Current or school of administrative thought, product of industrial postmodermism. It began in the United States in the last decade of the 20th century. Its fundamental approach is to overcome the traditional assumptions about how to do things in organizations, with an emphasis on business, to find spectacular improvements that allow companies to develop competitive advantages that are difficult to overcome, or recover from economic crises due to lack of competitiveness.
The BPR seeks to redo the process, not reorganize it. Reorganization is another traditional management technique, through job simplification. Reengineering must classify the organizational vision in the customer-supplier chains, establish advantages and niches where the company is more competitive. There are three phases of reengineering;
1.- Discover vision: Define it in terms of the modification of processes, considering the new information technology, and the impacts it will have in the future in a globalized world and within free trade.
2.- Redesign: Establish new processes through new technology and restructure the company. It relies on the mapping, "diagramming" of processes and relationships of the company with clients in simple terms and symbols. Two principles govern the redesign, the first in the simplification of the business to its maximum expression to be able to make sheets, portals, links, and give the information to the user in record times so that they can advance according to their need in the process; the second is mass dissemination. Thus, simplification and diffusion govern the redesign of the processes.
3.- Commissioning: With rigorous productivity and quality standards and indicators to boost the business.
It is very important to start reengineering in key processes, to know the profitability of each phase of the process in order to find where the greatest advantage for the company is, economically and competitively speaking.
REENGINEERING AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT (MC)
Reengineering is a sudden technological change in which sooner or later companies must participate. However, continuous improvement is a technique of "slow progress" but sure, hence many companies prefer to incorporate new technology through continuous improvement programs constantly, with the risk of being left behind during certain periods of time and losing opportunities of business. They prefer a slow but steady pace. Reengineering is said to be a leapfrog change, while continuous improvement is a step-by-step change.
Daniel Morris and Joel Brandon, point out seven basic skills to conduct a reengineering process:
1) Ability to analyze processes objectively, with methods and systems to clearly define the product, its mission and the business, quality indicators and each phase of the process; as well as the creativity to seek opportunities to eliminate operations, without affecting user satisfaction.
2) Ability to make change in parallel, coordinating the four forces of change:
a) Competition. Benchmarking, observe how others do it, where their competitive and comparative advantages are. Not necessarily to copy, but to create such advantages. Reengineering is not copying, it is creating. It is often heard in the corporate media that we must copy one hundred percent of the American systems and not allow them to make any changes.
b) Regulation. Legal aspects of change, labor and ecological regulation, taxes, etc.
c) Technology. Changes in machinery or control devices, computers, way of doing things. Here comes the analysis of the manual, mechanical and automated processes of the entire operation.
d) Internal improvements. Administrative structures, training and training, training records simpler.
3) Ability to keep pace. Many changes must be introduced over long periods to consolidate them, they are not magic or “flashbacks”; little by little, but without slowing down.
4) Ability to evaluate impact. To achieve this, it is necessary to have a comprehensive vision of the company: operation, administration and commercialization.
5) Ability to visualize changes in the environment. To develop these last two skills, it is necessary to know how to work scenarios and simulate the operation of the business in each of the possible situations that may arise.
6) Ability to do and plan at the same time. That is, you should not plan without landing or do without planning.
7) Ability to correlate the parameters of the various areas of the company. You must have the ability to collect and combine administrative information from all areas.
These skills should be applied to each of the phases of a reengineering project. According to Morris and Brandon, such phases are:
- Evaluation of the current strategic positioning of the business. Manganelli says that at this stage the change must be identified and the teams prepared for the redesign of the processes, visualizing the internal functioning and the context in which the company operates. Process reengineering: internal, technical and social solutions. Transformation: Restructuring or construction of the administrative infrastructure, both in the work process flows, the necessary technology to incorporate, in the ways of doing business, finances and personnel administration. Staff must be retrained. Implementation, operation, evaluation and continuous improvement.
One of the most difficult aspects to achieve the transformation proposed by reengineering is the design of the new social system, since it is necessary to face resistance to change. Companies are social units deliberately created in order to achieve certain objectives.
PARADIGMS
Thomas Kuhn in his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, says that it is a set of rules aimed at establishing limits and describing how to solve problems within those limits ”.
These determine the perception and the way things are done. They can generate the paradigm effect or paradigmatic paralysis described by the futurologist Joel Barrer. The paradigm effect consists of: "adjusting the information from reality to the perception that is based on mental archetypes, rejecting everything that does not conform to the paradigms".
The BPR is an indispensable tool for the journey and seeks to move the company from one paradigm to another.
OUTSOURCING
Reengineering analyzes the possibilities of outsourcing, which is production, commercialization or elaboration and / or not substantive. It is also defined as;
The segregation of activities and / or departments of the company to external sources, so that they carry out the work under perfectly specified conditions in terms of delivery time, quality, cost, with guarantees and / or penalties in case of non-compliance. The term means out, out; sourcing, source.
Outsourcing has been considered a subcontracting, while the company starts from the projects it sells, and transfers part of the work to third parties under its risk and supervision; however, it is not in all cases a subcontracting, but rather a segregation of its activities to external parties.
