Henry’s Cafe is a local restaurant that is growing quickly. While the company does not yet have a balanced scorecard, Henry has mentioned that being efficient in producing meals is a high priority of his business and appears to be a significant driver of profits. Henry tells you he gathers the following data: sales, cost of labor, employee turnover, labor hours, cost of ingredients, overhead costs, average training hours per employee, number of erroneous meals prepared, the time when orders were made (e.g., at 12:43 pm), the time when orders were delivered, and number of customers per day.

a. Under which performance perspective on the balanced scorecard should Henry’s strategic objective to efficiently produce meals be placed?

b. Based on the data collected, what are at least three performance metrics Henry could develop to measure his strategic objective to efficiently produce meals?

c. Identify whether the performance metrics you suggested in part (b) are leading or lagging indicators relative to a performance metric “total cost of production per meal.”