...Definition of Benchmarking. Benchmarking is simply the comparison of one organization's practices and performance against those of others. It seeks to identify standards, or "best practices," to apply in measuring and improving performance. It is the process of comparing one's business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost. In the process of best practice benchmarking, management identifies the best firms in their industry, or in another industry where similar processes exist, and compares the results and processes of those studied (the "targets") to one's own results and processes. In this way, they learn how well the targets perform and, more importantly, the business processes that explain why these firms are successful. Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others. Also referred to as "best practice benchmarking" or "process benchmarking", this process is used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice companies' processes, usually within a peer group defined for the purposes of comparison. This then allows organizations to develop plans...
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... the effects of technology on business, and the effects of globalization on business. All team members felt they gained a lot from the readings and teaching this week, despite having some areas that caused us to struggle. There were many lessons that we will be able to apply to our places of employment in the future. Benchmarking Analyses Last week we focused on benchmarking. "Benchmarking compares and organizations practices, processes, and products against the world's best," (Nickels, McHugh, & McHugh, 2010). Benchmarking can be used to gain a competitive advantage by allowing an organization to compare existing performance against their competitors to identify areas for improvement. If your competitor out performs you in an area, you evaluate that process and see how you can improve to become better than your competitor. For example, "Target may compare itself to Wal-Mart to see what, if anything, Wal-Mart does better. Target will then try to improve its practices or processes to become even better than Wal-Mart" (Nickels & McHugh, 2012). So if Wal-Mart were to be better at shipping items than Target, Target would evaluate that process to see how they could be better at shipping than Wal-Mart. In conducting a benchmark analysis this week between Sam’s Club and Costco, it is observed that Sam’s Club has a very evolved supply chain management system, making use of technology such as radio frequency identification chips. Costco, which carries...
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...WHAT IS BENCHMARKING? http://tqmgroups.blogspot.com/p/benchmarking.html “Benchmarking is simply the process of measuring the performance of one's company against the best in the same or another industry. Benchmarking is not a complex concept but it should not be taken too lightly. Benchmarking is basically learning from others. It is using the knowledge and the experience of others to improve the organization. It is analyzing the performance and noting the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and assessing what must be done to improve. REASONS FOR BENCHMARKING There are several reasons that benchmarking is becoming more commonly used in industry; • Benchmarking is a more efficient way to make improvements. Managers can eliminate trial and error process improvements. Practicing benchmarking focuses on tailoring existing processes to fit within the organization. • Benchmarking speeds up organization’s ability to make improvements. • Compare business practices with those of world class organizations • Challenge current practices and processes • Create improved goals and practices for the organization • Change the perspective of executives and managers. OBJECTIVES OF BENCHMARKING ϖ Becoming competitive ϖ Improving industry best practices ϖ Defining customer requirement ϖ Establishing effective goals and objectives ϖ Developing the measures of productivity ...
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...Jennifer Do April 2, 2001 Section 2 Benchmarking There are many methods used by companies in an effort to improve quality in both their products and services. In the fast paced environment that surrounds industries today, they find themselves faced with the pressure to discover fail proof ways to run their businesses. Techniques that do not turn out successful can harm the company and also result in losses in costs and time. A popular tool used today by many companies is benchmarking. It is a process that involves continuously comparing and measuring against other companies to gain information and learn from their experiences, processes and practices. It provides companies the opportunity to assess their own procedures and helps them to understand their industry better which leads to innovative thinking. It also helps them to identify what changes are essential to improve performance. Some benefits of benchmarking are a better understanding of customers and competitors, reduction in waste, quality problems and reworking, quicker awareness of important innovations, a stronger reputation within the market, and increased profits and sales turnover. Benchmarking is usually done with top performing companies in both the service and the business sectors. Many of these companies are Fortune 500 companies such as Ford, Nissan, or Motorola. However, others include smaller businesses that are only a fraction of the size. These firms looking to benchmark all recognize...
