According to Bdeir (2003), corporations have adopted benchmarking in search for best practices, in response to fast-paced changing economic conditions. Spendolini (1992) provides a sound working definition of benchmarking as a continuous, systematicprocess for evaluating the products, services or work processes of organisations that arerecognised as representing best practices for the purpose of organisational improvement. It is a comparative measurement process that provides a methodology to help organizations improve their performance within a wide range of activities.While a benchmark is a reference point in determining one’s current position, it is also used as a starting point from which other measurements can be made, or against which others could be measured. In the 1980s, the notion of benchmarking grew in scope, and was defined by various practitioners as follows:
i. Camp (1989) defined benchmarking as a search for the industry best practices that lead to superior performance. ii. Kaiser (1992) defined benchmarking as a process for rigorously measuring your performance versus the best-in-class companies and for using the analysis to meet or surpass the best-in-class. iii. Benchmarking is a fundamental business or investment skill that supports quality excellence (Bogan, Christopher and English, 1994)
By their nature, best practices are dynamic and progressive. Best practice champions, thus regard benchmarking as an on-going business process that is fully integrated with continuous improvement in their organization.
Bogan and English (1994) identified a rapid advancing revolution in performance measurements, known as benchmarking. Today, this revolution is creating a new paradigm for how organizations manage and measure ...
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...benchmarking process is a set of steps used to discover and incorporate best practices into day to day operations. vi. A benchmarking system is the infrastructure and organization linkage necessary to deploy, reinforce and institutionalize a benchmarking process. vii. A benchmarking consortium is made up of organizations/institutions that have joined together to help each other perform some part of the benchmarking process. Often supported by electronic networks, the members share contacts for benchmarking studies, assist in data collection, arrange for site visits and share information regarding best benchmarking practices. viii. A performance driver is a casual factor. It can be inherent to the environment, structural (imbedded in the current design of the organization), or performance-related (the result of the performance and process carried out by the company).
Metrics are very important in Operations Management within an organization because it provides functions such as control, reporting, communication, opportunities for improvement and expectations. It is a certifiable measure stated in either quantitative or qualitative terms types of measurements. In addition, metrics has different types of categories in the organizations. One of which is “Organizational Focus”, that have four different types of level within the organization or firm. 1. Organizational Metrics – this type of measure, capture and describe the performance of an organization (i.e.…market share and rate of return). 2. Product Metric – it measures cost per unit, contribution margin per unit, or growth in sales.
By looking at how other businesses are performing, they can identify operations where they are failing. Companies are also able to notice techniques that can increase their own processes short of reinventing the wheel. They are able to fast-track the course of alterations because they have examples from other corporations in their industry to further influence their variations (entrepreneur.com, 2015). Benchmarking is vital in the movement of assessing the capability of Plaza Home Health to bestow service above market rivals. Based on the weaknesses and threats isolated in the SWOT analysis it is essential that Plaza profoundly explore all means for benchmarking their brand and services. Through benchmarking, Plaza can eradicate the weaknesses and instantaneously explore strategy to mitigate threats.
"Benchmarking's real role has to be seen in the context of the organization that is continuously implementing improvement" (Bendell, Boulter, & Goodstadt 1998). Organizations implementing the benchmarking process are continuously looking to improve, and planning improvement. Improvements can be made by looking at the firm both internally and externally. Internal improvements are implemented by analyzing processes and setting targets for performance. However, output performance measures are not able to help management understand why a practice is effective. This understanding is a result of personal interpretation of the process. Organizations must look to other firms for ideas to borrow from global leaders, regardless of the scope of the necessary improvement. Equally important as data collection is the actual implementation of the newly acquired business practice.
Since the beginning of time, companies are striving and working very hard, under a lot of stress, in order to survive and overcome the challenges they face day in and day out. For Managers, it can become even more challenging to execute tasks or make the most effective decisions for their teams as the competition increases. It requires the development of excellent business strategies and effective operations to deliver exceptional products and services. An original framework created by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton has helped managers and executives achieve a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance with the Balanced Scorecard. “The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals.”
