Transcript THE BENCHMARKING OVERVIEW Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jegak Uli

THE BENCHMARKING
OVERVIEW
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jegak Uli
WHAT IS BENCHMARKING?
 Benchmarking is a continuous process
of
 comparison,
 projection and
 implementation.
It involves: Comparison
 Comparing the organization and its parts with
the best organizations, regardless of the
industry or country
 Comparing business processes with the best
similar processes in any or all industries to
define best value
 Comparing production processes with the best
similar processes in any or all industries to
define best value
 Comparing the organization's products and
services with those of the best competitors
 Comparing different types of equipment to
select the best value equipment for the specific
application
It involves: Projection
 Projecting future trends in best
practices and proactively leading to
these trends
 Meeting and exceeding
customer/consumer expectations
It involves: Implementation
 Implementing defined best
practices
Here is what benchmarking will do:
 It will help the organization learn from the
experiences of others. No organization
has the time or the resources to make all
the mistakes itself.
 It will show the organization how it is
performing in comparison to the best.
 It will identify the organization's
weaknesses and strengths.
 It will help the organization prioritize its
improvement activities.
 It will provide the organization with proven
corrective action plans.
SOME DEFINITIONS OF
BENCHMARKING
 Robert C Camp, in his book BenchmarkingThe Search for industry Best Practice That
Lead to Superior Performance, has defined
the benchmarking as "the process of
continually researching for new ideas,
methods, practices and processes, and
either adopting the practices or adapting
the good features, and implementing them
to obtain the “best of the best”.
SOME DEFINITIONS OF
BENCHMARKING
 David T, Kearns, chief executive
officer of Xerox Corporation, defines
benchmarking as "the continuous
process of measuring products,
services, and practices against the
toughest competition or those
companies recognized as industrial
leaders."
SOME DEFINITIONS OF
BENCHMARKING
 Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary defines benchmarking
(benchmark) as "a point of reference
from which measurements may be
made." and "something that serves
as a standard by which others may be
measured"
SOME DEFINITIONS OF
BENCHMARKING
 For our purposes, benchmarking can
be defined as a systematic way to
identify , understand, and evolve
superior products, services, designs,
equipment, processes, and practices
to improve an organization's real
performance.
New benchmarking focus
 The concept of striving to be the very best
is replaced by the concept of best value to
the organization.
 A benchmarking project that decreases
cycle time from 30 days to 3 days, but does
not improve market share, value added per
employee, return on assets, or customer
satisfaction is not a value-added solution.
New benchmarking focus
 It may bring the organization up to world
class in an area that the customer does not
care about.
 In reality, this is wasted effort -effort that
should have been applied elsewhere.
 Benchmarking processes that implement
best-value solutions are the ones that bring
about real performance improvement.
BENCHMARKING
 Benchmarking is a never-ending
discovery and learning experience
that identifies and evaluates best
items in order to integrate their
best features into an organization's
items.
 Improvements in effectiveness,
efficiency, and adaptability will
maximize their value -- an added
contribution to the organization.
BENCHMARKING
 Competitive benchmarking originally
was viewed as simply purchasing
competitive products to compare them
with the ones manufactured by the
purchasing organization.
 This process (competitive product test
and disassembly) is only a small part
of the larger benchmarking activity.
We will look at how to benchmark
the following: 1.
2.
3.
4.

Business,
Equipment,
Manufacturing (production) processes,
Products and services.
Product, manufacturing, process, and
equipment benchmarking have been in
use since the early 1900s.
We have become used to many of these
benchmarking tools under the names of the
following:





Competitive analysis,
Reverse engineering,
Disassembly analysis,
Competitive shopping and so on.
In short, anything that is going on in
your organization can he benchmarked.
Benchmarking & Detective Work
 The benchmarking process is a lot like a
detective story, and the person doing the
benchmarking operates a lot like a detective.
 He or she must search through the many clues
available in the public domain to find leads,
then dissect these leads to define root causes.