In addition to the above, outsourcing has also been considered as a synonym for maquila; But it is much more than that, since the maquila is only used in the field of production or a phase of it and is more oriented towards manual operations of workers; while outsourcing covers any field including research.
To apply outsourcing, it is necessary to know perfectly the value chain of the activities where the company is inserted, and find the niche where there is the greatest competitive advantage of the organization.
Outsourcing involves the hiring of many small companies, consulting firms or people dedicated to generating special jobs in companies, known as freelancers.
For many years, companies followed the advice of classical economics insofar as they had to grow horizontally and / or vertically. That is, to be acquiring and covering the entire branch of the business from raw materials to marketing. The crisis caused many companies to go bankrupt or lose control and effectiveness, and through outsourcing, they sought righsizing, which is the correct size of the company, which has implied a reduction in the size of the companies, the Activities and operations must be carried out, so the large organization has had to dismantle itself and maintain control of the suppliers. Hence, many outsourcing companies generate implications as partners of the company, establishment of strategic alliances or joint ventures.The latter are part of the board of directors that establish payment systems related to results and quality levels. Production license lines that require the supplier to be certified in ISO 9000 are also established.
Despite the reduction in company sizes, activities and operations must be carried out, so the large organization has had to dismantle itself and maintain control of the suppliers. Hence, many outsourcing companies generate implications as partners of the company or the establishment of strategic alliances or joint ventures (shared risks. In this way, they form part of the board of directors or regulatory production committees that establish related payment systems. with the results and quality levels.
According to Brian Rothery, the main steps in an outsourcing project are:
1) Commitment. People must be protected and sure of what their work will be after the project and be committed to it.
2) Project leader. Useful background may include experience in process reengineering, development of performance standards, etc. An external consultant experienced in the production of the good or service to be outsourced is also suitable.
3) Methodology of operations of the production process. It includes the selection of quality and productivity indicators in the process phase, costing of the alternatives with potential profits, detection and evaluation of suppliers and risks.
4) Preparation of the project plan. Outsourcing is governed by ISO 90047-6, elements of quality systems in project management.
5) Project team. The project leader shall report to the executive director.
6) Implementation and monitoring of the study. The project leader must have authorization from the beginning to give continuity and follow-up to it.
7) Memory of the process of change to outsourcing. The blog must be written by someone who has the ability to do so as shown below:
8) Selection / planning of the specific outsourcing project (s). This stage will depend on the authority and freedom of action that has been granted to the team and must be advised by lawyers to generate contracts with arbitration clauses in case of disputes.
9) Choice of providers. Once the methodology has been followed and attention has been paid to both latent dangers and legal issues, the selection of a partner can proceed.
10) Transfer of control to external control. After the rest of the process has been carried out, control is transferred to an external quality auditor over the operations.
EMPOWERMENT
It is another of the tools that reengineering uses. It consists of expanding the span of control, that is, the number of people, units and teams supervised and empowers it to make decisions about the business objective and vision. Part of the premise that those who carry out the work are the best suited to make decisions in this regard, as long as they are properly trained. Empowerment implies reduction of middle management and resignation of their authority.
It is a strategic process that seeks a partnership relationship between the organization and its people, increasing trust, responsibility, authority and commitment to better serve the client.
What is an empowering team?
They are working groups with employees responsible for a product, service that share leadership collaborate in improving the work process, they plan and make decisions related to the work method.
Characteristics of teams with empowerment:
1. Leadership and administrative tasks are shared
2. Members have the power to evaluate and improve the quality of performance and the reporting process.
3. The team provides ideas for strategy of business.
4. They are committed, flexible and creative.
5. Coordinate and exchange with other teams and organizations.
6. Honesty, relationships with others and trust are improved.
7. They have a positive attitude and are enthusiastic.
Factors involved in change
Most of the time they are external forces that force the organization to change, such as the following:
1. Accelerated global competition
2. Unsatisfied customers.
3. Little speed in the innovation or introduction of the product.
4. Flatter and more linear organizations.
5. Inertia and bureaucratic struggle.
6. Technology that changes rapidly.
7. Change of values in employees.
8. Stagnation in efficiency or productivity
Empowerment organization
Since the early 1970s organizations around the world began to replace their traditional structure with greater commitment and high staff involvement.
The traditional structure is made in the shape of a pyramid, where the functions are highly specialized, its limits are clear and there is a control of supervisors to ensure that the work is fast and consistent, in conclusion the people who occupy the top of the pyramid it is the people who plan and think while the lower levels are doing the work.
The structure of staff involvement and greater commitment this in a circle or network that may be viewed as a set of groups or coordinated teams working according to the same objective.
Circle characteristics:
1. The customer is at the center.
2. You work together cooperating to do what is due.
3. They share responsibility, skill and authority.
4. Control and coordination come through continuous communication and decisions.
5. Employees and the manager have the ability to work with others.
6. There are few levels of organization.
7. Power comes from the ability to influence and inspire others not from your hierarchy.
8. People manage themselves and are judged by their total work. The focus is on the client.
9. Managers are the ones who energize, provide connections and empower their teams.
The path to empowerment.
