Benchmarking

What is Benchmarking?

• The objective of benchmarking is to understand and evaluate the current position of a business or organisation in relation to best practice and to identify areas and means of performance improvement

Key Steps:

• Understand in detail existing business processes & performance

• Analyse the business processes & performance of others

• Compare own business with others

• Implement steps necessary to close performance gaps

Types of benchmarking:

• Strategic Benchmarking:

  • Examines the long-term strategies and general approaches that have enabled high-performers to succeed

• Performance or Competitive Benchmarking:

  • Businesses consider their position in relation to performance characteristics of key products and services

• Process Benchmarking:

  • Comparing against best practice organisations that perform similar work or deliver similar services

• Functional Benchmarking:

  • Comparing with partners drawn from different business sectors to find ways of improving work processes

• Internal Benchmarking:

  • Benchmarking businesses or operations from within the same organisation, for example, business units in different countries

• External Benchmarking:

  • Analysing outside organisations that are simply known to be "best in class"