes to making immediate change. For that, we need real-time feedback.
In the mid 1980s, a company I worked for instituted a numerical tracking system as part of a construction project management program. Every task, and its associated costs, was assigned a unique number. The goal was to do a better job of tracking and managing costs. Only problem was, the system’s output reports lagged three months behind the actual work, and as a result it told us everything about how we’d done, but nothing how we were doing.
This is the problem with relying on a system of benchmarks without real-time feedback or guidance. It’s no surprise that good management requires more than just benchmarking.
One very effective business management strategy is known as six sigma. It was originally developed by Motorola and is now used in many industries to improve product quality and increase output by removing the causes of defects. Within the six-sigma process there is an acronym, DMAIC, which stands for:
- Define
- Measure
- Analyze
- Improve
- Control
Benchmarking is an important part of this process—but it’s still just one part.
In order to be effective, workers need rapid response. They must understand the target and, like a sonar guidance system, their performance status must be quickly bounced back to them.
It’s been estimated that drivers must make 75 decisions per mile in regard to course correction, speed, potential hazards, etc. Imagine if they had to wait three months for feedback! Obviously, you can’t drive without instant feedback…and you can’t effectively run a landfill either.
Now, of course, some tasks are better suited to generate instant feedback than others; but regardless of the task, the faster the response time, the better the chance for improvement.
Here’s an example of how a specific task was set up to provide a clear statement of goals and instant feedback to the crew. It’s a cover-soil budget in the form of a lookup table. It identifies the number of loads (i.e., scraper loads) required to cover each day’s unique surface area.
There are two variables that can be changed to customize it for a particular landfill: the payload of the hauling unit and the target depth of soil.
It works like the multiplication tables we studied in grade school: to find the product of two numbers—say, 5 x 7—look where the fifth row intersects the 7th column and read the answer: 35.
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With this soil budget table, you measure the area to be covered—80 x 65, for example—find where these two values intersect and read the answer, which in this example is 7 loads.
A lookup table like this could be used by the operators to establish an immediate, day-specific budget for daily cover soil. And it also provides them with real-time feedback because, by the end of the day, they’ll know if they hit the target or not. Yes, there is still the process of getting their daily results into a long-term tracking system so that quarterly or annual reports can be generated. But when it comes to actually improving the operation, it’s this type of rapid feedback that gets it done.
Author's Bio: Neal Bolton is a consultant specializing in
landfill operations and management.
January-February 2010
Beyond Benchmarks
Adequately addressing the need for public education and outreach can be one of the most challenging aspects of managing any kind of recycling program.
Like seeking “Symbiotic Relationships” and using “Just-In-Time” inventory systems, tossing around the term “Benchmark” can automatically rank someone as a lean and savvy manager. Agreeably, performance benchmarks are a good thing.
Originally used to define a permanent reference point chiseled onto a stone by a surveyor, the term “benchmark” has come to represent any solid, reliable reference point.
Some common benchmarks in a landfill operation include:
- waste compaction;
- tons per machine hour;
- cover-soil ratio; or
- per-ton revenue.
This type of information is often monitored on a quarterly or annual basis using a spreadsheet or database, and with a little keyboard skill it can be presented in flashy tables or snazzy color charts. Such information is frequently used to rank job performance and in the case of private industry, often plays an important role in the size of a manager’s bonus.
But benchmarks, if used only to provide broad historical trends, are useless when it comes to making immediate change. For that, we need real-time feedback.
In the mid 1980s, a company I worked for instituted a numerical tracking system as part of a construction project management program. Every task, and its associated costs, was assigned a unique number. The goal was to do a better job of tracking and managing costs. Only problem was, the system’s output reports lagged three months behind the actual work, and as a result it told us everything about how we’d done, but nothing how we were doing.
This is the problem with relying on a system of benchmarks without real-time feedback or guidance. It’s no surprise that good management requires more than just benchmarking.
One very effective business management strategy is known as six sigma. It was originally developed by Motorola and is now used in many industries to improve product quality and increase output by removing the causes of defects. Within the six-sigma process there is an acronym, DMAIC, which stands for:
- Define
- Measure
- Analyze
- Improve
- Control
Benchmarking is an important part of this process—but it’s still just one part.
In order to be effective, workers need rapid response. They must understand the target and, like a sonar guidance system, their performance status must be quickly bounced back to them.
It’s been estimated that drivers must make 75 decisions per mile in regard to course correction, speed, potential hazards, etc. Imagine if they had to wait three months for feedback! Obviously, you can’t drive without instant feedback…and you can’t effectively run a landfill either.
Now, of course, some tasks are better suited to generate instant feedback than others; but regardless of the task, the faster the response time, the better the chance for improvement.
Here’s an example of how a specific task was set up to provide a clear statement of goals and instant feedback to the crew. It’s a cover-soil budget in the form of a lookup table. It identifies the number of loads (i.e., scraper loads) required to cover each day’s unique surface area.
There are two variables that can be changed to customize it for a particular landfill: the payload of the hauling unit and the target depth of soil.
It works like the multiplication tables we studied in grade school: to find the product of two numbers—say, 5 x 7—look where the fifth row intersects the 7th column and read the answer: 35.
With this soil budget table, you measure the area to be covered—80 x 65, for example—find where these two values intersect and read the answer, which in this example is 7 loads.
A lookup table like this could be used by the operators to establish an immediate, day-specific budget for daily cover soil. And it also provides them with real-time feedback because, by the end of the day, they’ll know if they hit the target or not. Yes, there is still the process of getting their daily results into a long-term tracking system so that quarterly or annual reports can be generated. But when it comes to actually improving the operation, it’s this type of rapid feedback that gets it done.