No matter how good an organisation is, how well its products and/or services are, the organisation can not relax and stop improving. It can not stand still. When it does, it really is not standing still, it is slipping backward, because its competition is constantly improving.
One of the best ways for an organisation to keep improving is to benchmark. Benchmarking is a systematic way to identify superior products, services, processes and practices that can be adopted by or adapted to an organisation to reduce costs, decrease cycle time, increase reliability, cut inventories and provide greater satisfaction to its customers.
“High Performance Benchmarking” provides specific information, suggestion, guidelines and check lists to help an organisation start, maintain and wrap up a benchmarking project.
In the 21st century, the organisations that prosper and thrive will be those organisations that have learnt to change – change quickly, change effectively and change for the better. Effective change has always been a requisite for the survival of an organisation but change now need to take place at a faster pace than before.
Over the last 25 years or so, organisations were more and more aware of the need for organisational learning and change for their very survival in the highly competitive environment. They have been through the era of “Total Quality Management” (TQM), “Process Management”, “Six-Sigma Quality”, “Business Process Management”, “Business Process Reengineering” (BPR) and so on.
While TQM was instrumental for continuous improvement of organisations, Business Process Reengineering focussed on revolutionary rather than evolutionary change. The most efficient way to promulgate effective change is by learning from the positive experience of others. That is what learning is all about. Learning takes place when one is exposed to another’s knowledge and experience. Most knowledge is gained incrementally. You can learn because another learnt first and was willing and able to share that knowledge with you. And that is what benchmarking is all about. It involves learning, growth and effective change. Benchmarking doesn’t substitute for BPR or any other strategy. Benchmarking is the search for those best practices that will lead to the superior performance of a company. Establishing operating targets based on the best possible industry practices is a critical component in the success of every business.
Benchmarking is a positive, proactive, structured process which leads to changing operations and eventually attaining superior performance and a competitive advantage. Benchmarking is simply the most efficient way to assure the success of a business change initiative.
Contents :
1. The Benchmarking Concept
2. Introduction to Benchmarking
3. The Benchmarking Process
4. Planning for Benchmarking
5. Organising for Benchmarking
6. Data Collection and Analysis
7. Phases / Stafes / Steps Involved in The Benchmarking Process
8. Benchmarking and Performance Measurement
9. The Secrets of Successful Benchmarking
10. Implementing Improvements
11. Benchmarking and Strategic Planning
12. Benchmarking Leadership and Management Process
13. Benchmarking and Business Process Reengineering
14. Benchmarking and Time-Based Competition
15. Benchmarking and Change Management
16. International Benchmarking
17. Managing Best Practice Knowledge
18. Benchmarking and 21st Century Organisation
19. The Future of Benchmarking
20. Beyond Benchmarking
Case Analysis
