Q 393. What is a Bowling Chart? How is it used to track the KPIs for Policy Deployment?

 

 

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Bowling chart: It is a visual way to monitor and address the company KPI or the policy deployment objectives. This chart will provide quick update of the organization by viewing this chart.

This tool is extensively used in lean organization. 

Objectives / KPI are derived from Vision, Mission and Policy, These all are inter related and having strong link from one another.

 

There are 3 levels of KPI:

 

- Measurable KPIs - High level KPIs to see the healthiness or strategy level objectives of an organization of an organization. 

- Manageable KPIs - Its measured in the local level / Dept. level /  at operation level objectives are linked with Measurable KPIs.

- Actionable KPIs-  Low level Objectives managed and measured at shop floor level KPIs, If we improve actionable KPIs then automatically manageable and measurable KPI will improve.

 

Bowling chat can be used any of the above KPIs and mainly focuses on SQDCM (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost and Morale) at all levels.

 

Generally there are 2 rows one for Plan and another one for Actual, There colors are used for visually understand it quickly.

 

Green : KPI Targets are met

Yellow:  KPI Targets are under performing but better than last year

Red: KPI performance meeting the target.

 

Format Example:

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Bowling charts is nothing but a scorecard which is used to track KPIs for an individual over the period of a year, either month or quarter wise.

 

Here is a quick image of how a Bowling chart looks like...

 

Below image is of a Policy deployment Bowler chart, which is tracking 5 different targets for an individual for a period of 12 months, month wise.

 

 

Let me explain this chart in more detail..

 

Owner: The name of the employee whose KPIs are being tracked

Organization: The name of the company the person works at

Targets: These are KPIs which the employee is going to measured in the relevant financial year. For example, Revenue Target, Gross or Operating Margin target, SLA Targets like Quality, Cycle Time, On time, AHT, C-Sat, Operations target like Utilization, Productivity, People Targets like E-Sat, Attrition%, Leadership building etc.

Start Point: This is starting point of the KPI.. for example of the Gross Margin of the team is 40%, then the starting point will be 40%.

 

What is Red, yellow and Green color coding?

 

Red color tagging means that the achieved number is 5 to 10% less that the target given. Threshold of 5 to 10% is decided depending upon the criticality of the KPI

Yellow color tagging means that the achieved number is 1 to 4% less that the target given.

Green color tagging means that the achieved number is more than the target.

 

Let me give an example of this is filled:

 

Taking above example of 40% Gross margin as a starting point and reaching an annual target of 50% Gross margin for this FY. then this can be filled in 2 ways.. 

 

i.) By get adding flat target of 50% for each month starting Jan to Dec and then capturing the actual number of Gross Margin achieved for that month. Now this is not at all practical. since the team cannot jump from 40% to 50% in just 1 month.. 

Hence, the 2nd and most appropriate method.

ii) In this method, we gradually increase the margin target by few % points to move up the ladder and therefore by the end of year not just meet the annual target but also are ready to move higher level in the upcoming year.. Here is the example of how that be done.

 

 

Some companies also add a delta row to this to show how far/away we are from the target or how much ahead we are against the target.. in the following manner.

 

 

How are Bowling charts useful?

1. Bowling charts help in aligning the individuals with the organizations goal and initiatives.
2. It helps in tracking and making necessary amendments or course corrections, just incase things are going off track, rather than discovering a catastrophic failure at the end of the FY.
3. This can also be used as a powerful performance evaluation tool by the organization.
4. It gives necessary motivation to the individual and just makes the system very transparent. 
5. Having such score cards and transparently sharing them with all the leaders help in creating a competitive environment, thus fueling the necessary profitable growth for the organization
6. As an organization, if all the individuals are moving in the right direction, then it is good, but let's say the sales figures for all the sales professionals are 10-15% down than the given target, then the organization will have to go out more aggressively on sales campaign, marketing activities etc.. to boost the sales figures.

