Standards

Growth Goals!  ISO 9001:2015 tells us to make goals (6.2). One of the things that we got called out for during our last certification audit was that we had a lot of yes/no goals and not enough growth based goals. We are a small company and our company runs fairly well, so goals are proving difficult to cultivate. I was hoping to have at least 1 growth goal per department and I have hit a wall when it comes to our SCHEDULING department. All of the goals that I could find are yes/no goals; either scheduling gets it done, or they don't. Does anyone have a growth based goal that I could suggest to the Scheduling department?


p.s. What I mean by growth based goal would be a goal that encourages the department to better themselves by a percentage, over a period of time. For instance: "Reduce Manufacturing rework to less than 1% FAM caused" . 

Lacking details on what it is that Scheduling gets done, or they don't, its difficult to offer specific guidance. 


However, I would say that your auditors are overreaching a bit.  ISO 9001/AS9100 require that you determine how the results of your objective are evaluated.  I don't read anything in the standard that says yes/no is not allowed as an evaluation criteria, or that an objective has to be growth based.  You get to make that decision.  In my experience, I've had fewer growth goals, and more specific and constant goal lines  that set a threshold for corrective action if they aren't met. 


Now back to specifics.  If you feel that you have a company benefit to monitoring and improving the scheduling department against a set objective, take a step back and look at what their process is.  They get "It" done, or don't.  What is "It?"  How often does "It" happen?  Is there an expectation or requirement that "It" be done within a certain time interval?  Are there problems/risks that could take place if "It" doesn't happen effectively?  Is there an internal customer that relies on "It?"  You might gather the input of the internal customer and find out how Scheduling's output affects them. 


None of these are necessarily the right questions, but maybe it might prompt some ideas for you

I'm glad you brought up the topic of asking the internal customer about Scheduling's performance.  There could be multiple internal customers, too.  Scheduling is a function that coordinates several different functions- accepting customer's orders, ordering materials from suppliers, production making the product, shipping the product.  Lean has introduced "demand-pull" strategies, so that only customer demand is being fulfilled vs. building to a schedule.  Scheduling in general is to ensure materials are available to support production.  Terminology might need to be adapted if the organization is not building widgets (cogs, or sprockets!) :)