Benchmarking

  Any organisation which aims at grand success in competitive world can learn a lot from the management practices of excellent corporations. Such practices serve as the Benchmarks. benchmarking is continuous search for an application of significantly better practices that lead to superior competitive performance.

According to to Robert C Cam, " benchmarking is the search for industries best practices that lead to superior performance." It is practice of measuring and comparing key aspects of an organisation with those in other organisations to establish measures of relative performance and Discover areas of improvement. 

In the word of David Kearns of Xerox Corporation," Benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognised as industry leaders."

Benchmarking, is a tool of strategic management, that allows the organization to set goals and measure productivity, on the basis of the best industry practices. It is a practice in which quality level is used as a point of reference to evaluate things by making a comparison. 

 It is concerned with the analysis of three major dimensions:

1.Quality

2. Time

3.Cost

It is a useful technique for enhancing the organisation’s performance by identifying and implementing the finest process and practices, for achieving them. 

Types of Benchmarking

There are two types of Benchmarking, discussed as under:

Internal Benchmarking: When measurement and comparison of key operations between teams, groups and individuals are made within the organization, the benchmarking is said to be internal.

External Benchmarking: When measurement and comparison of key operations are made with the competitors, then, it is called as external benchmarking