| 1. | Does this business have a mission statement? |
| 2. | Does this business have a formal planning process (e.g. periodic meetings and/or written documents) which sets short-term goals? |
| 3. | Does this business have a formal planning process (e.g. periodic meetings and/or written documents) which sets long-term goals? |
| 4. | When future goals are being set for this business, how many of its employees are consulted? |
| 5. | Tick one box for each item. In developing goals, how often does this business incorporate the requirements of:
- its customers
- it suppliers |
| 6. | Is it part of the regular work of one or more people to assess whether the business is achieving its goals? |
| 7. | Does this business have a human resource development policy? |
| 8. | To what degree does that policy support the achievement of the stated business goals? |
| 9. | Does this business have a policy for managing the use of technology at this site? |
| 10. | To what degree does that policy support the achievement of the stated business goals? |
| 11. | Does this business have an environmental management policy? |
| 12. | To what degree does that policy support the achievement of the stated business goals? |
| 13. | Over the last 3 years has this site’s manufacturing technology changed?
- not at all
- to a minor degree
- to a major degree
- completely
- don’t know |
| 14. | Has this technology come from:
- developing new technology within the site
- further refining a technology developed by others
- using technology developed by others
- improving own existing technology |
| 15. | Tick one box for each item. Over the last 3 years, to what extent has this site improved:
- its production costs
- the quality of its products
- the flexibility of its production processes
- delivery on time to its customers
- the design of its products
- the branding of its products
- the service it offers
- the marketing of its products
- product or service innovation
- the price of its products |
| 16. | Tick one box for each item. Over the last 3 years, how much positive contribution has each of the following made to this site’s attempts to improve its competitive position?
- leadership
- planning
- management skills
- ability to innovate
- ability to adopt technology
- employee relations
- customer relations
- supplier relations
- marketing capability
- operations management |
| 17. | Tick one box for each item. Over the last 3 years, to what extent has this site introduced:
- new products
- new processes
- improved products
- improved processes |
| 18. | Over the next 3 years, does this site intend to introduce:
- new products
- new processes
- improved products
- improved processes
- none of these |
| 19. | Over the next 3 years, does this site intend to change its manufacturing technology? |
| 20. | Over the next 3 years, which of these markets does this site plan to focus its efforts on?
- existing domestic markets
- existing export markets
- new domestic markets
- new export markets |
| 21. | Is it part of the regular work of one or more people to identify the business risks or business opportunities arising from changes in:
- technology
- competitors
- government policy
- market conditions
- law and regulations
- human resources
- none of these |
| 22. | What scope do non-managerial staff at this site have to innovate in their work?
- some (suggestions welcomed)
- a reasonable amount (discretion to make small changes)
- a lot (expected to make changes) |
| 23. | How many reporting levels exist at this site? |
| 24. | Are production employees actively encouraged to identify problems? |
| 25. | When problems arise, do this site’s production employees have the authority to contact external suppliers? |
| 26. | How many production employees have authority to take immediate action (e.g. stopping the line, stopping delivery) if they identify a significant quality problem? |
| 27. | How many employees treat the next employee down the line as though they were a customer? |
| 28. | How often is employee satisfaction assessed at this site?
- every 6 months or more often
- every year or more often
- every 2 years or more often
- less often than every 2 years
- never
- different frequency for different employees |
| 29. | Are formal employee performance review systems used:
- at no levels at this site
- at some levels at this site
- at all levels at this site |
| 30. | At this site, how many production employees are on “pay for performance” schemes (e.g. productivity based incentives)? |
| 31. | How many employees are able to do more than one job at this site? |
| 32. | On average, how often are production employees moved to a different job at this site (i.e. job rotation)?
- every 6 months or more often
- every year or more often
- every 2 years or more often
- less often than every 2 years
- as required- never |
| 33. | Does this business have formal training and development programs for:
- none of the employees
- a few employees
- many employees
- all employees |
| 34. | Do the programs for training and development of employees focus on:
- giving them new skills
- improving their existing skills
- giving them new tasks
- other (please specify below) |
| 35. | Tick one box for each item. How often are non-managerial employees at this site consulted about:
- changes in the business environment
- competitive strategy
- business performance
- community involvement (e.g. sponsorship, or plant visits)
- technological change |
| 36. | Tick one box for each item. How many employees at this site are:
- consulted about new technology acquisition
- trained to make sure that the implementation of new technology is effective
- organised to make sure technology is used efficiently |
| 37. | Is customer feedback used in the business to initiate improvements in current products or services? |
| 38. | Does this business have set procedures for dealing with customer complaints? |
| 39. | How often does this business systematically measure final customer satisfaction?
- every 6 months or more often
- every year or more often
- every 2 years or more often
- less often than every 2 years
- not at all
- don’t know |
| 40. | Do any of this site’s most senior manager(s) ever visit customers? |
| 41. | How often do they visit the most frequently visited customers?
- once a month or more often
- every 3 months or more often
- every 6 months or more often
- once a year or more often
- less than once a year
- don’t know |
| 42. | Tick one box for each item. How much does this business work with each of the following on product development?
- customers
- suppliers |
| 43 | Does this site have systems for measuring the quality of materials sent by:
- all suppliers
- most suppliers
- some suppliers
- very few suppliers
- no suppliers |
| 44. | How much does this site work with suppliers to improve each other’s processes? |
| 45. | Tick one box for each item. Is this business involved with any other business(es) (in the domestic country or overseas) in sharing any of the following activities?
