Benchmarking is a concept that, although it has not been around for a long time, since it started to be attractive to companies until the early nineties, today represents a tool capable of creating competitive advantages for organizations.
Companies today face a great challenge in wanting to position themselves in the competitive market and some factors such as technology, innovation or consumer preferences have forced organizations to make short-term and long-term changes as well, always aimed at improve your competitive ability.
For this reason, the main definitions of benchmarking will be analyzed in the preparation of this article, but the most important is the methodology to implement it as well as its main benefits.
Keywords:
- Benchmarking Competitive advantage Strategies Development Continuous improvement
BENCHMARKING AS A DEVELOPMENT TOOL
The history of what is known as benchmarking, as it is known today, is really brief. In 1982, author Michael J. Spendolini went to New York to participate in a meeting of specialists in organizational development and training for the Xerox company.
The expression of competitive benchmarking was used to express the immense difference that Xerox had identified with respect to its competitors, specific measurement standards were identified such as production costs, cycle time, sales prices and product characteristics.
At first the concept of benchmarking was understood as a process to collect key information from the competition, however, the term goes much further; since it was a process in which you could not only understand the competition, but any organization and secondly, not only focus on what others produced but how they did it.
(Spendolini, 2005)
Benchmarking: a development tool
"It is a systematic and continuous process to evaluate the products, services and work processes of organizations that are recognized as representing best practices, with the purpose of making organizational improvements." (Spendolini, 2005)
"Benchmarking is the continuous process of comparison between our processes, products and / or services, against that of competitors or those of companies recognized as leaders, thus allowing us to identify and adopt successful practices." (Llorente, sf)
Other of the definitions more focused on the business aspect is: «benchmarking is a process of continuous and systematic evaluation, a process by which the business processes of an organization are permanently analyzed and compared against processes of the leading companies in anywhere in the world, in order to obtain information that can help organizations improve their performance - performance »(Whatson, 1995)
What the definitions have in common is that they consider benchmarking as a process of learning and permanent adaptation, the objective of which is to optimize the results and achievements of the organization.
It consists of learning, adapting and implementing already approved methods that produce positive and revolutionary results in other organizations. For this, it is necessary to know how this process has been developed or what practices have been carried out to achieve a high level of performance. (Martín Cerro, 2000)
Benchmarking objective
The objective is to plan, organize, analyze and evaluate the learning of new techniques or methods, as well as new ideas that allow an organization to be better every day.
The company must act as an open system where it can interact with the outside world, giving information that allows it to better develop. This information will integrate it as an organization capable of learning, since it will take advantage of the acquired information as well as being able to transform it for its own benefit.
This tool serves companies because it is based on creativity and innovation, creativity being understood to be the creation of new ideas and innovation, the materialization of these. (Fernández, 1995)
Types of benchmarking
It is possible to categorize benchmarking based on various factors such as the process being studied or based on the objectives of the analysis. The most used is the one that addresses the relationship between the company or organization participating in the study and its competition. (Badía & Bellido, 1990) In this way we can mention:
- Internal: Compare the processes within the different areas of the same organization, and then apply this methodology to the rest of the organization. Competitive: Comparison of processes of competing entities in the same sector, based on a mutual agreement between the two, the problem of This type of benchmarking lies in the confidentiality of the information. Functional: It occurs between organizations in the same sector that are not competing with each other. Generic: It is oriented to business processes that are similar between companies belonging to different sectors.
According to the objectives of the organization, its classification can be:
- Operational: Which responds to the impulses for the improvement of the operational organization, seeks to improve aspects related to execution times, number of workers involved in the same area or to avoid duplication of functions. Strategic: Obeys for positioning reasons in the market, thus improving the critical success factors, that is, those factors considered for customer satisfaction.Functional: Linked to the internal processes that are close to the customer, so its objective is to achieve a better perception of the customer and optimize factors that increase the degree of satisfaction.
(Martín Cerro, 2000)
Benefit of benchmarking in organizations
As in any process that is going to start, the objective of using a technique or a model to follow must be clear, although it sounds logical that when trying to implement a quality theory, the integral improvement of the company is desired, both in the service as in the product or the process, is perhaps one of the most difficult activities to carry out.
Starting from this, the main objectives that benchmarking helps in the process are mentioned:
- Strategic planning New ideas Objective setting Forecasts Product and / or process comparisons Determining objectives, goals, targets but based on reality Knowing end-user requirements Knowing best industrial practices Achieving a competitive position
Now, to what things can we subject a benchmarking process?
- Products and services Support functions Organizational performance Work processes, etc.
Although these are not the only ones, since it can practically be applied to anything that can be measured or observed.
(Martín Cerro, 2000)
Phases in the benchmarking process
These guidelines indicate the guideline to follow to establish a more efficient model within an organization.
- Follow a logical and simple sequence of activities. Emphasize application and organization. Benchmarking approach to the client. Turn benchmarking into a generic process.
Even so, when building any type of model, the following phases must be taken into account:
- Planning Analysis Integration Actions
(Martín Cerro, 2000)
To close this cycle of phases, the benchmarking model proposed by Michael Spendolini is shown, which is a five-step model.
- Determine what benchmarking will be done Form a benchmarking team Identify benchmarking partners Collect and analyze benchmarking information Take action
(Spendolini, 2005)
From what can be summarized, that benchmarking is a process that consists of:
- A continuous process. A process to learn from others. Research that can provide valuable information. A job that requires discipline. A tool that serves to improve any business activity. A job that consumes time (investment).
(Martín Cerro, 2000)
conclusion
Benchmarking is a tool that requires the investment of the time of the people who will carry it out as well as the discipline on their part, however, the most valuable thing about this tool is its benefits.
Although an organization decides to implement it, it will have the advantage of having created an advantage over its competitors, since it will allow it to learn about the best industrial practices, clearly depending on the type of benchmarking that it wishes to apply.
Also as mentioned above, the benchmarking process is not only applicable to certain industrial processes, but can be carried out in practically any activity that can be observed and measured, be it in our personal or professional life.
Thesis topic proposal
Implementation of a competitive benchmarking strategy in an organization in the Orizaba region.
General objective
Analyze and implement the competitive benchmarking strategy for an organization in the Orizaba region.
Thanks
To the National Technological Institute of Mexico for being my alma mater and to Dr. Fernando Aguirre y Hernández for their support and motivation to write these articles on the subject of Fundamentals of Administrative Engineering.
References
- Badía, A., & Bellido, S. (1990). Techniques for quality management. Madrid: Editorial Tecnos.Fernández, JH (1995). Benchmarking Administrate.Llorente, JL (sf). Benchmarking. P. 81.Martín Cerro, S. (2000). Benchmarking: a tool to manage excellence in libraries and information services. III LOOP Conference "University libraries today: new spaces, new solutions", pages. 16.Spendolini, MJ (2005). Benchmarking. Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma.Whatson, GH (1995). Strategic Benchmarking - Learn how to measure how your business is performing against the best in the world. Buenos Aires, Madrid: Javier Vergara Editor.
