Benchmarking and Its Types

What is a Benchmark?

A benchmark is a point of reference against which things are measured.

• Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, cycle time, productivity, or quality of a specific process or method to another that is widely considered to be an industry standard or best practice.Benchmarking is a systematic method by which organizations can measure themselves against the best industry practice.

• Benchmarking is the process of measuring an organization's internal processes then identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices from other organizations considered to be best-in-class.

Most business processes are common throughout industries. For example; NASA has the same basic Human Resources requirements for hiring and developing employees as does American Express. British Telecom has the same Customer Satisfaction Survey process as Brooklyn Union Gas. These processes, albeit from different industries, are all common and can be benchmarked very effectively. It's called "getting out of the box".

 Levels of Benchmarking

•  Internal Benchmarking
• Competitive Benchmarking
• Non – Competitive Benchmarking
• World – Class Benchmarking

Types of Benchmarking 

• Process benchmarking: billing, order etc
• Performance benchmarking : features, quality
• Product benchmarking: dimensions
• Strategic benchmarking competitive adv