A framework to relate business improvement actions and performance measurement

This thesis reports on the development of a performance improvement framework that \nformally represents causal relationships between performance measures, factors of \nperformance, improvement actions and the overall strategy of a business. \nThe measurement of business performance has received significant attention from both \nthe academic and business worlds. Literature suggests the benefits of implementing \nbalanced performance measurement. However, practitioners in the field of performance \nmeasurement do not seem to deliver the significant results anticipated by the research \ncommunity. \nThe research reported in this thesis delivers a performance improvement framework that \nallows practitioners to integrate the operations knowledge in an organisation with a \nformal performance measurement system, in the form of causal relationships in \nimprovement actions. This gives an improvement focus to measurement and at the same \ntime ensures that improvement actions are aligned to the overall strategy of the \norganisation. \nThe development of the framework was based on methodological theory development \nand empirical case studies. The process to apply the framework and a set of web-based \ntools to support its implementation were also built. These were tested in a process \nindustry environment. \nThe research contributes to knowledge by extending the concept of performance \nindicators to incorporate factors that affect them, the potential improvement actions, \ntheir constraints and their relationships. For organisations that have established \nperformance measurement systems and are working with a performance measurement \nculture, use of this framework allows them to systematically evaluate actions for \ncontinuous improvement.