 Once the many clues are understood -shazam! They fall together to give the
benchmarking team the best-value future-state
solution.
 It can be an exciting and enlightening
adventure.
WHY USE BENCHMARKING?
 Organizations undertake a benchmarking
initiative for a number of reasons. Among
them are:
 To set challenging but realistic goals
 To define how goals can be accomplished
 To define gaps between the
organization's performance and its
competitors' performance
 Because a breakthrough improvement is
required to stay competitive
Reasons
 Because the organization is losing its
market share and needs to turn around
 To define the pain related to the 'as is'
item
 Because overhead costs are running too
high
 Because the competition's quality is
much better
 Because the competition is bringing
product to market much faster
Reasons
 Because one function in the organization is
trying to impress upper management
 To test the soundness of the organization's
strategy
 Because management feels there is a need
to break down the 'not invented here"
syndrome
 To define competitors' future strategies and
resource investment plans
 Because there is a need to supplement the
organization's ideas with fresh thoughts
Reasons
 To overcome management's
complacency by exposing inaccurate
perceptions
 Because the Malcolm Baldrige
Award/Quality Initiative requires that
benchmarking be done
 To find out how the organization
measures up against the world's best
 To identify more stringent improvement
targets
Reasons
 To identify organizational strengths and
weaknesses
 To help management direct the improvement
effort
 To uncover emerging technologies or practices
 To improve stakeholders' satisfaction level
 To learn from the experiences of world-class
organizations
 To provide early warning when the organization
is failing behind
Reasons
 The two primary reasons for using
the benchmarking process are
1.setting goals, and
2.identifying how the goals can
be accomplished.
Reasons:
setting goals
 There is nothing like seeing someone else
achieve what was thought to be impossible
to make believers out of the most sceptical
of us.
 Every person, process, and organization
needs to set goals that are challenging yet
attainable.
 Without set goals, life becomes confusing
and unrewarding.
 Whether it is in personal matters or
business matters, we all want to improve.
Reasons
 No one wants to be average in today's
fast-paced, quality-focused business
world, being average is just as bad as
being poor.
 Always remember that 50 percent of the
people, organizations, and products are
below average.
 Are you sure your organization is not
below average?
Reasons
 In the past, goals were usually based on the
organization's (or the item's) past
performance.
 This very limited use of internal vision made or
little correlation between the organization's
goals and the ultimate standard of excellence.
 Occasionally, the organization's goals exceeded
what was achievable, but more commonly they
fell far below what had been, at could be,
achieved.
Reasons: identifying how the goals
can be accomplished
 Even more crucial is the fact that the
benchmarking process provides a way
to discover and understand methods
that can be applied to the organization
to bring about major improvements.
Reasons
 The unique value of the
benchmarking process is that it not
only tells you how good you can
be, it also tells you how to change
the way you are doing business so
that you can be that good.
Functions of the benchmarking
process
 You need to address both functions
of the benchmarking process –
1.comparative analysis (the
what), and
2.product/system knowledge
(the how).
Functions of the benchmarking
process
 What good is defining the gap between
your organization and your competitors
or world-class organizations if you do
not know how to improve your processes
to narrow the gap?
 Knowing that you are inferior, but not
being able to improve, just discourages
everyone.
A proper benchmarking process
 A proper benchmarking process must
be designed to provide
1.the "what“, and
2.the "how"
PROVIDING THE "WHAT"
 The importance of measurements
cannot be overstressed.
 Without the ability to measure, you
cannot control your organization.
 Obtaining quantitative data is absolutely
essential in the pursuit of becoming,
and then staying, world class.
PROVIDING THE "WHAT"
 There is no real debate over the
importance of measurements.
 We know that in order to operate
effectively, we must be able to
measure.
The question that needs to be decided is what should be
measured in the benchmarking process?
 Benchmarking should measure such
things as
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How fast
How good
How much Vs Where
When
How long
Size, shape, form, and fit
Use ratio measurements
 To encourage free exchange of
information between organizations, it is
often necessary to use ratio
measurements whenever applicable.
