Benchmarking
Does your process have the highest percentage of cost in the industry? Is this process significant as a differentiator in the marketplace? Is this where there is the greatest room for improvement? Is it possible to improve in this area?
Recommendation
Borrow from the Best. Use benchmarking to "reverse engineer" your competitor's secrets or initiate a benchmarking study to adapt the techniques of industry leaders to your business.
(Caution: You will need to share what you learn and a great deal about what you already do with these benchmarking partners. You will need to fully understand your existing process and have data to support your reasons for initiating this study.)
Benchmarking
The rigorous process of measurement and comparison of philosophies, policies, and practices against those in best-in-class organizations world-wide to achieve breakthrough improvement and surpass their performance.- Financial benchmarking: What should our targets be?
- Strategic benchmarking: What strategy must I implement to achieve financial success?
- Functional benchmarking: How does our operational performance support our strategy?
Best Practice
Superior techniques that are independent of industry, leadership, or management that leads to exceptional performance.
Process
- Establish the scope
- Develop the project plan
- Select the key performance variables to benchmark
- Identify potential participants
- Measure your own performance
- Measure performance of benchmarking participants
- Compare current data
- Identify best practices and enablers
- Formulate your strategy
- Implement the plan
- Monitor Results
- Plan for problem solving
