What did you just do? You set a target level of performance for your weekly weight loss. This is the variable you want to both improve and control.

Most importantly, you have something measurable. It’s a performance indicator. You will need a weight loss process to obtain the measurable outcome you desire.

Said Drucker: “To think through the appropriate measurement is in itself a policy decision and therefore highly risky. Measurements, or at least criteria for judgment and appraisal, define what we mean by performance.” 

Again, you have established a standard or target level of performance. Further, you have also established a unit of measure that works—pounds are a measure of weight.

In short, you set a realistic expectation that is measurable. No fluff. You either lose weight or you don’t.

OK, What’s Step Two?

You have to decide how you are going to continuously capture measuring information. What’s your mechanism for doing this?

You buy or use a scale. Joseph Juran called this a sensor. In short, you need a way to collect information on your performance. How else can you monitor or track if you are succeeding?

So far, you’ve done two steps—namely, set a realistic expectation that is measurable and figured out a way to continuously capture measuring information. Sounds pretty good. You agree?

Memorize your first two steps! It’s easy now. But it gets harder as we progress.

The Third Step Is…

Develop your strategy and tactics for accomplishing your expected outcome, that is, losing three lbs. per week.

A strategy can be defined as a what to do plan to accomplish the outcome you want to achieve (three lbs. per week).

Your strategy would probably sound something like this: “I will exercise more and eat less.”

But this is vague and general statement. Really meaningless in terms of action. It says nothing specific. At best, it can be called a good intention.

It tells you what you want to do. But—and this is a big but—it doesn’t tell you how to do it.

So, you would probably want to get specific. The specifics can be called your tactical (how-to-do-it) work plan. The tactical plan would probably be put into the form of a list. That list would probably resemble the following:

• I will go to the gym four times per week for two hours or more.
• I will eat a prescribed diet

Indeed, you may get very specific about your exercise regimen, that is, provide details as to the exact exercises you will perform. And you would probably choose a daily diet routine recommended by a host of experts.

So far so good? You now have your strategy and tactics to accomplish your desired outcome—three lbs. per week. That’s your goal.

OK! We Will Proceed to the Forth Step… 

Test your comprehension of this process. Assume you’ve adhered to your strategy and tactical plan. Seven days have passed.

What comes next? After the first week, you’ll get a scale and record your weight.

You want to know if the program working? You want to know if your strategy and tactics are paying off.

Let’s put this in more highfalutin terms. You want to monitor and track feedback from actual results. This is a fancy way to say: I will weigh myself using a scale every week.

The Final Step…

You compare actual results to hoped-for results. And you are prepared to take corrective action if there is a deviation between actual and expected results. 

Oh boy! You followed the strategic and tactical plan perfectly. But regrettably you shed only one lb.

Now, what do you do? What are your options?

Well, you could wait another week. That’s a viable option. Or, you could change your strategy and your accompanying work plan.

Or, you could lower your target level or standard of performance.

Sooner or later—assuming you wait another week—you will be down to changing your strategy/tactical work plan or downgrading your expectations.

If you change your strategy/tactical work plan, you could possibly change the number of days you exercise, your specific exercises, time spent exercising and your diet plan. And, then, you would start the procedure just outlined all over again.

We can now introduce some interchangeable words for standard/target level of performance/expectations—namely, desired outcome, predicted result, desired result, expected outcome and several others which crop up from time to time. They all mean the same thing.

We began with five steps or basic functions vital to the control of any process. For starters, we introduced the concept of setting standards or target levels of performance.

Your target level of performance was to lose three lbs. per week. This could be called your expectation, your desired outcome, your desired result and so on.

We indicated that it was important to select a measurable performance outcome…and one that was capable of being captured with a measuring device (a scale in this case).

We proceeded to developing your strategy and tactics for losing weight. Aha! Next, you were comparing “feedback from actual results. ” That is, you were weighing yourself (using a scale) to compare actual weight-loss to your quantified goal of three lbs. per week.

We called this step “comparison of actual performance with targets.” Finally, we discussed the general actions available when a major deviation between actual and predicted results occur.

You can lower your goal. Or you can change your strategy and tactics. Your choice.

We strongly advise that you memorize the five steps involved in performance measurement and control. If you memorize it, you’ll see how things fit into this framework every day.

In the oversimplified “weight control” example, knowing what to measure and how to measure it was quite straightforward. But in actual practice, the performance measurements selected require thought.

If the wrong measurements are selected but attained, the real problem won’t be solved. But it will take years or even decades to realize the wrong problem has been solved.