The roles need to be clearly defined before and during the transformation process. Organizations need between fifteen months and five years to complete the empowerment stages and a high level of help, commitment and support is needed to carry out the project.
During the development of empowerment there will be stumbling blocks that can be foreseeable, we must not stagnate because of problems if we do not face and solve them, one of these stumbles are:
1. Inertia: difficulty in deciding to start.
2. Personal doubts: believing that you are not capable, nor can you create in your workplace.
3. Anger: blaming others for having to go through all this.
4. Chaos: there are so many ways to reach the end that one gets lost along the way.
Assessment of the current state of the organization
To start the first stage of empowerment, an evaluation must be made of the organization, which consists of carrying out a questionnaire that must be completed by all members of the organization, the following questions are a guide to prepare the assessment:
1. What is the current business strategy?
2. What is the current structure of the organization?
3. What rewards and recognition system are there for individuals or teams?
4. Is the training related to the needs of the business?
5. Is leadership characterized by being a vertical hierarchy in the aspects of decision-making and information flow or in shared leadership?
6. Is communication with employees encouraged and responded to?
Empowerment is a total movement
Empowerment is more than a state of mind, more than a set of team behaviors, even more than organizational politics. It cannot exist unless supported by individual resolutions and attitudes, team behaviors, and organizational values.
JUST IN TIME (JIT)
Another important tool for redesigning organizations is the Japanese just-in-time technique that aims to reduce interventions in warehouses and in the production process. The just-in-time ideal is zero inventory. Obviously, it is the trend and the philosophy rather than the elimination of inventories.
It implies a very large coordination with suppliers, sometimes forcing them, when the size of the company allows it, to put their factories close to the company.
Just in Time or Just in Time was initially developed by Toyota and later moved to many other companies in Japan and the world, it has been the greatest factor contributing to the impressive development of Japanese companies. This has led companies from other latitudes to be interested in knowing how this technique is.
The first reason behind this concept is that it can reduce inventories, production times and costs, as well as improve the quality of products and services.
The basic idea of Just in Time is to produce an item just in time for it to be sold or used by the next workstation in a manufacturing process.
Because inventory is considered the root of many problems in operations, it must be eliminated or minimized.
Just-in-Time can reduce the need for inventory enough to reduce sources of uncertainty or design a more flexible system to meet changing needs. Hence, the Just-in-Time orientation is different from traditional systems.
To reduce inventories and produce the right item on the right time, with the right quantity, information is required about the time and volume of the production requirements of all workstations.
Just-in-Time supplies this information, not through an expensive and sophisticated computer system, but through the use of a "pull" orientation instead of the conventional "push" orientation.).
The "push" orientation begins with an order in the initial work center. Once the job is completed on the first workstation, it is moved to the next workstation, this process continues until the end of the workstation. As can be seen, the job is triggered upon completion of the job of the preceding station and not in relation to the needs of the next workstation.
On the contrary, in the "pull" orientation, the production references come from the previous work center. Then the preceding workstation has the exact quantity to take out the parts available to assemble or add to the product. This orientation means starting from the end of the assembly chain and working backwards towards all components of the production chain, including suppliers and vendors. According to this orientation an order is triggered by the need for the next work station and is not an unnecessarily produced item.
The "pull" orientation is accompanied by a simple information system called KANBAN, which is a card that is passed from a subsequent workstation to its predecessor and this signals a production run. So. The need for inventory for work in process is reduced by tight splicing from the fabrication stage. This reduction helps to expose any loss of time or material, the use of defective parts, and improper operation of the equipment.
With Just-in-Time, the overall production assembly dictates the pace and production requirements for the preceding processes.
However, the assembly scheduling should be as "smooth" and repetitive as possible. Any fluctuation in the mix of articles produced in the general process could create variations in the production requirements of the preceding seasons. Large variations in any work center, undesirably require large inventories in process or productive capacities that allow to face the peaks of demand.
Neither of these aspects is allowed in "Just in Time". Rather, each item is produced with the minimum batch of components. Additionally, the finished product mix can be changed periodically, up to monthly to adapt to market demands.
Because the uncertainty has been eliminated, quality control is essential to the success of the "Just in Time" implementation. In addition, since the system will not function if frequent and long failures occur, it creates the inescapable need to maximize uptime and minimize defects. In turn, a vigorous maintenance program is required. Most Japanese plants operate with only two shifts, which allows full maintenance during non-productive time and results in a much lower rate of machine failure and deterioration than in the United States.
The pressure to eliminate defects is felt, not in maintenance scheduling, but in manufacturers' relationships with suppliers and in everyday work online. Just-in-time production does not allow for a close inspection of incoming parts. As such, suppliers must maintain high and consistent quality levels, and workers must have the authority to stop operations if they identify defects or other production problems.
What is required is quality at the source.
