1 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking

2 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Definition: ‘the process of identifying, understanding and adapting outstanding practices and processes from organisations anywhere in the world in order to help your own organisation to improve its performance’ NB ‘outstanding’ rather than ‘best’ ‘adapting’ not ‘adopting’

3 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Why benchmark ? Compete - or die! As Deming says.. ‘You do not have to do these things. Survival is not compulsory’ Benchmarking is a managed change process which: –Uses a disciplined, structured approach –Identifies what needs to change –Identifies how to change it –Identifies the potential for improvement - Creates the desire for change

4 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Levels of attainment… ************* Baseline ********************Achievable ***************************Benchmark *************************************Long term goal Benchmarks should not be unrealistically high or low… ‘a man’s reach must exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for ’ (Browning)

5 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Step changes in benchmarking… Internal best practices by function Competitors’ best practices Industry best practices (including non- competitors) Functional best practice (e.g. any company in Europe) Functional best practice - world class

6 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Different types of benchmarking… Competitive (i.e. competitor) analysis Best practice (which goes beyond competitive analysis to uncover actual processes that deliver best practice) in 4 categories.. 1. Internal (search within the company) 2. Competitive (search in a competitor) 3. Functional (search by function e.g. payroll) 4. Generic (both function and process)

7 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking A systematic approach DemingBenchmarkingPlan DoCollect CheckAnalyse ActAdapt Also needs… management support, research facilities, networking, codes of conduct, training, internal communication...

8 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Rank Xerox benchmarking process.. [1] of [2] 1. Identify what is to be benchmarked 2. Identify comparator companies 3. Determine data-collection method and collect data 4. Determine current performance gap 5.Project future performance levels

9 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Rank Xerox benchmarking process.. [2] of [2] 6. Communicate benchmarking findings and gain acceptance 7. Establish functional goals 8. Deliver action plans 9. Implement specific actions and monitor progress 10.Recalibrate benchmarks

10 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Roles and responsibilities Stakeholders The executive champion (Board level) Process sponsor (more immediate management) Team leader/facilitator Benchmarking team itself Functional/technical experts Research resource team Benchmarking partners

11 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Which process to benchmark? Critical success factors (CSF) have to be identified and then… Critical Process 1Critical Process 2Critical Process 3 _____________________________________________________________________________ Process Performance Rating351 _____________________________________________________________________________ CSF _____________________________________________________________________________ CSF _____________________________________________________________________________ CSF _____________________________________________________________________________ Total priority333511

12 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Which process to benchmark? For each CSF, use the scale : 1=low impact 3 = medium impact 5=major impact For each critical process, use the scale 1 = excellent performance 3=average performance 5=poor performance Multiply out to get an improvement priority score

13 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Collect the data Identify potential benchmarking partners Plan data collection methods Conduct questionnaires/interviews Prepare/conduct a site visit Write the site visit report

14 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Analysing and using the data ‘Normalise’ the data (e.g. percentages) Construct a comparison matrix Identify the best practices Isolate the ‘process enablers’ for each best practice

15 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Adapting the best practice and enablers Get support from upper management Organised strategy has to have realistic, actionable improvement goals Communicate findings and plan a commitment to change Set goals to close the gaps Developing the implementation plan ( and implementing it) Maintain leadership!

16 BS2914 Quality Management & Customer Care 6: Quality Tools and Techniques - Benchmarking Problems with benchmarking ? Can we find realistic comparators i.e. ceteris paribus Are sufficient resources devoted to it ? Might it encourage a devotion to the measurable, losing more subtle but key things on route ? Can it stand alone, apart from other quality initiatives ? Your own experiences are...