Exploiting the balanced scorecard in the operations department: the Ducati Motor Holding case

The literature has widely discussed how to measure manufacturing performance. However, even though several indicators have been proposed, manufacturing reporting systems still suffer from a number of problems, which, according to recent contributions, can be solved through the adoption of integrated performance measurement systems (PMSs). This paper aims at understanding whether such integrated PMSs – namely the balanced scorecard – can actually solve the problems, which usually affect the reporting system of the Operations Department. The paper presents a case-study developed in Ducati Motor Holding and, then, outlines the main conclusions and managerial implications. The empirical analysis demonstrates that the key benefits brought about by the balanced scorecard concern a higher responsiveness of the decision-making process and more intense cooperation among all units related to operations management (namely, manufacturing, logistics, quality management, procurement, maintenance).