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...productivity not good enough in light of industrywide price cuts in business machines. One solution, benchmarking, measures L&D's warehouse and distribution performance against comparable activities in other industries. Comparing oneself with competitors (as well as with internal units) is useful, but doesn't necessarily get the benefit of the best practice, not to mention the benefit of cooperation. Benchmarking against non-competitors is the answer. After a search, L&D found the best warehousing and materials handling organization was at L.L. Bean, the outdoor-clothing retailer and mail-order house. With Bean's cooperation, L&D benchmarked its operation against the best and learned a lot. By looking closely at the operation of Bean and other noncompetitors, L&D has raised its productivity 10% each year and gained a better position against its real competition. BODY: One way to judge the performance of an organization is, of course, to compare it with other units within the company. But these measurements often merely reinforce complacency or generate "not invented here" excuses. Comparisons with outsiders, however, can highlight the best industry practices and promote their adoption. This technique is commonly called "benchmarking," a term taken from the landsurveying practice of comparing elevations. When Xerox started using benchmarking in 1979, management's aim was to analyze unit production costs in manufacturing operations....
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...Northlake Bookstore: Benchmarking for Performance Evaluation By: Manuel Garza Hugo Hinojosa Graciela Rodriguez Jose Garcia Alejandro Arizpe Carlos Arizpe Summary of Facts Upon assessment of the FY2004 financial information, Wendy Wiley, Northlake Bookstore’s manager, identified the first ever drop in book sales over the previous quarter. After identifying the drop in sales, Wendy turned to Chuck Irwin, the Vice Chancellor of Finance for Northlake University. He mentioned that Wendy should conduct a benchmarking analysis in order to identify the deficiencies that led to the drop in book sales. In addition, Chuck also asked Wendy to develop a set of short-term performance goals and measurements for future evaluations. Northlake is a private university located in the Midwest U.S. Annual enrollment is estimated at 12,700 students. Northlake is overwhelmingly comprised of undergraduate students. Over 60% of the university’s revenues come from student tuitions, with the majority of the remaining 40% stemming from donations and gifts. Chucks, the Vice Chancellor, is worried that the donations and gifts have decreased dramatically during the current year. He believes this is due to the current uncertain economic conditions and the stock market’s erratic performance. Wendy has been the bookstore’s manager for 7 years now. She previously worked as a Wal-Mart sales manager where she acquired15 years of experience in...
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...Benchmarking: A permanent Process for Excellence Benchmarking is a process in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practices, usually within their own sector. It is also a process of identifying other organizations that are best at some facet of our operations and then modeling our organization after them (Operations Management, 9/e, Jay Heizer & Barry Render). It selects a demonstrated standard of performance that represents the very best performance for a process or activity. Benchmarking is `the continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognized as industry leaders, (that is) ... the search for industry best practices that will lead to superior performance (Camp, 1989, 10). According to these definitions benchmarking helps organizations increase their performance. They compare and measure their policies, practices, philosophies, and performance measures against those of high-performing organizations. Benchmarking could be a onetime event but rather a continuous process in which organizations continually seek to challenge their practices. It is a continuous, systematic process of measuring products, services and practices against organizations regarded to be superior with the aim of rectifying any performance ``gaps’’ because of the existence of strong dynamics in the current business world. The aim of benchmarking is to identify competitive...
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...debido a que la patente original para las copiadoras expiraba en 1970, lo que dio paso a nuevos competidores, las empresas norteamericanas (IBM y Kodak) y las japonesas (Canon, Minolta y otras) , vendían copiadoras de alta calidad a un precio igualo menos al de Xerox en productos equivalentes. Debido a los precios y costos relativamente altos, la participación en el mercado de Xerox cayó a la mitad y su rendimiento sobre activos se desplomó hasta el 8%. Estos acontecimientos obligaron a Xerox a replantear su estrategia. Xerox desarrolló una estrategia de calidad o bien un plan de revitalización corporativa denominada “Liderazgo a través de la calidad” donde los componentes más importantes son: 1. Implicación de los empleados 2. Benchmarking competitivo Enfocándose en la estrategia de “Liderazgo a través de la...