Limitations of a Bowling chart:

1.  One of the limitation of the bowling chart is let's say an individual has all his KPIs in green, mid year and the variance is say 2-3%, but there is huge scope to even push the envelope further and achieve higher numbers than the target given. Then complacency might set in and in spite of having further scope to improve the numbers, no efforts will be put in.. 
2. The reverse also holds true, let's say the person has huge deficit (double digits) in his achieved vs target numbers, then the person is completely demotivated and loose focus and thus it becomes very difficult to move ahead.

How to mitigate this limitation?

1. One of the ways to mitigate this is by defining the KPIs in such a way that the more you achieve the more reward you can reap/enjoy in the form of incentives/bonuses etc. This way the company can still enjoy further good performance without any hindrances or biases.
2. For the under performing people, have adequate HR (HR-BP, Talent Development) and HOD intervention to ensure that the moral of the those employees is always high and action is taken only against "will issue" type of employees.  

 

Bowling chart is a kind of tracking sheet used for tracking of KPIs or Policy deployment objectives. This tracking sheet generally visualizes the target vs actual on a sheet on a given frequency basis, which can be daily, monthly or annually.

Its quite similar to hourly production data sheet in manufacturing however in Bowling chart color coding is also done to visualize the level of achievement. 

Red means KPI not achieved

Green means KPI achieved.

Yellow means KPI partially achieved up to a secondary level.

Color coding can different variations as per the organizations standard or requirements.

 

It is quite similar to bowling scorecard.

 

Strength of Bowling chart is that it is a very strong tool to visualize if target is being met or not. Or how often the target being met but it is not best representation for "continuous improvement". If we are constantly meeting or not meeting our target, it is difficult to know if improvement is there or not in a bowling chart.

 

Policy deployment KPIs can be easily broken into monthly or yearly targets and can be tracked easily through a bowling chart.

 

A basic and popular visual representation of bowling chart is give below:

 

A Bowling Chart is a visual way to monitor Key KPIs which helps in comparing actual matrix to targets. It is termed as bowling chart because of its similarities with the appearance of a bowling scorecard. These charts can easily represent how often goals are met or missed but they do not showcase how we are improving over a period of time.

 

For every KPI on a Bowling Chart, there are two rows:

1. The target value

2. The actual value

 There are three colours used on the chart

1. Red : This signifies, KPI performing worse

2. Yellow : This signifies, KPI has not met the primary target

3. Green : This signifies, KPI has met or overachieved the target

 

Policy Deployment process consist of  

1. Reviewing the strategic goals of an organization and aligning the company’s resources towards meeting those goals.

2. Cascading actionable goals down throughout the organization and when all of the cascaded goals are compiled, they will add up to meet the strategic goals.

3. Each organization within the company must do its part to achieve its target else the company will be unable to reach its strategic goals.

 

Policy deployment process requires continuous review of progress, allowing leaders to act on deviations from the plan. Bowling chart is the best tool which simplistically represents weather KPI is met or not and also highlights it which makes it common yet and effective tool to track Organization's Progress and hence frequently used for the purpose of Policy deployment.

Bowling Chart is a visual method to monitor Key Performance Indicators or KPI’s. It is an easy and simple method to compare the organizations actual metrics to the goals and targets the organizations have set.

It is called a Bowling chart as it resembles the scorecard of a bowling game. The Bowling Chart consists of two rows for each KPI, the target value and the actual value.

The chart consists of three colors

·        Green: The team has met or in some cases surpassed the KPI’s.

·        Yellow: The team has met some secondary objectives but not the main KPI.

·        Red: KPI’s have not been met and the team is underperforming.

The bowling chart with its visual cues make it an easy method to keep track of process improvements for policy deployments.

 

Sources: https://blog.kainexus.com/customer/continuous-improvement-software/features/improvement-charts-and-data/bowling-charts/big-lebowski

Bowling chart is a fairly simple template used to visually monitor the actual performance against the targets / goals of established key performance indicators (KPI) or policy deployment objectives. However, its application is not limited to only these areas. It appears similar to a bowling scorecard and hence derived its term. The charts limitation is in its inability to show trends. Creating the chart is very easy as the KPI’s / objectives are listed in a column, the timeline (usually a 12-month period) on the row with the targets mentioned. As and when the actual performance is updated, appropriate colour coding (traffic light colours) is used to make it visual.