Managers can determine individual performance and evaluate the productivity of employees (Bohlander and Snell, 2010). Moreover, the managers can optimize productivity in their organizations through performance management process. To determine the effectiveness of the performance process, it has to meet the following requirements.
As stated by Baker and Baker (2014), benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services, and activities against the best levels of performance. It may also be defined as the method of finding which practices are best and recommending what that performance should be in the future. Benchmarking is not permanent it is ever changing, it may be considered time-sensitive and perishable.
Operations are all the processes in transforming inputs into desired outputs. These processes must be efficiently and effectively coordinated by managers and eventually they must accomplish specific organizational goals. All operations, despite how well managed they are, are capable of improvement. In order for the operations to be improved however, weaknesses should be identified first. Therefore operations need some kind of performance measurement as a prerequisite for improvement.
In the mid 1980s, and into the 1990s, business leaders realized that a renewed focus on quality was required to continue to compete in an expanding global market. (NIST, 2010) Consequently, several strategic frameworks were developed for managing, and measuring organizational performance. Among them were the Malcomb Baldrige National Quality Award, which was created by and act of congress and signed into law by the President in 1987, and The Balanced Scorecard, which is a performance management tool that was born out of research conducted in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Robert S. Kaplan, and David P. Norton published in 1996 (Kaplan, 1996). Initially the renewed emphasis on quality management systems was a reaction to the LEAN approach
This can be ascribed to the fact that it is in alignment with many common performance improvement initiatives undertaken by firms such as customer-vendor partnerships, constant improvement, customer satisfaction, etc. It also complements these initiatives by helping the managers understand the interdependencies among different business units of the firm. It also helps identify the tradeoffs and decisions that need to be made to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment. However, like with any other performance measurement concept, the BSC approach has its set of advantages and disadvantages. In this paper, we dive deeper into the pros and cons of this approach which could help the managers understand the trade-offs, benefits and limitations they need to account for prior to buying in on the BSC
Benchmarking can be used in a plan of action by identifying a problem within an organization and researching another particular organization with similar problems but effective solution. This will allow the opportunity for education and performing the necessary actions to improve overall outcome of the patient’s
Benchmarking is the process of establishing a standard of excellence and comparing an organization function or activity, a product, or an enterprise as a whole with that standard. Healthcare institutions may use benchmarking to reduce expenses and at the same time improve product and service quality. Benchmarking in the healthcare industry is a quality management issue that is a continuous process by which an organization can measure and compare its own processes with those of organizations that are leaders in a particular area. Benchmarking should be viewed as a part of quality management programs, not as a replacement. There are four kinds of benchmarking: internal, competitive, functional and generic. With internal benchmarking,
Tapinos, E., Dyson, R.G. & Meadows, M. (2005). The impact of performance measurement in strategic planning. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 54(5/6), 370-384.
The Balanced Scorecard has emerged in recent years as a performance measurement system in various organizations. This paper will discuss the origin and concept of the balanced scorecard and how it was first implemented. We will then review the criticisms on the balanced scorecard methodology as well as analyse the strengths and weaknesses of this performance measurement tool.
Performance management is a useful and powerful tool that can be used by managers to identify what areas of their organisation they need to improve to increase the organisation’s overall performance. The idea of a balanced scorecard enforces a sensible distribution of resources and effort across all aspect of performance an organisation is, or should be, concerned with.
There are several reasons organizations initiate performance evaluations, however the standard purpose for performance evaluations is to discuss performance expectations; not only from the employers perspective but to engage in a formal collaboration where the employee and the manager are both able to provide feedback in a formal discourse. There are many different processes an organization should follow when developing its performance evaluation tool; in addition essential characteristics that must accompany an effective performance appraisal process. I will discuss in detail the intent of a performance evaluation, the process an organization should follow in using its performance evaluation tool, along with the characteristics of an effective