- information
- product research and development
- manufacturing processes
- marketing/branding
- distribution
- quality improvements
- training
- safety
- other activity (please specify below)
* group is defined as a number of businesses related through their ownership structure |
| 46. | In relation to the activities in question 45, has this business ever:
- decided to stop sharing such activities
- considered sharing such activities but decided against it
- neither
- don’t know |
| 47. | Was that decision or decisions based on concern about:
- loss of control
- disclosing commercial secrets
- financial costs
- administrative/legal burden
- additional time commitments
- personality difficulties
- lack of trust
- other (please specify below) |
| 48. | Tick one box for each item. In the last 12 months, which of the following have been valuable sources of external advice or assistance to this site?
- parent or related companies
- other international or overseas firms
- other domestic firms
- industry or employers associations
- banks
- accountants
- universities or business schools
- management consultants
- participation in quality awards
- government departments
- other (please specify below) |
| 49. | Tick one box for each item. How would you say this site compares to its major domestic competitors on each of the following?
- labour cost per unit of product is:
- material costs per unit of product are:
- cost of marketing, distribution and administration per unit of production is:
- new product introduction lead time is:
- order to delivery time is:
- time lost to industrial disputes is:
- overhead costs per unit of product are:
- lost time due to accidents per year per employee is:
- finished product defect rate is:- return on net assets is:
- gross profit (sales less cost of sales) is:
- stock turnover (ratio of annual sales to average total stock) is: |
| 50. | Is it part of the regular work of one or more people to manage the relationship of this site with people/groups in the community who have a stake in the site’s business or an interest in what it does? |
| 51. | In the last 12 months has this business put any money into sponsorship of, or donations to, any community activities? |
| 52. | Tick one box for each item. Over the last 3 years, how much weight have senior managers put on each of these measures when assessing this site’s performance?
- financial measures (e.g. profits, return on investment, return on assets, sales growth)
- cost measures (e.g. on budget, costs per unit of output, inventory costs, overtime costs)
- operational measures (e.g. asset utilisation, throughput time, on time delivery)
- quality measures (e.g. first past yield, defect rates, customer returns)
- innovation measures (e.g. process innovation, speed of new product development, new value added services)
- human resources (e.g. job satisfaction, skills development) |
| 53. | Tick one box for each item. Please make an estimate of how large each of the following has been at this site over the Last twelve months:
- defects as a percentage of production volume
- warranty claims as a percentage of total sales
research and development as a percentage of total sales3
- employee education and training expenditure as a percentage of pre-tax average payroll |
| 54. | Over the last three years, has the business's market share: |
| 55. | Over the last three years, has this site's profitability: |
| 56. | Over the last 12 months, has this site's net cash flow been: |
| 57. | Over the last 12 months, has the site's sales volume (in $): |
| 58. | Please estimate the proportion of the sales from this site in the last 12 months that have been:
- completely new products introduced in the last 3 years
- products significantly improved in the last 3 years
- long established products (including minor changes)
- other (please specify below) |
| 59. | Would you say that this site's cost of quality (i.e. error, scrap, rework and inspection) as a percentage of total sales was: |
| 60. | Approximately how many employees at this site are primarily responsible for quality (e.g. Quality Control Inspectors etc. |
| 61. | Approximately how many production operators are there at this site? |
| 62. | What proportion of products from this site are delivered in full, on time, to specification to customers? |
| 63. | What proportion of production operators at this site are currently involved in teams who meet to work out how to do things better? |
| 64. | Tick one box for each item. What sort of effect has each of the following factors had on this site’s operations over the Last 3 years?
- automation
- “just-in-time” (materials delivered shortly before use)
- machine set-up time reduction
- warehousing and materials management
- production planning and control
- statistical process control
- preventative maintenance
- production work teams |
| 65. | Over the last 3 years has this site’s performance been compared in a systematic way with:
- the performance of companies in the same industry?
- the performance of companies in a different industry?
- the performance of companies located domestically?
- the performance of companies located overseas?
- none of the above
- don’t know |
| 66. | In which of the following areas have performance comparisons been made?
- return on investment
- relative profitability
- relative cost position
- operating processes
- technology
- quality procedures
- customer service
- human resource procedures
- other (please specify below) |
| 67. | Does this site have documented manufacturing operating procedures? |
| 68. | How many parts of the manufacturing operation do they cover? |
| 69. | Does this site have written procedures in place for disaster recovery (e.g. total plant failure)? |
| 70. | Have measures to reduce the environmental impact of this site been introduced over the Last 3 years? |
| 71 | What was the reason(s) for the introduction of those measures?
- regulatory pressure
- community pressure
- perceived cost savings
- perceived market opportunities
- voluntary initiatives
- other (please specify below) |
| 72 | What is the reason(s) such measures have not been introduced?
- no negative environmental impacts
- no benefit to the business in such measures
- no pressure from outside to do so
- other (please specify below) |
| 73. | Does this site have ISO14000 (environmental certification)? |
| 74 | Is the site implementing or planning to implement systems to gain ISO14000 (environmental certification)? |
| 75 | Does this site have ISO9000 (quality management systems certification)? |
| 76. | Is the site implementing or planning to implement systems to gain ISO9000 (quality management systems certification)? |
| 77. | What are the 3 products that are manufactured in greatest volume (in units) at this site? Please specify. |
| 78. | Did this business export in the last 12 months? |
| 79. | What proportion of sales (in $) were exports? |
| 80. | Which 3 of the following areas were the 3 main markets (by total value of sales) for the business in that period?
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Japan
- other Asian countries
- America (North, Central and South)
- Europe (including UK)
- other countries (please specify) |