 By using ratios instead of real
values, you can exchange information
with other organizations without
having to disclose production or
absolute values.
Getting cooperation
 In competitive benchmarking, your
organization probably will not get the
cooperation that is needed from its
competitors.
 In these cases, you need to collect the
data yourself using techniques like
reverse engineering, competitive
shopping, and competitive
performance analysis.
Getting cooperation
 This information is extremely valuable
because it is directly compatible with and
comparable to your item's data.
 Often in competitive benchmarking the
organization can make use of third party
test laboratories (such as Consumer
reports) to obtain performance comparisons
between the item under study and the
competitor's item.
PROVIDING THE "HOW"
 Another real advantage of the
benchmarking process is that it provides
insights into how others have become
the best.
 This aspect focuses on discovering how
world-class organizations developed
their processes and products to
ensure superior performance.
PROVIDING THE "HOW"
 At this juncture, you must look at an
organization, a product, a process or
an activity, and seek out and analyze
the reasons that make it the best of
its kind.
The specifics you might analyze
are: The how-to's
1.
2.
3.
4.
The
The
The
The
knowledge
ways
processes
methods
 You should then apply this knowledge to your
benchmark item, adapting and/or improving
it to meet the unique requirements of the
customers, employees, and products that
make up your organization's personality.
Camp has defined four distinct
types of benchmarking:
1.Internal
2.Competitive
3.Functional
4.Generic
Internal benchmarking
 One of the easiest benchmarking
investigations is to compare
operations among functions within
your own organization.
 This type of investigation is applicable to
multidivisional or international firms.
 Data should be readily available and
reportable on a consistent basis.
Competitive benchmarking
 Direct product or service
competitors are the most obvious
to benchmark against.
 Although this information may be
difficult to obtain, its value is high
Functional benchmarking
 It is not necessary to limit comparison to
direct competitors.
 In fact, a narrow focus may risk missing
potential breakthroughs.
 Functional benchmarking investigates
leaders in dissimilar industries.
 The relevance of comparison is maintained by
defining the performance characteristics
that must be similar to your own
functions.
Generic benchmarking
 Some business functions and processes
are the same regardless of dissimilarities
across industries.
 Generic benchmarking is the purest form
of benchmarking, in that it may uncover
methods that are not implemented in the
investigator’s own industry.
Generic benchmarking
 It extends functional benchmarking by
removing the constraints imposed by limiting
the investigation to practices with similar
characteristics.
 It holds the potential for revealing the “best
of the best”.
 It requires broad conceptualization.
 Although it is the most difficult type of
benchmarking to use, it probably provides
the highest potential payoff.
Other types of benchmarking
Noncompetitive
World class
Noncompetitive
 To benchmark the process that we want to
improve including
1. a related process with a firm you do
not directly compete with
2. a related process in a different
industry
3. an unrelated process in a different
industry
World class
The most ambitious.
It involves looking toward the
recognized leader for the
process being benchmarked.
An organization that does it
better than any one.
Approaches to Benchmarking
1.Strategic benchmarking
2.Organizational benchmarking
Strategic benchmarking
Benchmark to identify
weaknesses and strengths
within a specific area or
functional unit
Organizational benchmarking
Benchmark to support the
business plan and are
directed at items that, if
improved, will impact the
organization’s competitive
position.
WHAT BFNCHMARKING CAN DO:
 Here are some of the benefits of
benchmarking:
 Increases the desire to change.
 Focuses on meeting end-user
expectations.
 Improves the benchmark item,
 Improves key financial indicators.
 Focuses on the use of best worldwide
practices.
The benefits of benchmarking:
 Provides-a way to improve customer
satisfaction
 Helps eliminate the not-invented-here
syndrome.
 Includes the use or proven approaches,
methods, processes, and technologies,
 Improves employee morale and pride
 Improve relationships and understanding
between benchmarking partners.
The benefits of benchmarking:
 Identifies your competitive position.