   Sample bowling chart:

Tracking KPI’s for Policy Deployment using Bowling Chart:

Policy deployment a.k.a Hoshin kanri / Hoshing planning is used for organizational goal setting that depends on inputs from everyone across different levels (strategic / tactical / operational) who are involved in achieving those goals. The process has to undergo the following steps:

1.      Identify the vision and KPI’s

2.      Outline breakthrough objectives (goals)

3.      Establish schedules for achieving the goals

4.      Initiate and continue the catch ball process to get inputs from different levels

5.       Set-up review cycles: This is a very crucial step in the policy deployment process where the progress is reviewed periodically and required course corrections are made. Bowling chart can be a very effective tool to track the progress periodically and highlight problems and opportunities.

6.      Take necessary actions

7.      Annual review to make adjustments for the next year

 

Benefits of using a Bowling Chart in policy deployment:

The benefits of using Bowling Chart in the process of policy deployment within your organization are:

·        It allows you to identify and focus on the areas in the plan that are underperforming

·        It enables consistency in the definition of KPIs and metrics

·        Define frequency of data collection to inform better decision making

·        Bring different areas of business together as each business owner must manage his / her part in the bowling chart

 

‘Bowling Chart’ is a tracker that displays performances of people, process or system or policy deployment objectives.

The format of Bowling Chart appears very similar to that of a bowling scorecard, hence the name ‘Bowling Chart’.

It display the actual performance progress against the monthly target that was planned.

A simple Bowling Chart would have three columns – List of objectives, target of each object and the actual result that was achieved or delivered.

The status is updated with Red or Green colour codes accordingly. Green being target met and Red indicating as target not met.

It helps the business and the leadership get a quick status summary thereby identify the poor performance areas and the failed metrics that needs to be focused upon.

Designing a bowling chart needs lot of planning. There should be proper governance and control to ensure discipline in maintaining it.

Firstly, clear goals & objectives need to be set and agreed. This helps to gain understand what is needed to be measured. Then, we need to comprehend and agree upon the measuring criteria.

Without taking away from simple Green and Red visual display, graphical format dashboard could also be designed showcasing period or any other split wise trend analysis.

 

A sample Bowling Chart from i-nexus strategy management platform*;

*Source

Bowling Charts

The Bowling Chart gets its name from its similarity to a Bowling Scoreboard which has ten frames. The Bowling Chart has 12 frames; one for each month of the year. It is a visual management tool used as a monthly tracking sheet to monitor policy deployment goals or Key Process Indicators. It compares the targets set against the actual performance. The Bowling Chart is also known as a Hoshin Bowling chart. These charts were originally used for Hoshin Kanri Policy deployment to track continuous improvement projects that is completed in a time-phased manner. It sometimes acts as a sequential to-do list based on the time of the activities.

 

The Chart has color schemes of the task/activity with green, yellow or red to indicate the progress. The tasks that are indicated as red or yellow would point to some action points. Halden Zimmermann in his blog suggests that we think about KPIs in terms of three levels, measurable KPIs, manageable KPIs, and actionable KPIs. These KPIs are in the form of a hierarchical order with the actionable KPIs forming the base of the pyramid and the measurable KPIs the peak. Measurable KPIs help the organization to measure the overall health of the organization, manageable KPIs help managers understand the specific opportunities within their domain and the Actionable KPIs help supervisors monitor the day-to-day activities.

The strengths of a Bowling Chart lie in its simplicity on checking your KPIs with respect to the set target. Its limitations are that it does not indicate the trends, such as is there an improvement and the magnitude of the improvement. Another limitation with the chart is that we cannot draw specific conclusions from them. We need to couple these charts with others tools to get more detailed information of trends, magnitude of change etc.

