Performance management for chemical and plastics plants

Process KRAs by role

Energy use per tonne of product is worth adding for shift engineers where utilities are a large cost. Keep individual KRAs to what the person controls, and give crew results a shared weight for everyone on the crew, so people help each other rather than guard their own numbers.

• Panel operator: yield against standard, off-spec batches, batch cycle time
• Shift engineer: crew safety record, permits issued correctly, plan adherence
• Maintenance technician: breakdowns attended on time, repeat failures, permit compliance
• QC chemist: samples tested on time, retests, out-of-specification investigations
• Moulding operator: scrap rate, cycle time, parts per shift
• Mould setter: mould change time, first-shot approval, tool damage

Safety measures that reward the right behaviour

Lagging measures such as lost time injuries matter, but a target of zero injuries on its own can push people to hide incidents. Add leading measures that reward reporting and discipline: near misses reported, safety observations made, permit audits passed, training kept current and drill participation. A crew that reports many near misses is usually a crew that is paying attention, and it should never be marked down for honesty.

Worked example: a shift engineer's scorecard

Meera Iyer, a shift engineer at a Manali plant, has five goals: production plan adherence with weight 30, yield against standard with weight 25, permits audited without findings with weight 20, near misses reported and closed by her crew with weight 15, and her crew's training kept current with weight 10. In the quarter she achieves 96, 100, 90, 80 and 100 percent. Her weighted progress is 28.8 plus 25 plus 18 plus 12 plus 10, which is 93.8 percent.

Crew reviews and individual reviews

Crews work as teams, so review crew results monthly in the shift meeting and individual KRAs quarterly. The annual cycle decides increments and moves such as field operator to panel operator, which should need both skill sign-offs and a clean safety record. Calibrate across the four crews: if crew B always rates highest, check whether its shift in-charge simply marks more generously before rewarding the crew.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Create quarterly review cycles for operators and engineers in Performance, an annual cycle for increments, and probation cycles for joiners.
2. Assign weighted KPI or KRA goals per employee, with at least one safety leading indicator for every role.
3. Update progress each month from the production log, permit audits and the near miss register.
4. Compare crews on weighted progress and the cycle summary before calibration meetings.
5. Recognise safety behaviour with praise badges such as Above and beyond, or a custom Safety Champion badge.
6. Shift in-charges score each joiner's probation review on the 1 to 5 scale in My Team, weighing safety behaviour with skill.

Read more about performance in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions