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Leading with Business Metrics (Udemy.com)

Understanding and Using Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) to Steer Your Organization

Created by: Ray Harkins

Last updated October 2026

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What you will learn

  • The purpose of business metrics
  • How Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) monitor your organization's performance
  • Basic business definitions
  • Common business problems that can be monitors with business metrics
  • Typical manufacturing organizational structure
  • Examples of business metrics from 6 majors areas of manufacturing
  • Examples of KPI "dashboards"
  • Downloadable Excel worksheets that you can adapt to your own organization

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Course Description

"If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." – Peter Drucker

Manufacturing and quality professionals are used to measuring the parts and products they produce—but what about the processes around them? All too often, key management and business processes go unmeasured, leaving valuable opportunities for improvement on the table.

Leading with Business Metrics is your step-by-step guide to developing a simple, effective system for tracking and improving your organization’s performance. By measuring your business processes, you’ll uncover actionable insights that drive real improvement.

In this course, you’ll learn how to:

  • Understand core business objectives and terminology

  • Navigate a typical manufacturing organizational structure

  • Identify critical business metrics across six key areas:
    Top Management, Purchasing, Operations, Plant Management, Materials, and Quality

  • Formulate and chart Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) using Microsoft Excel (Excel templates included)

  • Build clear, user-friendly dashboards to monitor your metrics over time

  • Apply your learning through a hands-on case study with real-world calculations

Whether you're a frontline supervisor, quality engineer, or plant manager, this course will help you understand your business more deeply—and lead it toward measurable, lasting results.

Enroll today and get:

  • Expert instruction from a seasoned manufacturing management professional

  • Lifetime access to all videos and downloadable resources

  • Direct messaging access to the instructor through the Udemy platform

This course delivers high-impact value at a price anyone can afford. You have nothing to lose—and only insight to gain.

Sign up now and start leading with metrics.

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Instructor Details

Ray Harkins

Ray Harkins is a senior manufacturing leader, educator, and founder of The Manufacturing Academy, with more than 30 years of experience in manufacturing engineering, quality engineering and management, and operations leadership. He currently serves as a General Manager in manufacturing, overseeing operations, quality, engineering, and continuous improvement while remaining actively engaged in solving the day-to-day challenges faced by manufacturers.

After beginning his career in manufacturing engineering, Ray expanded into quality and operations leadership, working alongside leading industry professionals throughout North America and Japan and touring hundreds of manufacturing facilities. These experiences shaped his belief that manufacturing professionals deserve practical training that they can immediately apply to improve quality, productivity, and their careers.

That philosophy has guided the development of more than 60 online courses covering Lean Six Sigma, Statistical Process Control, Supply Chain Analytics, Manufacturing Leadership, Reliability Engineering, and Operations Management. His courses are used by individual professionals and corporate training departments worldwide and have helped more than 140,000 students build practical skills and advance their careers.

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Reviews

4.5

4,001 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Hayley Baye on 6/28/2026

It's interesting to see how different business objectives can affect an organization's performance and growth.

By Ellie Weadock on 1/22/2026

The metrics are (naturally) focused on a manufacturing facility. I understand that the key components of the metrics apply to all for-profit businesses. My challenge now is applying the principles to our specific team within our business.

By Katrina Dacquel on 9/22/2025

Yes, it was a good match for me. I recalled some basic business definitions, learned some typical corporate organization, and their measurements.

By Karla Garcia on 7/21/2025

Considero que lo visto en el curso puede ser beneficioso para implementar dentro de mi area de trabajo.

By Hope Hahn on 6/26/2025

Interesting course. Was not very relevant to my role and seemed very specific to supply chain and manufacturing so I feel like I can't really apply what I learned to my work.

By Gabriel Couto on 3/27/2025

Very great course about some Key Performance Indicators that we should know about, if we're professionals in any business/accounting area. I recommend it!

By Anonymized User on 3/7/2025

So far, so good! I'm looking forward to the rest of the course. The lecturer is knowledgeable and communicates effectively, and the content is really broadening my understanding.

By Ophelia Fuentes on 1/12/2025

thanks for taking the time to build this course Ray. It was informative and engaging, keep doing what you're doing!

By Peter Dietz on 6/24/2024

To much focus on Manufacturing besides that it's valuable and good information.

By Katy Rose on 6/19/2024

ive structured my own KPIs around it-even though in a completely different industry it gave me greta ideas.

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Overall Score : 90 / 100