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Bench Marking

Benchmarking is a process for organizational improvement that involves systematically evaluating the products, services, and processes of an organization against those of industry leaders to identify best practices. It aims to understand why certain practices are better or smarter in order to implement changes that will improve performance. Benchmarking establishes reference points or criteria against which an organization can measure itself to assess strengths and weaknesses and adapt to change. Benchmarks can denote minimum, typical, or highest levels of achievement and allow for comparisons over time or between peer organizations.

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22 views

Bench Marking

Benchmarking is a process for organizational improvement that involves systematically evaluating the products, services, and processes of an organization against those of industry leaders to identify best practices. It aims to understand why certain practices are better or smarter in order to implement changes that will improve performance. Benchmarking establishes reference points or criteria against which an organization can measure itself to assess strengths and weaknesses and adapt to change. Benchmarks can denote minimum, typical, or highest levels of achievement and allow for comparisons over time or between peer organizations.

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Benchmarking What is it?

The first use of the term bench-mark, in an educational sense, is often accorded to Robert King Merton in 1957, 'standards represent benchmarks with which students compare their ability and performance' (Oxford English Dictionary). Jackson (Jackson 2001) describes how the term benchmarking was used by Rank Xerox to describe a process of selfevaluation and self-improvement through the systematic and collaborative comparison of practice and performance with competitors in order to identify own strengths and weaknesses, and learn how to adapt and improve as conditions change. Benchmarking has been adopted by numerous sectors of business and industry as part of the Total Quality Management (TQM) movement. It is important to note that Benchmarking is a process for organizational improvement. The benchmarking process involves continuous, systematic evaluation of the products, services and processes of organizations with evolution of best practice. Benchmarking is one way to approach evaluation and is referred to by the HEA as a mechanism to support quality enhancement through self-improvement. They observe that benchmarking offers a way of identifying 'better and smarter' ways of doing things and understanding why they are better or smarter. These insights can then be used to implement changes that will improve practice or performance. Benchmarking is explicitly concerned with making comparisons against an established reference and the term has acquired a meaning as a reference or criterion against which something can be measured. It is also used to denote excellence or a mark of distinction in a product or service. As such the process relies on the establishing a number of benchmarks. Benchmarks may therefore denote lower thresholds, normal or typical behaviours or upper thresholds representing highest levels of achievement. Benchmarks are often confused with standards and codes of practice. These are quite different, though may be associated. For example the standard or code of practice could be used to determine a number of benchmarks. A benchmarking exercise could then be undertaken to assess the extent to which a department or organisation complies with the particular standard or code of practice. Benchmarks and benchmarking are therefore concerned with relative and comparative measurement, supporting an organisation to measure its own improvement over time or allowing a comparison with its peers.

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