Benchmarking Step by Step

1. Understand your current processes in terms of effectiveness (measures and current levels of performance) and maturity (use value stream mapping to identify waste and determine where to focus improvement efforts).
2. Set your focus by determining what business process you are investigating.
3. Identify what organizations and industries have similar processes and are potential leaders.
4. Research and contact leading companies to identify best practices and performance metrics (through the American Productivity and Quality Center [APQC], the Global Benchmarking Council, trade journals, conferences, and so on).
5. Collaborate with these organizations to share best practice information. (This works best when companies agree to exchange information beneficial to all parties within a benchmarking group.)
6. Identify gaps and opportunities for improvement; feed these ideas as suggestions and potential countermeasures into the kaizen process.
7. Implement improved business practices with realistic metrics, goals, and targets applying PDCA.