Assessing how well activities (and process) are performed is fundamental to management's efforts to improve profitability. Activity performance measures exist in both financial and no financial forms. These measures are designed to assess how well an activity was performed and the results achieved. They are also designed to reveal if constant improvement is being realized. Measures of activity performance center on three major dimensions:
Efficiency focuses on the relationship of activity input to activity output. For example, one way to improve activity efficiency is to produce the same activity output with lower cost for the input used. Quality is concerned with doing the activity may need to be repeated, causing unnecessary cost and reduction in efficiency. The time required to perform an activity is also critical. Longer times usually mean more resource consumption and less ability to respond to customer demands. Time measures are both financial and non financial.