 

 

References

https://www.velaction.com/bowling-chart/

https://www.systems2win.com/solutions/bowling_chart.htm

https://rattlesnaketime.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/halden-zimmermann-kpi-bowling-charts/

https://blog.kainexus.com/customer/continuous-improvement-software/features/improvement-charts-and-data/bowling-charts/big-lebowski

Bowling Chart Definition –

These are visual charts used to display all the KPIs and the actual vs target numbers against these KPIs.

The term “Bowling Chart” is derived from the chart’s similarity to the appearance of a bowling scorecard, although there’s often 12 months in this type of Bowling Chart instead of ten frames when we’re bowling. (https://blog.kainexus.com/customer/continuous-improvement-software/features/improvement-charts-and-data/bowling-charts/big-lebowski)

 

Let’s understand this better by visually comparing a Bowling Score sheet against a Bowling Chart –

 

 

 

Bowling Charts also clearly displays how close or far away one is from achieving the target by color coding the actual numbers in green, yellow and red. Green signifies that KPIs are met for that time period, Red signifies that performance is worse than the target in that time period and Yellow signifies that one is very close to achieving the target.

Advantages of using a Bowler Chart –

1.       The board is designed in such a manner that everything is self-explanatory. A signal glance at the board can help supervisors understand Team’s Performance based on each of the mentioned KPIs.

2.       This helps identify improvement areas speedier and helps focus corrective actions in the right direction.

3.       Bowling Charts helps to a great extent to bring in transparency at the work place as all key KPIs are displayed and the performances are rewarded based on these metrics rather than various other biases. This promotes healthy competitive environment in the organization.

Limitations of using a Bowler Chart –

1.       There are no trends present in Bowling Charts which indicate how well or worse is the performance compared to previous periods. This prevents from giving a holistic view on performance and underlying root causes can be missed if trends are not studied properly.

2.       Therefore along with Bowler Chart some additional information would have to be added before reaching a final conclusion.

Policy Deployment

A lot of companies struggle when it comes to Policy Deployment and its Daily Management as a lot of stakeholders are involved and collecting information from everyone in a timely manner and collating it becomes an expansive task to be performed.

In this case Visual Tools such as Bowler Charts assist a lot as all the KPIs are displayed with clear description about the actual vs target numbers, this avoids a lot of ambiguity and helps track progress better.

 

The Bowling Chart is very comparative to the scorecard utilized in bowling. It shows the execution of the key targets simply and a group is responsible for conveying, usually over a period of a year. Within the simplest version, you list your targets on the cleared out, and on the correct for each of those destinations, you record your month-to-month targets and genuine comes about. In the event that you hit your target, the month is shown in Green. If you miss your target, the month is shown in Red. As a director, you'll be able right away to see where there are issues and work together with your group to address them. Of course, producing even this simple version takes a part of planning and discipline. The goals ought to be clearly characterized so that you simply know precisely what to a degree, and after that, you would like to get it how you're aiming to the degree it. Individuals utilizing the Bowling Chart discover that it may be an extraordinary put for finding out where things can be going off-base. And in the event that a metric does come up short to meet the target, it'll at that point require more data. Some of the time extra data can be made available straightforwardly within the Bowling Chart: a trend pointer is well known, as could be a year-to-date column, but including as well much can take absent from the basic green/red visual incite.

 

Key plans created utilizing this prepare are more often than not visualized in X-Matrices. A Top-Level Lattice and a number of 2nd Level Lattices layout Breakthrough Goals and beat level enhancement needs that each of the partners are responsible for. Depending on the structure of an organization, 3rd level Lattices may be utilized to bore down to other Change Needs that offer assistance reach the objectives. Each X-Matrix is upheld by a Bowling Chart or Scorecard. At the extended level, an Activity Arrange is utilized within the arrange of an A3 report, nearby a Countermeasures report, which records all the activities to be taken to put the technique back on track.

All published answers have correctly highlighted the characteristics of a Bowling Chart. Shrikant Angre has provided the best answer to this question.