 Identifies strengths and weaknesses
 Increases the effectiveness, efficiency and
adaptability of your processes.
 Transforms complacency into an urgent desire
to improve.
 Defines and incorporates best applicable
processes and management practices.
 Helps set attainable but aggressive targets.
The benefits of benchmarking:
 Provides breakthrough types of improvement.
 Concentrates on the major contributors to the
success of the organization.
 Allows you to project future trends in your
industry .
 Sets new standards of performance.
 Prioritizes improvement activities.
 Provides a faster, lower-risk approach to
meeting aggressive targets.
The benefits of benchmarking:
 Provides your organization with a
competitive advantage.
 Creates culture of continuous
improvement.
 Reduces the cost of the improvement
process.
 Develops a professional interface with
other organizations.
The Seven Steps to Benchmarking
1. Identify what to
benchmark
2. Deternine what to
measure
7. Monitor the
process
6. Set goals & develop
an action plan
5. Analyze data &
determine gap
3. Identify who to
benchmark
4. Collect the
data
Seven steps to benchmarking:
 1. Identify what to benchmark
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Clarify the benchmarking objective
Decide whom to involve
Define the process
Consider the scope
Set the boundaries
Agree on what happens in the process
Flow chart the process
2. Determine what to measure
 Examine the flow chart
 Establish process measures
 Verify that measures match
objectives
3. Identify who to benchmark
Conduct general research
Choose level to benchmark
4. Collect the data
Use a questionnaire
Conduct a benchmarking
site visit
5. Analyze data & determine the
gap
Quantitative data
Qualitative analysis
6. Set goals and develop an action
plan
Set performance goals
Develop an action plan
7. Monitor the process
Track the changes
Make benchmarking a habit
HELPFUL HINTS FOR SUCCESSFUL
BENCHMARKING
 The benchmarking process has
produced outstanding results in
some organizations, good results
in most, fair results in many, and
little or no results in others.
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
The following is a list of critical success factors that
must be addressed if an organization is to have a
productive benchmarking process:
 1. Top management must actively lead and
support the benchmarking process.
 2. Benchmarking must be defined correctly. It is
not just comparative analysis.
 3. Resources must be set aside for benchmarking.
 4. Projects need to be prioritized and competitive
areas addressed first.
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 5. The organization must have a comprehensive
understanding of how its item functions and
performs before it approaches benchmarking
partners.
 6. The benchmarking process must be focused on
implementing the future-state solution, not on
collecting and analyzing data.
 7. There must be a commitment to a continuous,
ongoing benchmarking effort that makes it part of
the management process, not a "flavor of the
month."
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 8. At a minimum, all managers and key support
personnel need to understand the benchmarking
process.
 9. Results must be measured in away that evaluates
the benchmarking effort's impact on the bottom line.
 10. Benchmarking projects must apply Organizational
Change Management concepts to the target areas
from the beginning of a project and continually apply
them after the future-state solution is implemented.
 11. Benchmarking item teams must develop a specific
and realistic action plan.
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 12. The organization must embrace change as a way
of life.
 13. Benchmarking projects should be embedded into
each function's yearly business
 plans, and the improvements should be reflected in
future budget.
 14. Management must select benchmarking item
team (BIT) members who can implement the results
of the benchmarking study.
 15. Management and BIT members should be
measured on how they will use the benchmarking
process.
 16. The organization needs to develop an attitude of
questioning why it must be "invented here."
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 17. The organization must realize that the outside
world is changing rapidly, so improvement efforts must
be directed at being better than today's best.
 18. Critical business processes must be identified and
improved.
 19. Creativity, innovativeness, and new ideas must be
required of all employees. All efforts must be
encouraged. Even noble failure should be rewarded.
 20. The organization must be willing to share
information with internal and external benchmarking
partners.
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 21. Each benchmarking partner must be selected
carefully to make sure it is truly the best and not just
an organization that presents a great story .
 22. Benchmarking should be used as away to make
good items better or the best, not only as away to
correct problems or help the organization when it has
its "back to the wall."