It emphasizes quality where the operator is, at the machine and in the process.
- It does not mean perfection but meeting the requirements Process control is required Only achieved when the operator is his own inspector
At present, companies have to compete not only with companies from the same region, but there is increasing competition with other companies from other places and countries, due to the globalization that has been occurring. It is for this reason that companies must look for ways or formulas that direct them towards greater productivity and quality in order to be competitive. One of these tools or formulas is Benchmarking.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF REENGINEERING
Reengineering seeks the maximum efficiency of the company, which can operate in a fully automated way in order to achieve competitiveness and the maximum performance of the invested resources.
As micro and small companies represent the largest percentage of businesses and generate a large number of jobs, their disappearance can increase unemployment levels dramatically, generating a crisis of catastrophic proportions, as when Federico Taylor developed time and motion studies. At that time, Charles Schawb had to come in to replace them, because Taylorist techniques had achieved spectacular results at Bethlehem Steel, to the extent that he had managed to reduce the workforce to a quarter.
We must recognize that companies and their leaders had gone through a process of organizational "psychosclerosis" and bureaucratic obesity that did not correspond to the needs that international competitiveness demands, so that a pruning for many companies will be healthy and will allow them to grow and create jobs. Otherwise, the spectacular improvements that do not translate into higher employment in the long run can bring the same consequences of Taylorism: without sufficient employment, the level of consumption falls.
BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking is a systematic and continuous process to compare our own efficiency in terms of productivity, quality and practices with those companies and organizations that represent excellence.
What is and what is not
- Benchmarking is not a mechanism to determine reductions of jobs4 / refrec / refrec.shtml »resources. The resources will be resigned to the most effective way to support the needs of the clients and obtain their satisfaction.
- Benchmarking is not a program. It needs to be an ongoing management process that requires constant updating - the constant collection and selection of best practices and external performance for incorporation into decision-making and communications functions at all levels of the business. It must have a structured methodology for obtaining information, however it must be flexible to incorporate new and innovative ways.
- Benchmarking is not a cookbook recipe process that only requires you to find the ingredients and use them to be successful. It is a process of discovery and a learning experience.
- Benchmarking is not only a fad, it is a winning business strategy. Helps to perform excellently.
- Benchmarking is a new way of doing business. It forces you to use an external point of view that ensures correctness of goal setting.
- It is a new administrative approach. It forces constant testing of internal actions against external standards of industry practices.
- It is a strategy that encourages teamwork by focusing attention on business practices to remain competitive rather than on personal, individual interest. It eliminates the subjectivity of decision-making.
Benchmarking principles
1. - Know the operation: The strengths and weaknesses must be known and evaluated, since they are the starting point to determine if the operation is being carried out properly.
2. Know the leaders of the competitor (s): If you do not know the strengths and weaknesses and / or the competitors, it will not be possible to compare your own performance with that of others or seek ways to overcome them.
3. Include only the best: You must discover what are strong leaders and / or competitors, as well as cause. It must be learned from their best practices, applied to their own operations, either by copying or modifying them, to fit the particular scope of the organization.
4. Obtain superiority: Knowledge of one's own strengths and weaknesses and of the best industrial leaders and / or competitors allows the organization to improve its performance and establish objective and feasible goals to be the best of the best.
Benchmarking aspects and categories
Benchmarking has been presented as a tool for improving business practices to become more competitive in an increasingly difficult market, however there are aspects and categories of benchmarking that it is important to review.
Aspects
Quality: Among the aspects we have quality, which refers to the level of value created by the products for the customer over the cost of producing them. Within this aspect, benchmarking can be very important to know the way in which other companies form and manage their quality systems, apart from being able to be used from a quality point of view according to the quality perceived by customers, which It is determined by the relationship with the client, the satisfaction of the same and finally the comparisons with the competition.
Productivity: Productivity benchmarking is the search for excellence in the areas that control input resources, and productivity can be expressed by the volume of production and the consumption of resources, which can be costs or capital.
Time: The study of time, as well as quality, symbolizes the direction of industrial development in recent years. Faster flows in sales, management, production, and distribution have received increased attention as a potential factor for improving productivity and competition. The development of time-focused programs has shown a spectacular ability to cut delivery times.
Benchmarking categories
INTERNAL BENCHMARKING: In most large multi-division or international companies there are similar functions in different operating units. One of the easiest benchmarking investigations is to compare these internal operations.
COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING: Direct product competitors are the most obvious ones to benchmark against. They would, or should, comply with all comparability tests. Ultimately, any benchmarking research must show what are the comparative advantages and disadvantages between direct competitors.
FUNCTIONAL BENCHMARKING: No need to focus solely on direct product competitors. There is a strong possibility of identifying functional or industry leading competitors to use in benchmarking even if they are in dissimilar industries.
GENERIC BENCHMARKING Some functions or processes in business are the same regardless of the dissimilarities of industries, for example order fulfillment. The benefit of this form of benchmarking, the purest, is that practices and methods that are not implemented in the researcher's own industry can be discovered. This type of research has the potential to reveal the best of best practices. The greatest need is for objectivity and receptivity on the part of the researcher.
