BEST is a software facilitating analysis of the enterprise performance
and assisting in decision making regarding business development, analysis of
key performance indicators, bottlenecks and results. Main BEST
software concepts were further implemented in the
Pharos software suite and used in the
Upgrading programmes introducing best continuous improvement practices.
How does BEST
facilitate decisions?
Helping to monitor
strategic issues of enterprise performance.
Facilitating the process
of continuous performance improvement.
Monitoring the whole
scope of enterprise activities.
Assisting in
identification of quality-related costs.
Assisting in
identification of costs related to environmental protection.
Allowing making
price-setting simulations.
Assisting in product
profit analysis.
Assisting in investment
analysis.
Provides for
easy-to-understand graphical indicators representation.
BEST assistance
Graphics:
Operation management
Strategic management
Customized Enterprise
View by a manager
Decision tools:
Product profit analysis
Price setting simulation
Investment assistance
Reports:
Indicator Graphs
Enterprise database
I. Operation
management assistance
Its main purpose is to monitor business
performance by tracking sales and by comparing actual performance and
targets for some significant parameters. Operation management work is
supported by providing the manager with management hints and a
concentrated picture of the performance of the company through a small
number of selected indicators.
There are three first level indicators as follows:
Year-End-Outlook indicator (YEO)
Convertible Currency Exchange indicator (CCE)
Business Performance Indicator (BPI)
The BPI indicator is the weighted criterion of 5
second-level indicators, which reflect significant aspects of business
operations:
Service level - Customer
service index (CSX)
Sales performance -
Customer order index (COX) and Year-to-date index (YDX)
Production quality -
Production quality index (PQX)
Tied up capital - Storage
level index (SLX).
(click on the picture to see full screen
animation)
As the relative importance of the five second-level
indicators may differ between companies, a user assigns the particular
weights and can vary accordingly to the management preferences for the
given business.
BEST software supports each business indicator with
management hints and theory.
II. Strategic
management assistance
This module is used to monitor and assess
the general financial and competitive performance of the enterprise.
Five Strategic Performance Indicators ( SPIs ) were identified as
measures of the productivity and utilization of certain key enterprise
resources.
These five SPIs thus have the role as early warning signals.
If trend is negative or indicator value has low level,
then the second-level indicators should be analyzed to get better
insight and understanding of the problem.
For each of these SPIs there is a second-level set of indicators that
can be reviewed for details. These second-level indicators focus on
specific areas such as energy consumption and production time
utilization.
1st level indicators
2nd level indicators
Total Enterprise Performance
(TEP)
Labour Productivity (LRP)
Production Time Utilization (PTU)
Energy Productivity (EYP)
Sales productivity (SLP)
Total Cost Value (TCV)
Maintenance Productivity (MNP)
Refinement Grade (RMG)
Return On Investment (ROI)
Capital Productivity (CLP)
Total Cost Value (TCV)
Salary productivity (SYP)
Capital Utilization (CPU)
Profit Margin (PFM)
Total Cost Value (TCV)
Sales Productivity (SLP)
Added Value Grade (AVG)
Total Sales Performance (TSP)
Sales Productivity (SLP)
Maintenance Productivity (MNP)
Convertible Currency Utilization (CCU)
Production Time Utilization (PTU)
Competitive Strength (CPS)
Added Value Grade (AVG)
III. Indicator
summary
This module is used to select, fix and
use the customized set of indicators from all those available in BEST
for performance monitoring and decision-making.
The manager's work is supported by theory and management
hints.
IV. Product profit
analysis
The product profit analysis is a
sensitivity analysis to assist managers in planning production and
marketing programs under uncertainty. For planning purposes it is
therefore not enough to know that a particular product is profitable in
terms of a satisfactory contribution if there is a risk that shortage of
material or inadequate production capacity, which might jeopardize
production of the product.
BEST uses five different criteria for this analysis:
Ranking of products according to either
- Contribution per unit or
- Contribution per total,
Ranking per bottle-neck situations where two
situations are considered:
- Import material bottle-neck and
- Production time bottle-neck
The fifth criterion in the product profit analysis is
called Primary product.
These five criteria are summed together to a weighted
sum. This sum provides an over-all picture of the products'
profitability. The user can specify the relative importance of each
criterion by simply varying a set of weights.
V. Price setting
simulation
The computer-simulation evaluates a
number of different product combinations by using a dynamic programming
method. The basic idea is that contribution from all products must cover
total fixed costs for financial break-even and must exceed total fixed
costs in order to generate a profit.
The user has the option to simulate price and volume
for each product.
Price setting simulation tool indicate as follows:
Resulted interest value
for each simulated pricing option
Recommended prices for
each simulated planned interest value
Costs variations for each
simulated production volume
Price setting simulation tool allows for the manager as
follows:
To apply the simulation
results to the operating plan
To restore initial prices
without changes
To restore initial
production volumes without changes
VI. Investment
assistance
This module is used to assist the manager
in analyzing and simulating various short-term investment options. Three
most known investment models are available as follows:
The Net Present Value
method
The Internal Rate of
Return method
The Benefit/Cost Ratio
method
Picture:The Benefit/Cost Ratio method
BEST software recommends the appropriate model
accordingly to the basic significant characteristics of the investment
project entered by a user.
Investment assistance tool is intended for quick and
easy use and should not be used for complex investment analysis or in
those situations where more detailed analysis is required. In such
situations the UNIDO product COMFAR,
- Computer Model for Feasibility Analysis and Reporting, may be more
appropriate.
VII. Data entry
BEST has relatively large database, which
is used for indicator calculations. Various important issues of
enterprise data, including for example quality and environmental costs,
inflation, are taken into consideration while handling the data entry.
Automatic recalculation of the entered data in two currencies such as
national and USD is made accordingly monthly exchange rates.
UNIDO business
software 