Our business is highly sensitive to external macroeconomic factors and material cost fluctuations, which makes setting rigid weekly Scorecard targets feel pointless. How do we set realistic weekly targets when our market conditions change constantly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

In a highly volatile industry, setting rigid static targets can lead to scorecard fatigue, where the team stops caring because the targets are either impossibly high or laughably low. To solve this, you must use dynamic or rolling targets based on key baseline ratios.

Instead of a fixed dollar amount for material purchases or revenue, set your weekly targets as ratios or margins. For example, if raw material costs are spiking, your target should not be total spend, but rather material cost as a percentage of weekly production value. This target remains constant regardless of whether you are in a high-volume or low-volume week.

Another approach is to track market-adjusted leading indicators. If external factors limit your capacity to secure raw materials, your weekly scorecard target should focus on supply chain diversification activities, such as number of secondary supplier quotes secured or alternative material testing rounds completed.

Your Scorecard must measure what is within your control. You cannot control global supply chains or interest rates, but you can control your team's weekly operational response. By focusing on efficiency ratios and proactive mitigation activities, your Scorecard remains a powerful, reliable tool even when the external environment is in chaos.