Role module · COO

The COO's data checklist

Operations generates more data than any other function and trusts less of it. The reason is usually that the numbers arrive after the shift that could have used them.

Read time ~9 min Includes six questions and a 90-day plan For COO and their team

01 The numbers you own

Five you should be able to defend

Not the longest list — the shortest one that covers the job. Each links to its full definition, including where the number lives and how it gets read wrong.

OEE

Overall equipment effectiveness

How much of your capacity you actually get to sell.

availability × performance × quality OTIF

On time in full

The customer's view of whether the operation delivered.

orders_delivered_on_time_and_complete ÷ total_orders SA

Schedule adherence

Whether you made the right things, not just enough things.

units_produced_as_scheduled ÷ units_scheduled Scrap%

Scrap and yield

Cost paid twice: material and the capacity that produced it.

scrapped_quantity ÷ total_produced (yield is the inverse)Absence

Absence rate

The cover cost that turns into overtime and agency spend.

days_absent ÷ scheduled_working_days

02 Questions to ask

Six questions for your next review

Ask them of your own team before anyone asks them of you. The uncomfortable answers are the useful ones.

How long after a shift ends do we know how it went — and who acts on that?
Do the factory number and the finance number for output agree? If not, is the rule written down?
Which losses are counted as planned, and when did anyone last review that list?
Can we see cost per unit by line and by shift, or only by plant and by month?
When a customer complains about service, can we tell them what happened without a phone call to the site?
What proportion of our schedule changes are caused by rush orders rather than by breakdowns?

03 First 90 days

A plan that finishes something

Narrow and finished beats broad and half-built. Each stage produces evidence that funds the next one.

First 30 daysFirst 30 daysGet one line's OEE, scrap and schedule adherence into one view, updated daily rather than monthly. Argue about the definitions once, then leave them alone.

Days 30–60Days 30–60Join it to the customer side: which service failures trace back to which losses. That is the link that funds the improvement.

Days 60–90Days 60–90Put cost against it. Contribution margin per constrained hour turns operational choices into a currency the board already uses.

04 Where the data lives

The systems behind your numbers

System	What it holds	Key records
MES and line-side capture	What actually happened, minute by minute — the only source for downtime, speed loss and scrap.	Work order, Downtime event, Batch, Quality result
ERP production and costing	Confirmed output, standard cost and stock valuation.	Production order, Material, Routing, Cost centre
CMMS and asset management	Maintenance history and condition, which lead availability.	Asset, Work request, Failure code, Spare part

05 Questions

Frequently asked

Why do operations and finance disagree on output?

They measure different events at different times: MES counts production, ERP counts confirmation. The answer is a written reconciliation rule, not a monthly meeting.

What is the fastest operational win from better data?

Speed loss. It is continuous, invisible and free to investigate — and it is usually larger than the downtime everyone is already fighting.

Bring your hardest number

We will trace one of your own figures back to source, live, on your data.

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