Page 146 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

132 I n t e g r a t e d P l a n n i n g B e n c h m a r k i n g 133

be prepared to pare down what will probably be an extremely large list of
candidates (e.g., an internet search on the word benchmarking produced
nearly 20 million hits). Don’t forget your organization’s internal resources.
If your company has an “intranet,” use it to conduct an internal search. Set
up a meeting with people in key departments, such as R&D. Tap the
expertise of those in your compa ny who routinely work with customers,
competitors, suppliers, and other “outside” organizations. Often your
company’s board of directors will have an extensive network of contacts.
The search is, of course, not random. You are looking for the best of the
best, not the average firm. There are many possible sources for identifying
the elites. One approach is to build a compendium of business awards and
cita tions of merit that organizations have received in business process
improve ment. Sources to consider are Industry Week’s Best Plant’s Award,
National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Malcolm Baldrige
Award, USA Today and the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Quality
Cup Award, European Foundation for Quality Management Award,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Federal Quality
Institute, Deming Prize, Competitiveness Forum, Fortune magazine, and
United States Navy’s Best Manufacturing Practices, to name just a few.
You may wish to subscribe to an “exchange service” that collects bench-
marking information and makes it avail able for a fee. Once enrolled, you
will have access to the names of other sub scribers—a great source for
contacts.
Don’t overlook your own suppliers as a source for information. If
your company has a program for recognizing top suppliers, contact
these suppliers and see if they are willing to share their “secrets” with
you. Suppliers are pre disposed to cooperate with their customers; it’s an
automatic door-opener. Also contact your customers. Customers have a
vested interest in helping you do a better job. If your quality, cost, and
delivery performance improve, your customers will benefit. Customers
may be willing to share some of their insights as to how their other sup-
pliers compare with you. Again, it isn’t nec essary that you get informa-
tion about direct competitors. Which of your cus tomer’s suppliers are
best at billing? Order fulfillment? Customer service? Keep your focus at
the process level and there will seldom be any issues of con fidentiality.
An advantage to identifying potential benchmarking partners through
your customers is that you will have a referral that will make it easi er for
you to start the partnership.
Another source for detailed information on companies is academic
research. Companies often allow universities access to detailed informa-
tion for research purposes. While the published research usually omits
reference to the specific companies involved, it often provides compari-
sons and detailed analysis of what separates the best from the others.
Such information, provid ed by experts whose work is subject to rigorous
peer review, will often save you thousands of hours of work.

07_Pyzdek_Ch07_p129-136.indd 133 11/9/12 5:10 PM