ROBERT C. CAMP (XEROX) benchmarking process.
The process consists of five phases. The process begins with the planning phase and continues through analysis, integration, action, and finally maturity.
Planning Phase
The objective of this phase is to plan the benchmarking investigations. The essential steps are the same as in any plan development - what, who and how.
1.- Identify what is going to be benchmarked. In this step the key is to identify the product of the business function. Said product can be the result of a production process or a service. In this step we cannot help by declaring a mission for the business function to be benchmarked, which is a high level of evaluation, once this is done, the productions are further divided into specific items to which benchmarking applies.
2.- Identify comparable companies. In this step it is very important to consider what type of benchmarking study you want to apply, internal, competitive, functional or generic, since this will largely determine with which company we will not compare, it is important to remember that whatever the type of study, companies with the best practices should be sought to compare ourselves with them.
3.- Determine the method for data collection and collect the data. Data collection is of utmost importance, and the researcher can obtain data from different sources. The information obtained can be:
- Internal information. Result of analysis of products, company sources, piggybacking combination studies (use of information obtained in previous studies) and by experts.
- Information from the public domain. It comes from libraries, professional or commercial associations, consultants or external experts and studies.
- Original search and research. The information is obtained through direct questionnaires or by mail, telephone surveys, etc.
- Direct visits to the location. They are of the utmost importance, and therefore we must try to get the most out of them, so we must prepare them, establish the appropriate contacts in the other companies, make an itinerary of the visit and plan sessions of information exchange between companies.
Analysis phase
After determining what, who and how, the data collection and analysis has to be carried out. This phase has to include a careful understanding of current process practices as well as those of the benchmarking partners.
4.- Determine the current performance gap. In this step, the difference between our operations and those of the benchmarking partners is determined and the existing gap between them is determined. There are three possible outcomes which are:
- Negative gap. It means that external operations are benchmarking. It means that external practices are better.
- Operations at parity. It means that there are no major differences in practices.
- Positive gap. Internal practices are superior so benchmarking is based on internal findings. This superiority can be demonstrated analytically or based on the trading services that the market wants.
5.- Project future performance levels. Since the performance gaps have been defined, it is necessary to establish a projection of future performance levels, which is the difference between expected future performance and the best in the industry.
Integration phase
Integration is the process of using benchmarking findings to set operational objectives for change. It influences careful planning to incorporate new practices into the operation and ensure that findings are incorporated into all formal planning processes.
6.- Communicate the benchmarking findings and obtain acceptance. Benchmarking findings need to be communicated to all levels of the organization to gain endorsement, commitment, and ownership. For communication, the audience and their needs must first be determined, a communication method is selected, and finally, the findings must be presented in an orderly manner. In the process of obtaining acceptance it is important to establish a communication strategy in multiple facets, apart from the statement of a mission and operational principles, as well as to see benchmarking as a change initiative by showing best practices and explaining the way in which they operate
7.- Establish functional goals. At this point, an attempt is made to establish functional goals with respect to the benchmarking findings, and convert these goals into operating principles that change methods and practices in order to close the existing performance gap.
Action Phase
Benchmarking findings and operational principles based on them have to be translated into action. These need to be converted into specific implementation actions and a periodic measurement and evaluation of achievement has to be created.
8.- Develop action plans. Two main considerations are included at this point. The first has to do with the tasks in the planning of the action which have to do with the what, how, who and when.
They specifically include:
- Specification of the task.
- Put the task in order.
- Allocation of resource needs.
- Establishment of the program.
- Determination of responsibilities.
- Expected results.
- Supervision.
The second part relates to the people and behavior aspects of implementing change.
9.- Implement specific actions and monitor progress. This implementation can be done through traditional alternatives such as line administration or project or program administration. Another is the alternative of implementation through performance teams or those closest to the process and who have the responsibility of operating it; and finally the alternative of appointing a "process czar" who would be responsible for the implementation of the program.
10.- Recalibrate the benchmarks. This step aims to keep the benchmarks updated in a market with changing conditions in order to ensure excellent performance. It is important to conduct an assessment in areas such as understanding the benchmarking process, understanding best practices, importance and value, appropriateness for setting goals, and communicating benchmarking within the company to see what aspect needs recalibration of benchmarks through well-done planning and repetition of the 10-step process until benchmarking is institutionalized.
Maturity Phase
Maturity will be reached when industry best practices are incorporated into all business processes, thus ensuring superiority. Maturity is also achieved when it becomes a continuous, essential and self-initiated facet of the management process, that is, it is institutionalized.
Suggestions for Improving Efforts in External Comparisons
1) Link external benchmarking efforts to strategic objectives.
2) Have a properly sized team: six to eight people is most effective.
3) Seek the participation of those individuals who will be directly affected by external benchmarking efforts.
4) Emphasize specific problems identified, rather than broad and generic issues.
5) Set realistic times.
6) Choose targets for external comparisons carefully.