 23. Benchmarking results need to be translated into
return-on-investment figures.
 24. The organization needs to establish a balanced
scorecard measurement system early in the
benchmarking process.
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 25. A reward-and-recognition system that
reinforces desired behavior needs to be
established.
 26. Line management needs to accept
responsibility for driving the benchmarking
process at the item level. Managers should also
be measured on how well they meet this
responsibility.
 27. The benchmarking process must focus first on
industry-best practices and next on performance
measurements.
BENCHMARKING'S CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
 28. Organizations should not accept a single
benchmarking partner's approach. They should try to
combine the best concepts and practices of all the
benchmarking partners. This approach allows the
organization's item to leapfrog the pack.
 29. The benchmarking process should be applied to
organizations outside the industry, as well as to
competitors.
 30. Benchmarks must be updated regularly, and the
benchmarking process must be improved on an
ongoing basis.
BENCHMARKING'S RULES OF
THE ROAD
 As with any process, benchmarking has
specific rules that must be followed to get
the best results.
 Designing the organization's
benchmarking process and
implementation strategy to ensure that it
will adhere to these rules will save the
organization a great deal of time and
trouble.
The following is a list of
benchmarking's rules of the road:
 I. Get top management's commitment to the
benchmarking process first.
 2. Design your benchmarking process before you
start to benchmark.
 3. Start with a few critical items.
 4. Define a very specific code of ethics and be sure
that everyone engaged in the benchmarking
process is trained on its content and intent.
 5. Train all the employees who will be actively
engaged in the benchmarking process in the
benchmarking methodology and the appropriate
supporting tools.
Benchmarking's rules
 6. Characterize your benchmark item first.
 7. Never ask a benchmarking partner for information that you
would not share with, that partner. Be very careful not to
obtain confidential information from your benchmarking
partner, even if you would be willing to share that information
with the partner .
 8. Tell your benchmarking partner up front how the data will
be used.
 9. Combine inputs from all your benchmarking partners to
define a number of potential future-state solutions. Then
select the best-value solution for implementation. This is not
necessarily the one that results in the item's best
performance.
 10. Be satisfied not to be the best. Stop when additional cost
does not improve your competitive position.
Benchmarking's rules
 11. Start managing the benchmark item's change
process the first week that the benchmarking item
team is formed.
 12. Do not try to collect all the data that is out there.
If you do try , you will never get beyond the data
collection stage.
 13. Don't copy; create. Analyze what the
benchmarking item team has collected so that the
data can be transformed into information. Then be
creative with the use of this information to design the
future-state solution.
 14. No organization is the best at everything it does.
Find the right benchmarking partner for each item that
is benchmarked.
Benchmarking's rules
 15. Keep focused on implementation of the futurestate solution. Remember, the very best plan is
useless if it does not get implemented. Don't
analyze the benchmarking process to death.
 16. Make line managers responsible for
benchmarking, and measure their performance.
 17. Establish a reward-and-recognition system
that supports the desired benchmarking
behaviors.
WHAT BENCHMARMNG IS NOT
 Benchmarking is an important tool in the
improvement arsenal, but it is just one of
more than 400 different tools that should
be part of every organization's
improvement toolbox.
Following list describes what
benchmarking is not:
It should not be used:
 Just to Win the Malcolm Baldnge National Quality
Award/ISO
 To cure all the organization's ills - many ills cannot
be cured by benchmarking
 As a short-term process that will be dropped in l
or 2 years
 To eliminate the need for creativity
 To copy another organization's product design
Following list describes what
benchmarking is not:
 To get improvements without investing
resources - benchmarking is not free
 As a one-sided gathering of information
 As a way to justify headcount reductions
without changing the accompanying
processes
 As a form of industrial tourism
 As a training ground for new and/or
inexperienced employees
Following list describes what
benchmarking is not:
 To improve items that have a negative
performance gap only
 To compare organizations with their competitors
only
 As a one-time comparison or improvement
 As a quick fix
 To improve items that can be measured only
quantitatively
 To impress top management only
 To use up some idle time if there is nothing better
to do with it
NPC (National Productivity
Corporation) Benchmarking Model
 Benchmarking can be undertaken as a structured
process.