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...Mercado de Capitales 2011 Trabajo Práctico 1 Fecha de entrega: 16/08/2011 The Dynamis Fund: An Energy Hedge Fund Trabajo realizado por: o Grynwald, Diego o Portnoy, Ezequiel Elber o Rajnerman, Martin 1) La sociedad Scott & Stringfellow tiene a su cargo la administración del fondo Scott & Stringfellow Capital Managment (SSCM). A través de este intermediario, los inversores podrán asignar sus fondos a compañías que pertenecen a la industria energética. Este fondo trabaja con activos de renta variable y se caracteriza por invertir en una industria con elementos volátiles y riesgosos. La idea que prevalece es la de hacer crecer el capital mediante la apreciación de los activos y la inversión en pequeñas y medianas compañías energéticas. Por las características de los activos en los que se invierte, existe una relación directa y positiva entre la inflación y los resultados obtenidos. La persona que invierta en este fondo, tendrá la posibilidad de diversificar su porfolio y tomar participación de esta industria riesgosa. Sin embargo, los bajos dividendos pagados podrían limitar las intenciones de participar en este fondo. A través de la creación de Hedge Found, The Dynamis Found, la sociedad S&S tendrá alcance a nuevas operaciones. Este fondo también operará con compañías small-cap y mid-cap, dentro del sector energético y servirá para la sociedad S&S como una nueva fuente de ingresos. Permite la posibilidad de adquirir...
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...com/proj-410/proj-410-week-6-dq-2 There are several ways to benchmark. The two most common benchmarking tools are performance benchmarking and best-practice benchmarking. Consider a nationwide bank that has contracted with a seller to assess its current staffing and facility locations. The goal of the contract is for the seller to produce a strategic plan that creates cost efficiencies for the bank by recommending (and implementing) areas to consolidate among staff and facilities. (One recommendation may be to close down a bank branch that is located within three miles of another bank branch.) This is a long-term contract stretched out over five years. If you were the project manager in the bank, to what benchmarks would you compare your seller? Are they performance benchmarks or best-practice benchmarks? Benchmarking is a term that has often been used to represent “the best of the class” performance. Your text implies a slightly less “perfectionist” performance threshold, whereby you assess the performance measures for other similar vendors or services relative to your BPO services, and use these samplings to define performance measures for your project/contract. Which of these two inferences do you feel is more appropriate for supporting the development of performance measures? State your arguments in support of your selection. Is it realistic to use a “perfectionistic” metric for benchmarking? Is there a human factor involved in project implementation there? Here is a different...
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...PASO 2. OBJETIVO DEL TRABAJO En este trabajo vamos a emplear el QFD (Quality Function Deployment) que detallaremos a continuación como herramienta para el diseño de un nuevo producto , en nuestro caso de un bolígrafo con un diseño adaptado a las nuevas necesidades de los estudiantes. Empleando este método tratamos de garantizar que todas las necesidades de los clientes sean cubiertas con las características del nuevo producto. Para ello, elaboramos distintos diagramas matriciales (matriz de necesidades del cliente, benchmarking competitivo, matriz de calidad o casa de calidad). A diferencia de los otros métodos, en el QFD son analizadas las necesidades de los clientes antes de diseñar el nuevo producto, intentando en mayor medida cumplir con dichos requisitos transformándolos en características de calidad y a partir de ellas, establecer un diseño de calidad para el producto. PASO 3 INTRODUCCIÓN A LA EMPRESA Y AL PRODUCTO. En nuestro caso la empresa a la que vamos a ayudar a elaborar un QFD es a BIC , PASO 4 (Aplicación de la metodología QFD y construcción) : 4.1- Obtención de la voz del cliente: En este primer paso hemos averiguado la necesidades de los clientes (QUEs), a través de los siguientes métodos: • Encuestas respondidas directamente por los clientes. • Entrevistas. • Estudios de mercado encontrados en internet. Analizando cada uno de los métodos anteriormente mencionados detenidamente...
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...BENCHMARKING VS BENCHMARKETING Para definir el término benchmarking, podríamos comenzar analizando su origen etimológico. El término inglés benchmark proviene de las palabras bench (banquillo, mesa) y mark (marca, señal). La palabra compuesta, sin embargo, podría traducirse como medida de calidad. El uso del término proviene de la Inglaterra del siglo XIX, cuando los agrimensores hacían un corte o marca en una piedra o en un muro para medir la altura o el nivel de una extensión de tierra. El corte servía para asegurar un soporte llamado bench, sobre el cual luego se apoyaba el instrumento de medición, en consecuencia, todas las mediciones posteriores estaban hechas con base en la posición y altura de dicha marca. En la actualidad, el uso del benchmarking en la rama de la administración de empresas, puede definirse como un proceso sistemático y continuo para evaluar comparativamente los productos, servicios y procesos de trabajo en organizaciones. El benchmarking considera aquellos productos, servicios y procesos de trabajo que pertenezcan a organizaciones que evidencien las mejores prácticas sobre un área de interés específica, con el propósito de transferir el conocimiento de las mejores prácticas y su forma de aplicación. El benchmarking es una valiosa herramienta de administración debido a que proporciona un enfoque disciplinario y lógico para comprender y evaluar de manera objetiva las fortalezas y debilidades de una compañía, en comparación con lo mejor...