7) Observe due protocol when gathering information for external comparisons when dealing with the right individuals.
8) Do not collect excessive or unnecessary information.
9) Observe the processes behind the numbers, not just the numbers themselves.
10) Identify the objectives of external comparisons and ensure that action is taken.
Benchmarking partners
The type of benchmarking that is being carried out has a lot to do with the selection of the partners, for example: if a benchmarking is carried out between internal business operations, there should not be any problem between the study partners, since they belong to the The same company, the exchange of information should not present any problem. On the other hand, when conducting a study against competition, cooperation is generally difficult or impossible due to distrust or the protective attitude of information about processes, technology, etc. so that the competition generally thinks that these studies are to steal information and take away a certain competitive advantage from the company by the competition.
Here are some considerations for determining the best competitor or functional leader in the industry:
1.- CONSIDER "COMPETITOR" IN THE BROADEST TERMS.
- Which company, function, or operation has the best practices in the industry.
- Comparable operations where best practices, methods or processes are used.
2.- ENSURE COMPARABILITY
- Companies with high customer satisfaction should be measured against companies with high customer satisfaction.
- The characteristics of the products must be generic for the process. That is, packed goods must be measured against packed goods.
3.- STAY WITHIN THE SAME INDUSTRY
- Broadly define the industry.
- The electronics industry is an example.
4.- WHERE ARE THE DISCOVERIES TO BE FOUND OR IS IT LIKELY TO OCCUR IN BUSINESS PRACTICES?
- Discover innovative practices wherever they exist.
- Even in dissimilar industries.
- One of the most important considerations with respect to benchmarking partners is information management, so a bond of trust and cooperation must be established between partners so that the information shared is well used and that the company that provides it is not harmed, so that communication between partners plays an extremely important role.
The risks of benchamarking
If this process is not conducted properly, the process will be wrong and cause great losses for the organization. It can be a long process that costs a lot of time, in order to have a good cost benefit, the support of the entire top management is necessary, which does not imply the success of the benchmarketing process.
This process can make the company focus in the wrong direction, for example without a big three car producer, design the process with the others, it will find support in plans to build big and powerful vehicles.
JOB COMPETENCE
There are not a few authors who write about the subject of labor competencies these days, and a large part of them agree that they constitute a new alternative to increase work performance and motivation, among others, which undoubtedly, constitutes the purpose of the application of this model (Management by Competences). The article, more than dealing with models, aims to contribute to broadening the reader's knowledge on the subject, developing a series of aspects related to the concept of competences.
The changes that occur today in the business environment, characterized by the globalization of the economy, and the continuous introduction of new technologies in the production and administration processes in organizations, have in turn led to changes in internal structures Of these, there is a tendency to flatten structures and the constant evolution of jobs, which makes it difficult to maintain their stability.
This new reality has also modified the contract between organizations and their members, based now on the professional development of the former and on the search, by the latter, of new ways to maximize the skills of their staff.
To respond to this great challenge, many companies have opted for the application of a system of labor competencies, as an alternative to promote training and education, in a direction that achieves a better balance between the needs of organizations and their members.
As indeed, the concept of competencies is widely used these days in the business context to designate a set of elements or factors, associated with the success in the performance of people, and when referring to the origins of the same, so We generally find that David McClelland is quoted. However, in the literature reference is made to some works prior to those of this author, useful to better understand the origin of the term.
In 1949, T Parsons, elaborated a conceptual scheme that allowed structuring social situations, according to a series of dichotomous variables. One of these variables was the concept of Acheviement vs. Ascription, which essentially consisted of valuing a person for obtaining concrete results instead of doing so for a series of qualities that are attributed to him in a more or less arbitrary way. (Results vs. Good Crib).
Almost ten years later, in 1958, Atkinson was able to statistically demonstrate the utility of money as a concrete incentive that improved production as long as it was linked to specific results.
At the beginning of the 60s, the professor of Psychology at Harvard University, David McClelland proposed a new variable to understand the concept of motivation: Performance / Quality, considering the first term as the need to achieve (quantitative results) and the second such as quality at work (qualitative results). Following this approach, McClelland raises the possible links between this type of needs and professional success: if the mechanisms or levels of needs that move the best entrepreneurs, managers, among others can be determined, then people with an adequate level can be selected. in this need for achievements, and consequently train people in these attitudes so that they can develop them and carry out their projects.
The practical application of this theory was carried out by its author, in India in 1964, where a set of training actions were developed and in just two years it was found that 2/3 of the participants had developed innovative characteristics, that promoted the development of their businesses and consequently, their locality of residence.
These results led studies of this type to spread to the world of work. Everyone wanted to find the key that would allow organizations to save time and money in the recruitment processes. However, for one reason or another, the universal problem regarding what training the person should have, and whether it is adequate to perform successfully in a given position, had not yet been resolved.
In 1973, McClelland showed that academic records and intelligence tests alone were not capable of reliably predicting adequate adaptation to everyday life problems, and consequently professional success.