If the right measurements are selected, but not realized, the strategy and tactics can be changed in the hope of accomplishing the selected measurements.

If the right measurements are in place, it doesn’t take very long to evaluate if the strategy and tactics are working.

To repeat: The performance measurement in the weight control example suggests itself. But in most cases the selection of the performance metric is more involved. (Subsequent articles will deal with the problem of defining the problem through performance metrics) 

Evaluate the government’s proposed health-care plan using the strategic framework just outlined. Specifically discuss what metrics are being used and whether or not they are the right metrics.

Further, explain the strategies and tactics the government plans to use to accomplish the desired outcomes. Detail how the government will continuously monitor or track results. Elaborate upon the infrastructure that will be created to take corrective action if, indeed, deviations between actual and predicted results occur.

Just kidding. We hope that these are the type of questions that will soon be asked throughout America and to our congressional representatives.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, these questions have not been answered by anyone in government. Perhaps you can share your thoughts with us.

Ok… now imagine a system that can solve those steps without your sweat.

We can do that system for you as we already did for other clients.

Also, security automation is the machine-based execution of security actions with the power to programmatically detect, investigate and remediate cyberthreats with or without human intervention by identifying incoming threats, triaging and prioritizing alerts as they emerge, then responding to them in a timely fashion.

Security automation does most of the work for your security team, so they no longer have to weed through and manually address every alert as it comes in. Among other things, security automation can:

• Detect threats in your environment.
• Triage potential threats by following the steps, instructions and decision-making workflow taken by security analysts to investigate the event and determine whether it’s a legitimate issue.
• Determine whether to take action in response.
• Contain and resolve the issue.

Why automate security processes?

As infrastructure and networks grow in size and complexity, it becomes increasingly difficult to manually manage security and compliance. Manual operations can result in slower detection and remediation of issues, errors in resource configuration, and inconsistent policy application, leaving your systems vulnerable to compliance issues and attack. This can lead to unplanned and expensive downtime and overall reduced functionality. Automation can help you streamline daily operations as well as integrate security into IT infrastructure, processes, hybrid cloud structures, and applications (or apps) from the start. Fully deploying security automation can even reduce the average cost of a breach by 95%.

What companies have automated their security?

IDC interviewed multiple decision makers about their experiences with automation and found that each organization realized significant productivity, agility, and operational benefits through automation—making IT security teams 25% more efficient.

Packaging Automation is the process of packaging products without the need for manual human intervention. Over the years, automated packaging systems have transitioned from singular machines that automate one step in the packaging process to now integrating all steps seamlessly into the entire packaging process.

Automating your packaging process can lead to improved production speeds. Often when there is a manual packaging process, the machine producing the product is not able to run at full capacity as the manual packaging process is not able to keep up with this level of output.

Automated packaging of products can bring many benefits to your company. Some of these benefits are obvious, tangible benefits, and others are more intangible, but nevertheless equally beneficial to your company and your bottom line profit.

Automated packaging of products can mean many different things to different people and your interpretation depends entirely on the market you are in. For some it may mean the packaging of food into containers, or liquids into bottles; whereas for others, it may mean the binding together and wrapping of large sheets of material. With this diversity of product, automated packaging systems are also very diverse, and often have to be bespoke made to meet a company’s requirements.

Whilst these is often the need to package each individual product, there is also often the need to further box and palletise these products to make them ready to ship. When this process is automated, it can also be referred to as automated packaging.

Let’s start by looking into some of the tangible benefits of automated packaging;

Reduces The Risk Of Repetitive Strain Injury
Repetitive strain injury risks are lowered when products are packed automatically rather than manually. This is due to the fact that automation removes the need for human input to complete repetitive manual tasks.

Eliminate Potential Bottlenecks
Manual packaging processes can often lead to bottlenecks within a production process when human errors occur. Automated packaging processes can help to eliminate this bottleneck as a bespoke machine will be designed to keep up with the flow off the production line. With automated packaging there is also less scope for packaging errors, which in turn leads to less downtime and bottlenecks.

Improved Production Speed
Automating your packaging process can lead to improved production speeds. Often when there is a manual packaging process, the machine producing the product is not able to run at full capacity as the manual packaging process is not able to keep up with this level of output. By automating the packaging of the products you are then able to remove this constraint and improve your production speed.

Eliminate Downtime
As with any process involving manual labour, staff are entitled to breaks. Often in factories this means that production stops during these breaks resulting in downtime and loss of production. With an automated packaging solution, these breaks no longer happen, and the machines can be run 24/7 if required.