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...“Benchmarking es el proceso continuo de medir productos, servicios y prácticas contra los competidores más duros o aquellas compañías reconocidas como líderes en la industria” (Camp 1993). “El benchmarking contribuye al logro de los objetivos del negocio de la organización, facilitando la detección de las mejores prácticas que conducen en forma rápida, ordenada y eficiente a la generación de ventajas competitivas y a nuevas oportunidades de negocio a fin de motivar la mejora en el desempeño organizacional” (Boxwell 1995). “Un proceso sistemático y continuo para evaluar los productos, servicios y procesos de trabajo de las organizaciones que son reconocidas como representantes de las mejores prácticas, con el propósito de realizar mejoras organizacionales” (Spendolini 1994). Se trata de una técnica muy eficiente para introducir mejoras en las organizaciones, ya que pueden incorporarse y adaptarse procesos cuya efectividad ya ha sido probada por otras. Por esta razón, ayuda a las organizaciones a introducir mejoras rápidamente (Del Giorgio Solfa 2012: 11). Para llevar a cabo procesos de benchmarking, deben medirse los procesos propios y los de otras organizaciones para poder compararlos. Las comparaciones deben realizarse con organizaciones líderes, lo que implica basarse en estándares externos, derivados de organizaciones reconocidas como líderes en el sector o en el proceso (Del Giorgio Solfa 2012: 12). Bibliografía 2009 DE LEÓN CONTRERAS, Gerardo y otros ...
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...The Practice Of Benchmarking And Its Advantages And Disadvantages Introduction Over the years, there has been a tremendous development in benchmarking techniques, in terms of both benchmarking practices and method, which are widely used in different organization to achieve different goals in the developing countries. In this assignment I will discuss the definition of benchmarking and then the use of benchmarking. After that I will discuss the advantage and the disadvantage of benchmarking according the researches and the case studies of benchmarking. Then, I will discuss and analyze the practice of benchmarking to explain why managers find that benchmarking did not live up to their expectation. Finally, the conclusion will have summary of the assignment question. Background of Benchmarking 2.1 Definition of Benchmarking Benchmarking, as the definition of the CEO of Xerox -D.T. Kearns- is the continuous process of measuring the products, the services, and practices against the best competitors or the leader in their industry (Kolarik, 1995). Freytag and Hollensen (2001) states that ‘benchmarking involves measurement of business performance against the best and makes continuous effort in reviewing process practice and method’. This essay is an example of a student's work Disclaimer This essay has been submitted to us by a student in order to help you with your studies. This is not an example of the work written by our professional essay writers. Essay Writing...
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...University of South Wales Advanced Management Accounting AF3S127 Benchmarking In today’s Business Environment With initial applications appearing in the 1980’s, benchmarking is now a powerful global mechanism used is business everywhere for process improvements and re-engineering of companies (Beretta, Dossi and Grove, 1998). My aim for this essay is to explain the concept of benchmarking using a range of sources. I will also critically analyze how and why organizations use benchmarking as a weapon to persist in today’s competitive business environment to see if it really is that effective. Benchmarking is the continuous analysis of processes, functions, strategies, performances and many other aspects of a business compared with or between the “best-in-class” organizations by gathering information by using appropriate methods of collection, with the intention of evaluating an organizations current standards and then carrying out self-improvement by applying changes to match or exceed the standards (Anand and Kodali, 2008). Benchmarking is a technique used for continuous improvement of something within a business. It is a way of measuring a firm’s product; services or activities against top other organizations either internal or external to the firm (Drury, 2012). This could be close competition for example; customer service on telephone calls from mobile network providers such as EE and Vodafone, to non-competitive firms using the same example customer service on telephone...
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