This led him to search for new variables, which he called competencies, that would allow a better prediction of job performance. During these investigations, he found that, in order to predict performance more effectively, it was necessary to directly study the people in their job, contrasting the characteristics of those who are particularly successful with those who are only average.
Due to this, the competencies appear linked to a way of evaluating what "really causes superior performance at work" and not "to the evaluation of factors that reliably describe all the characteristics of a person, in the hope that some of the they are associated with job performance ”(McClelland, 1973).
Another author very referred to in this line of research in RE Boyatzis (1982) who in one of his investigations deeply analyzes the competencies that influenced the performance of managers, using for this the adaptation of Critical Incident Analysis.
In this study it is concluded that there are a series of personal characteristics that leaders should possess in general, but that there were also some that only other people possessed who carried out their responsibilities in an excellent way.
Concluding here with regard to the origin of the term in question, we think that it is necessary to specify what are the powers. Here are some definitions, which are often multiple and varied.
1. Competencies are repertoires of behaviors that some people master better than others, which makes them effective in a given situation (Levy Leboyer, 1997). According to this author, they are also observable in the reality of work, and also in test situations, and put into practice in an integrated way skills, personality traits and knowledge. Therefore, he considers them a link between individual characteristics and the qualities required to carry out the missions of the position.
2. Competencies are characteristics underlying the person, which are coincidentally related to a successful performance in the workplace. (Boyatzis, 1982).
3. It refers to the effective capacity to successfully carry out a fully identified work activity (according to the ILO this is the generally most accepted concept).
4. It refers to the productive capacity of an individual that is defined and measured in terms of performance in a given work context, and not only of knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes. These are necessary, but not sufficient in themselves for effective performance. (KNOW from Mexico)
5. They refer to the social construction of meaningful and useful learning for productive performance in a real work situation, which is obtained not only through instruction, but also -and to a large extent- through learning by experience in situations concrete work. (POLFORM / ILO)
6. It is the suitability to perform a task or perform a job effectively, for having the required qualifications for it. (ILO)
7. It is the set of socio-affective behaviors and cognitive, sensory, and motor skills that allow the proper performance of a role, a function, an activity or a task. (Province of Québec)
8. It is the identifiable and assessable set of knowledge, attitudes, values and skills related to each other, which allow satisfactory performances in real work situations, according to standards used in the occupational area. (Federal Council of Culture and Education Argentina)
9. It is conceived as a complex structure of attributes necessary for the performance of specific situations. It is a complex combination of attributes (knowledge, attitudes, values and skills) and the tasks that have to be performed in certain situations. (Australia)
This definition is considered a holistic approach, insofar as it integrates and relates attributes and tasks, allows several intentional actions to occur simultaneously and takes into account the context and culture of the place, allowing the incorporation of ethics and values as elements of the competent performance.
In one way or another, it can be concluded that, in general, the five types of competency characteristics proposed by Lyle M Spencer and Signe M Spencer (1993) are contained:
- Motivations that determine the behavior of people towards certain types of actions: achievement, affiliation and power.
- Character traits, which justify the types of reactions to certain situations.
- Personal skills, values related to attitudes, values and self-image.
- Knowledge.
- Skills, ability to perform certain types of physical and mental activities.
Main Approaches
According to Llorente (1999), the competences approaches that are found today in the market - on which he refers that in their essence they reduce all the possibilities of applying the competences and he regrets that by chance they are the most widespread - share a series of common points:
- Each competence has a name and a precise verbal definition. Denominations such as: identification with the company, self-confidence, search for information, customer orientation, conceptual thinking, flexibility, leadership… appeared in the first studies of McBer, (Hay Group / McBer), the consulting firm founded by David McClelland, and then they have spread deeply into the competency literature.
- Each competence has a certain number of levels that reflect observable behaviors, not value judgments.
- All competencies can be developed (going from a lower level to a higher one) although not immediately like receiving a training course. Development requires practical experience.
- All positions are associated with a competency profile that is nothing more than an inventory of them, together with the required levels of each of them. With the evaluated level of each competence, imbalances will be obtained that will have to be analyzed.
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
The value of a business is increasingly moving from fixed assets to intangibles: Trademarks, patents, franchises, software, research programs, ideas, experience. So far, companies are beginning to arouse interest in measuring this asset, which contributes to creating an ever-widening gap between book value and market value; This change is increasingly dramatic in companies with a broad technological base (internet, software, biotechnology, etc.).
We can say that the factor that makes this difference is intellectual capital. For this purpose, we make a description of the elements that make up intellectual capital (from the perspective of Leif Edvinson):
Leif, makes two major classifications of intellectual capital as follows:
a) Human Capital. That corresponds to the set of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and skills of the people who make up organizations.
b) Structural capital. Knowledge developed and made explicit by organizations, made up of the following elements:
- Customer capital: Assets related to customers (trademarks, customer loyalty, customer lists, etc.).
- Processes: Referring to the way in which the organization adds value through the different activities it develops.
- Capacity for innovation. Understood as the ability to maintain the success of the organization through the development of new products or services.
