Have you ever asked yourself these questions:
"How are we doing?"
"Are we tracking the right measures?"
"How do we compare with others?"
"Are we making progress fast enough?"
"Are we using the best practices?"
Benchmarks and benchmarking can provide you with facts to answer these questions. They can provide you with data to show you what can be achieved. Perhaps more important, benchmarking can tell you how you can achieve the same type of results! In short, benchmarking gives you the external references and the best practices on which to base your evaluations and to design your work processes.
This tutorial provides an overview of how to implement benchmarking in your organization specifically, what you need to do and how to go about it. The tutorial starts with an introduction and some definitions and then gives a high level view of a benchmarking process, from both a results and a process focus.
"... benchmarking ...[is] ...'the process of identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices and processes from organizations anywhere in the world to help your organization improve its performance.'" —American Productivity & Quality Center
"... benchmarking ...[is]... an on-going outreach activity; the goal of the outreach is identification of best operating practices that, when implemented, produce superior performance."—Bogan and English, Benchmarking for Best Practices
Benchmark refers to a measure of best practice performance. Benchmarking refers to the search for the best practices that yields the benchmark performance, with emphasis on how you can apply the process to achieve superior results.
All process improvement efforts require a sound methodology and implementation, and benchmarking is no different. You need to:
1. Set objectives and define the scope of your efforts
2. Gain support from your organization
3. Select a benchmarking approach
4. Identify benchmarking partners
5. Gather information (research, surveys, benchmarking visits)
6. Distill the learning
7. Select ideas to implement
"How are we doing?"
"Are we tracking the right measures?"
"How do we compare with others?"
"Are we making progress fast enough?"
"Are we using the best practices?"
Benchmarks and benchmarking can provide you with facts to answer these questions. They can provide you with data to show you what can be achieved. Perhaps more important, benchmarking can tell you how you can achieve the same type of results! In short, benchmarking gives you the external references and the best practices on which to base your evaluations and to design your work processes.
This tutorial provides an overview of how to implement benchmarking in your organization specifically, what you need to do and how to go about it. The tutorial starts with an introduction and some definitions and then gives a high level view of a benchmarking process, from both a results and a process focus.
"... benchmarking ...[is] ...'the process of identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices and processes from organizations anywhere in the world to help your organization improve its performance.'" —American Productivity & Quality Center
"... benchmarking ...[is]... an on-going outreach activity; the goal of the outreach is identification of best operating practices that, when implemented, produce superior performance."—Bogan and English, Benchmarking for Best Practices
Benchmark refers to a measure of best practice performance. Benchmarking refers to the search for the best practices that yields the benchmark performance, with emphasis on how you can apply the process to achieve superior results.
All process improvement efforts require a sound methodology and implementation, and benchmarking is no different. You need to:
1. Set objectives and define the scope of your efforts
2. Gain support from your organization
3. Select a benchmarking approach
4. Identify benchmarking partners
5. Gather information (research, surveys, benchmarking visits)
6. Distill the learning
7. Select ideas to implement
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