 The structure is best provided by the development
of a step by step model.
 There are different models of the benchmarking
process.
 They vary in complexity from four steps to thirty
steps.
 No matter what terms they use, close scrutiny
reveals that they all revolve around four basic
stages or phases: Planning, Data Collection, Data
Analysis and Action.
NPC (National Productivity
Corporation) Benchmarking Model
 The NPC Benchmarking Model
described here is a synthesis of these
various models.
 It incorporates all the steps which
have been found to characterize
successful benchmarking programs in
leading organizations.
The NPC Benchmarking Model is
outlined below (Figure 1)
PHASE 3
PHASE 1
PHASE 2
Start
5. Site Visit
Preparation
9. Planning for Adapting
Best Practices
6. Data Collection:
Site Visits
10. Implementation of
Best Practices
1. Agree on
Benchmarking Topic
2. Agree on Scope;
Measures & Definitions
3. Data Collection:
Survey
4. Share Strengths
11. Monitoring the
Results
7. Recommend
Improvement
No
2nd Site
Visit
(Focus Visit)
12. Standardization
Yes
8. Share Findings
13. Continue Existing
Project?
Yes
No
14. New Area
The model comprises 14 steps
 The model comprises 14 steps arranged in three phases.
 The first two phases are for planning and analysis.
 The third phase is for action or implementing the best
practices identified.
 The final phase also embraced reviewing the benchmarking
project.
 It is important to note that in the model, constant monitoring
and feedback take place throughout the benchmarking
process.
 The model is consistent with various definitions on
benchmarking, amongst others, benchmarking as a continuous
process.
 As such, the model follows the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
cycle.
Phase 1
 The plan phase focuses on the various up-front decisions
such as the selection of functions/process to benchmark and
the type of benchmarking study on which to benchmark.
 Participating organizations delve in a self-study to
characterize the selected processes using matrices and
documenting their business practices.
 The share-strength session is also held to enable
participating organizations to learn, comparatively speaking,
in which particular areas they can improve and also to
identify those partners who have already grappled with, and
overcome similar problems and are willing to share their
ideas.
Phase 2
 Phase two involves training the benchmarking teams in each
of the organizations to equip them with the necessary skills
and knowledge of benchmarking.
 The benchmarking teams are not only responsible for
investigating improvement opportunities but also organize
site visits to the best performers in the particular process
they have selected.
 The teams are required to report their findings pertaining to
their investigation whether negative or positive gaps exist
between the benchmarking company and benchmarking
partner(s).
 They then proceed to recommend actions in order to close
negative gaps or maintain positive gaps.
Phase 3
 In this phase NPC facilitates organizations' adaptation and
implementation of the best-practice findings arising from the
benchmarking project.
 The key skill in this phase is change management.
 The improvement teams will be trained to ensure constant
monitoring and measurement of results to determine whether
the process is improving.
 Regular review of contingency plans and deadlines along with
documentation of progress and standardization are essential
to maintain momentum and provide impetus for upcoming
benchmarking study.
Basis for Using NPC Model
 The NPC Benchmarking Model provides an adequate
framework for successful planning and execution of any
benchmarking exercise.
 It enables companies to see where they are going and how
they are going to get there.
 It also provides a common process in a language
understandable to all.
 Since the model provides the basic framework of action, all
types of variations are possible within the model framework.
 The process can be tailored to fit the specific requirements of
individuals, groups and organizations.
Table 1: Benchmarking Process
Table 1: Benchmarking Project Output
Benchmarking process
1st Meeting
Agree on Benchmarking Topic
2nd Meeting
Agree on Scope; Measures and Definitions
3rd Meeting
Data Collection: Survey
4th Meeting
Share Strengths
5th Meeting
Site Visit Preparation
6th Meeting
Data Collection: Site Visit 1
7th Meeting
Recommend Improvement
5th Meeting®
Site Visit Preparation
6th Meeting®
Data Collection: Site Visit 2
7th Meeting®
Recommend Improvement
8th Meeting
Share Findings
® = Repeat
Benchmarking Through
Community of Practices (Copy)
 CoP (Community of Practices) is a network
of individuals or organizations within similar
or dissimilar industries who share some
common areas of interest.