The changes that have occurred at the level of knowledge are advanced; Today it is recognized as having a high added value for organizations insofar as it generates wealth, an "asset" that must be managed and valued like the others.
In the realm of the new economy, intellectual capital provides a competitive edge, yet these "resources" are not adequately measured; Intellectual capital (intangible) as well as physical resources necessarily needs to be valued for efficiency measurements, income determination and company valuation
The process of "intellectual capital" formation must be seen as an economic investment activity of the same order as the formation of material capital.
In the future the primary investment will not be in land, plant or equipment, but in personnel. This fact may further mark the need to take this type of assets into accounting, as these resources will become the most important of companies.
QUALITY IN THE SERVICE.
A single action does not ensure that a company improves all facets of the service.
Today we often hear that some companies want to differentiate themselves from their competitors through proper customer service. Many people call it service excellence, fabulous service, or just good service.
Strategy:
The truth is that, as a customer, service is something that we hardly experience in our country (and in many others). The reason why companies have not been able to offer a quality service is due, above all, to the fact that neither they nor the clients know exactly what it means.
In various books, courses and even in political speeches, quality of customer service (courtesy, kindness, smiles, etc.) is often spoken of, something that some call warmth.
It is true that as clients we evaluate the care provided to us, but it is not the only thing we take into account and worst of all, it is not the most important thing either.
Background:
Before mentioning the way clients evaluate services, it is important to emphasize two aspects that are important from our perspective:
1.- The quality of the service differs from the quality of the products in the following aspects:
When we talk about service, we cannot attempt to verify its quality through a quality assurance department, since most of the time the client only has the opportunity to evaluate the service until it is already being developed. A supervision plan to improve the quality of the service would only cause a slower response with the customer and would not even prevent a quarter of the problems that arise.
In the case of service, customer expectations cannot be standardized, because each customer is different and their service needs are also different, although apparently all require the same service. It is due to this supposed subjectivity of the service that we have detected that inflexible recipes or procedures cannot be issued to keep customers satisfied.
2.- Service quality is not a strategy applicable only to companies in the service sector. Manufacturing and commercial companies develop a good number of service activities, such as sales (through representatives or at the counter, telephone centers, etc.), distribution, collections, returns or claims and even technical advice.
What is then the quality of the service?
As a result of research, both bibliographic and market, we have been able to understand that all customers evaluate the service we receive through the sum of the evaluations we make to five different factors, namely.
1. Tangible elements: Refers to the appearance of the organization's facilities, the presentation of the personnel and even the equipment used in a certain company (computer, office, transportation, etc.). A favorable evaluation in this area invites the client to make his first transaction with the company.
There are not a few clients in the industrial sector who, just by visiting the manufacturing plant or knowing its computer system, decide to place their first order. Not to mention the companies in the commerce sector: An adequate display of the products that it sells influences a potential customer.
It is important to mention that tangible aspects may cause a client to carry out the first commercial operation with us, but they will not be able to convince the client to buy again.
2. Fulfillment of promise: Means to deliver the agreed service correctly and in a timely manner. In other words, if you promised to deliver an order of 30 tons of raw material to your industrial customer on Friday at 8 in the morning, you must comply with these two variables. Delivering 20 tons at 8 am is non-compliance, the same as delivering 30 tons on Saturday.
Promise fulfillment is one of the two most important factors that forces a customer to buy back from our organization.
3. Service attitude: Very often customers perceive a lack of service attitude on the part of employees; This means that those who care for them do not feel the disposition to listen and solve their problems or emergencies in the most convenient way-
This is the factor that customers criticize the most, and it is the second most important in their evaluation. After compliance, attitudes influence the customer to return to our organization.
4. Competency of the personnel: The client qualifies how competent the employee is to serve him correctly; if he is courteous, if he knows the company where he works and the products or services that he sells, if he knows the conditions of sale and the policies, in short, if he is able to inspire confidence with his knowledge so that you ask him for guidance.
Many customers know well what they want to buy, but those who require guidance or advice and suggestions may not take them into account even if they are correct if they do not perceive that the person who attends them is competent enough.
5. Empathy: Although most people define empathy as putting themselves in the client's shoes (we see it even in television commercials), we have obtained from clients who evaluate this line of reasoning according to three aspects different they are:
- Ease of contact: Is it easy to get to your business? When they call your salespeople or employees, do they find them, do they report to them, or are their phone numbers the ones that are always busy or the ones that never answer, and on top of that, when they answer, the customer cannot find who they are looking for and no one can help them? Communication: Something that customers are looking for is a higher level of communication from the company that sells them, also in a language that they can clearly understand. Tastes and needs: The client wants to be treated as if he were unique, that we provide the services he needs and in the most suitable conditions for him and - why not? That we offer you something additional that you need; that is, we exceed your expectations.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Book: Introduction to administration.
Author: Sergio Hernández and Rodríguez.
Pages: From 315 - 318.
- Book: Administration in the world of Today.
Author: Sthepen P. Robbins.
Pages: 107 - 108.
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