Management

Benchmarking : Applying the Best Practices

Executive Summary

Continuous improvement within the company is now the norm in the business world . With the aim of major corporations of competitiveness companies have now embraced benchmarking as a tool of staying alive in the business world . This examines benchmarking as a tool that will lead to superior performance . Benchmarking , as defined , is the process of identifying the best practices of other companies and imitating these practices to improve performance and efficiency , which all started with Xerox Corporation during the 1970 's . The strategies which

make benchmarking a success are primarily the realization for change and first class communication strategy within the team members of the company . What to measure must also be considered when benchmarking

Introduction

Benchmarking has been identified as an important instrument for continuous improvement of quality (Dattakumar and Jagadeesh . As early as the mid-1980s , major corporations like Xerox , Motorola and AT T have adopted the concept of benchmarking - the process of determining organizations who are best in a particular activity and imitating their practices to improve performance (Blakeman . Benchmarking is often times being referred to as best practices . Hammer and Stranton defines benchmarking as simply the systematic process of searching for best practices , innovative ideas and highly effective operating procedures that lead to superior performance (11

How it all started : Xerox Corporation

It was in the late 1970s when Xerox Corporation started experimenting with benchmarking during the time when their Japanese competitors introduced products at a lower cost with high quality . Xerox 's benchmarking process did not focus on their competitors but rather on companies from other industries who are the best-in-its-class (Letts Ryan and Grossman 2 . It all started when Xerox Corporation benchmarked L .L . Bean , an outdoor sporting goods retailer based in Maine for their excellent warehouse procedures (Bogan and English 26 . After that , Xerox had embraced the process of benchmarking as a dynamic learning means The company even advocated managers to adopt it (Letts , Ryan and Grossman 2

Benchmarking as an Effective and Active Tool

According to Zairi , with Xerox 's experience with benchmarking , the company has yielded the following benefits . First , benchmarking allowed Xerox to bring out novelty and innovative ways of managing their operations . Second , benchmarking proved to be an effective team building tool as there is full involvement of everyone who is in contact with the benchmarking process . In addition , it also builds a unified facade for an organization and provides a common vision and goal for its team members (Blakeman . Third , benchmarking also increased the company 's awareness to costs and performance of its products and services with regards to those of its competitors . Lastly , benchmarking also emphasizes on the relevance of employee involvement encourages credit and acknowledgement of individual as well as team efforts (Zairi

Strategies which Make Benchmarking a Success

Before one may start to benchmark , it is important that there are clear strategic plans regarding the whole benchmarking process especially on goals and vision . It is also necessary the...