 Members of a CoP are grouped together on
a voluntary basis to initiate some form of
benchmarking activities, where NPC serves
as the facilitator.
The main purpose of setting up CoP
 The main purpose of setting up CoP is that members
would be able to share benchmarks and best practices
in common areas of interest.
 NPC is continuously providing avenue for organizations
to exchange knowledge on benchmarks and best
practices through e-Benchmark and BP Net to CoP
members.
 The e-Benchmark system facilitates members in
obtaining real-time competitive scores and ranking
while BP Net is developed to encourage discussion and
more effective sharing of best practices.
 These tools would expedite the process of sharing
among the members of CoP.
The CoP Process
 NPC worked closely with other institutions and the
Trade and Service Associations such as Federation
of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), Malaysian
Retailers Association (MRA), Pusat Tenaga
Malaysia (PTM), Malaysian Employers Federation
(MEF), Asian Productivity Organization (APO), and
other relevant agencies as the intermediaries to
promote benchmarking to the potential
companies.
 A series of seminars have also been organized to
create awareness and ultimately will lead to
forming a new CoP in targeted industries.
The CoP Process
 Once the CoP is formed, members need to select
the focus areas to benchmark.
 Several meetings will be conducted to finalize on
scope and measures.
 After they identified the scope and the
appropriate measurements, common
understanding and consensus on the definition is
important to ensure meaningful comparison
among the members.
The CoP Process
 The e-Benchmark system provided by NPC is to
speedup the data collection and computation of
benchmarks.
 This system allows members to conveniently keyin data, compute indicators, rank performance and
benchmark comparisons, all within a submission
using Internet.
 Confidentiality of organization's data is secured
through the use of a password.
The CoP Process
 The e-Benchmark system generates two type of
reports: Competitive Scores and Ranking Report.
 The competitive scores report presents in terms
of minimum, medium and maximum of the
community's performance against the
organization's own performance while the ranking
report highlighted the organization's position
against CoP members.
The CoP Process
 A seminar to share the e-Benchmark findings will
be organized upon completion and analysis of the
benchmarking reports.
 During the seminar, there will be an exchange and
more in-depth discussion on the findings.
 The exemplary performers or best practice
organizations will share their strengths on how
they have achieved the benchmark performance.
 All participating members could exchange
experiences and share their strengths and
opportunities in this seminar.
The CoP Process
 Subsequently members would be interested
to know more about the best practices of
these benchmark organizations.
 This takes the CoP to learn more by visiting
the benchmark organizations.
 The face-to-face interview provides
members the chance to get acquainted with
the atmosphere, environment and culture
in which the organization is operating.
The CoP Process
 The next stage of benchmarking for best
practices project is to share the best practices
implemented by the "best-in-class" organization.
 NPC also issued password to each of the member
for them to access into BP Net that allows the
capture, dissemination and sharing of knowledge
and best practices information that provides a
culture of continuous learning, innovation and
improvement.
The CoP Process
 Benchmarking process is only complete when
members take learning back to their organization.
 They need to plan to adapt Best Practices from
observations learnt during the site visits and
experiences shared during the session on sharing
of best practices findings.
 The proposed improvements recommended should
be implemented, for continuous improvement the
very essence of benchmarking.
 It is important to establish detailed action plans
and accountability for identified improvements.
REFERENCES
 Robert C. Camp (1989).
Benchmarking- The Search for
industry Best Practice That Lead to
Superior Performance. Milwaukee:
Quality Press.
 Harrington H. J. & Harrington J. S.
(1995). High Performance
Benchmarking: 20 Steps to Success.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
The End
Thank you