Research in Motion and its Performance Measure

Yes, It is possible in company such as Research in Motion to measure its performance

measure by using cycle time and cycle efficiency. Research in Motion is a manufacturing
company and it is known for blackberry. It produces Playbook tablet, android phones and
provide hardware and software. It can use cycle time and cycle efficiency as performance
measure to determine value added time and non-added time in production process. In other
words, cycle time is the sum of value added time and non-value added time. Value added time is
always equal to process time because it is directly translated to the product. Similarly, Non-value
added includes inspection time, move time, and wait time are extra cost that indirectly costs
added to the manufacturing product. In addition cycle efficiency is mathematically the ration of
value added time and cycle time (Wild, 2012). Specially, Cycle time and Cycle Efficiency is used
to reduce non-value added time in a product to improve the quality of product.
For example,
Suppose Research in Motion (RIM) has cycle time of 14 days, i.e. process time =
5 days, inspection time = 3 days, move time = 3 days and wait time = 3 days.
Then, cycle efficiency equals to 5/14 or .3571 or 36%. It gives manager a decision to spend more
time to reduce in non-added value time or spend more time on value added time if cycle
efficiency is equal to 1 or 100%.
Therefore, Research in Motion (now Blackberry) can use performance measures like
Cycle time and Cycle Efficiency to reduce non-value added time or not for manager so that they
can improve their product.
Other measure such as Employee Turnover can be used as performance measure in
company such as Research in Motion. Employee Turnover ratio is certain percentage of

employee who leave company to be replaced by new employee. If employee turnover ratio is
high that gives bad impression and negative consequence to that company. Therefore, managers
must examine the reasons why employee leave jobs in short period and mitigate such reasons to
retain these employees.
References
Wild, J. & Shaw, K. (2012). Managerial Accounting. Columbia. Univ. of MI. ISBN-13-9780078110849