Template

Operations review template

How the work is actually getting done: volume, speed, quality and cost across the operation, the bottlenecks behind the numbers, and the fixes worth making.

60 minutesFor Operations leads, team managers and whoever owns process improvementAgenda room
Change the agenda first

The agenda, with a time for each part

  1. Volume and speed12 min
    • How much came in, how much went out, and how long did it take?
  2. Quality12 min
    • What went wrong, how often, and what did it cost?
  3. Bottlenecks15 min
    • Where is work waiting, and why?
  4. Improvements in progress11 min
    • Are last month's fixes working?
  5. What to fix next10 min
    • Which one change would free up the most time or money?

How the notes read afterwards

A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.

Volume. 1,240 orders; average dispatch 2.1 days (target 1.5).

Quality. 3% sent to the wrong address — mostly hand-typed postcodes.

Bottleneck. Orders wait a day for a credit check that is done by hand.

Next. Approve orders under $500 automatically (Ruth, trial for two weeks).

Running it well

Ways to change it

WeeklyTwenty minutes on the three key numbers and any blocker.
QuarterlyAdd costs per unit and a review of suppliers.

When to skip it. If the numbers are steady and no change is planned, read the report instead.

Questions

What is an operations review?

A regular meeting that examines how well an organisation's operations are running — volume, speed, quality and cost — and decides on improvements.

What metrics are reviewed in an operations review?

Typically throughput, cycle time, error or defect rates, backlog, cost per unit and progress on improvement projects.

How often should operations be reviewed?

Weekly for the key numbers, with a deeper monthly or quarterly review.

What happens in the room

Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.

More templates

KPI reviewCheck each key performance indicator against its target, find the ones that are off, and decide what to do about them — or whether the indicator is still the right one.OKR check-inA short weekly or fortnightly look at the quarter's objectives and key results: how confident you are of hitting each, what is in the way, and what to change.Annual planning meetingOnce a year: look back honestly, agree the few things that matter most next year, the money and people behind them, and what you will stop doing to make room.Crisis meetingWhen something serious has gone wrong: get the facts straight, decide the first actions and who leads, and agree what to tell staff, customers and anyone else affected — fast.Tactical meetingA short, regular team meeting that clears the operational issues stopping work this week — one issue at a time, ending each with a next action and an owner.Governance meetingChange how the team is organised — its roles, who decides what, and its policies — through proposals that each get a fair hearing and a clear result.Department heads meetingThe people who run each department meet to line up across departments: what each needs from the others, where they collide, and the decisions only they can make together.Cross-team syncTwo or more teams whose work touches meet briefly to keep hand-offs on track: what each is about to deliver, what each is waiting on, and what changed.

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