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Benchmarking As
a Management Tool |
In modern management,
benchmarking is a tool to find and implement best practices,
thereby creating a competitive edge for greater organizational
viability and agility.
Benchmarking can be divided into a number of categories of which
some are; strategic or operative benchmarking, internal or external
benchmarking, qualitative or quantitative benchmarking. Furthermore,
benchmarking can be conducted within the same industry or cross-industry.
Benchmarking can have a leading or supporting role and have
the goal of better performance or world class.
Benchmarking is a method that can be applied to both strategic
and operative issues. Strategy can be defined as those actions
taken at the present time to assure success in the future. Operative
management, on the other hand, has to do with all the day-to-day
problems that must be solved right now to ensure that deliveries
can be made to customers without a hitch. In this study, the
emphasis of good practice is on the strategic, tactical and
management systems levels, and not at the operative level. This
would allow a higher and more ready benchmarking learning across
industries and across functional areas.
Internal benchmarking means making comparisons between similar
production units of the same organization, whereas external
benchmarking would involve benchmarking within the same industry
or with good examples outside the industry. In this book, we
encourage benchmarking based on matching needs for learning,
irrespective of whether the best practice organizations are
within or outside your industry.
It is evident that in a lot of cases, quality and productivity
may be exceedingly difficult to measure, not to say the measurements
are subsequently used for the purpose of across industry learning.
It is with this understanding that qualitative benchmarking
is adopted in this project. The advantages are obvious, as the
content and context of a best practice can be vividly described
and readily appreciated by others, especially those who are
not engaging in the same industry.
Benchmarking is a driver of change; a change that would continuously
upgrade the level of excellence in organizational performance.
In the process of finding and implementing best practices, learning
will have to take place at individual level, group level and
organizational level and at the end of the day, the organizations
with strong organizational learning culture will succeed most
in this race of excellence. |
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