CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1:1 ABSTRACT: The continuous pursuit of excellence is the underlying and ever present goal of benchmarking practices. Benchmarking is an external focus on internal activities, functions, or operations in order to achieve continuous improvement. It is the process of judging a companys processes or products by comparing them to the worlds best, including those in other industries. Benchmarking is emerging in leading-edge companies as a tool for obtaining the information needed to support continuous improvement and gain competitive advantage. In order to benchmark effectively, there needs to be a strong strategic focus and some flexibility in achieving the goals set forth by management. Perhaps the most important aspects of effective implementation are adequate planning, training, and open interdepartmental communication. 1:2 KEYWORDS: Benchmarking, Competitive advantage, Ethics, Kaizen, matters, Performance. 1:3 DEFINITIONS: - Benchmarking is a tool for improving performance. In learning and Teaching benchmarking is an evidence-based process that encourages comparisons with other institutions to enhance good practice. The process of benchmarking involves:

identifying areas for improvement choosing benchmark indicators (quantitative measures of achievement) Collecting information to enable comparisons (in order to improve

Performance).

Comparisons may be made against:

individual benchmarking partners or benchmarking groups other programs within the university sets of accepted standards (sector, professional, industry), which may or

may not result in certification/accreditation

Data on past performance.

Fig- 1:1 Or "Benchmarking is the process of continuously comparing and measuring your processes against other organizations worldwide to gain information on their practices, processes, or methodologies that will help your organization take action to improve its performance" Benchmark: A Measured "best-in-class achievement. This performance level is recognized as the standard of excellence for that business process. Benchmarking is not:

only competitive analysis number crunching site briefings and industrial tourism just copying or catch-up spying or espionage quick and easy

Benchmarking is the practice of being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at something, and being wise enough to learn how to match and even surpass them at it. Benchmarking equals innovation. Real innovation comes from looking for best practices outside your industry. This enables you to learn from others and achieve quantum leaps in performance that otherwise might take years to achieve. Why do Companies Benchmark?
1. To develop and implement strategic goals. 2. To establish realistic actionable objectives. 3. To provide a sense of urgency. 4. To Encourage striving for perfection and innovative thinking. 5. Create a better understanding of the industry, and 6. To emphasize sensitivity to changing customer needs.

Benchmarking vs. Competitive/Comparative Analysis While competitive analysis looks at performance measures. Enablers help to explain the reasons behind the performance indicated by a benchmark.

Fig- 1:2 Comparisons

People often mistake benchmarking for competitive analysis. Competitive analysis typically looks at intelligence data: facts and figures, product breakdown (reverse engineering) strategic goals. It's a guessing game as to how to achieve the competitive advantage.

Benchmarking eliminates the guess work by looking at processes and enablers that lead to best practices. Benchmarking doesn't limit itself to competitive information; it seeks innovation by looking outside the industry paradigm. Benchmarking is even enabling competitors to talk to each other. Through structured studies and shared findings, competing companies can raise the standard of excellence industry-wide. Third party sources can serve as a neutral base for common interest group studies; for example, customer satisfaction measurement, new product development and accounting and finance.

Fig- 1:3. COMPETITIVE

1.4 OBJECTIVES
The objectives for using benchmarking can of course be different between countries and organizations. There are still some basic objectives that many projects have in common:

Performance objectively, it is difficult to assess and evaluate the performance of an organization, even if it has been measured. Is a 70% satisfaction of customers good or bad performance? Is the measured cost per student in a primary school, high or low? Is the process for benefit payments in a social security office efficient or not? Benchmarking is an important instrument for comparing and evaluating performance in a more objective way.
Create sustained pressure for improvement. The pressure for improved

performance in the private sector comes mainly from competition. The lack of competition in the public sector can lead to limited pressure for improvement. improvement, the Benchmarking alternative to is seen as creating pressure for market pressures. Information about

relative performance of an organization can be an important

incentive for improvement, and incentives can also be strengthened by providing more direct financial incentives.
Expose areas where improvement is needed and reveal underlying

problems of an organization or a group of organizations. It can be difficult for managers and employees in a complex organization to identify areas where improvement is necessary. Underlying problems in the organization of a given service sector can also be revealed through benchmarking.
Identify superior processes in order to adopt them and get better insight in

to best practice. Organizations may tend to be conservative in relation to the processes used. Benchmarking can be used to compare existing processes with best practice, including private sector best practice.

Focus on the links between processes and results. The links between

individual processes and the overall performance of an organization may not be very clear. Comparisons between organizations and especially between many organizations may help to identify links between processes and performance.

 Test whether improvement has been successful. This objective is important

as monitoring of the implementation of improvements plans may often be a weak part of benchmarking and other improvement strategies.

Fig- 1:4 Benchmarking serves a number of purposes1) It enables a company to calibrate how it is delivering HR practices by

examining

the

way

other

organizations

accomplish

tasks

and

responsibilities
2) Benchmarking enables a company to learn from others successes and

mistakes.
3) Benchmarking can create an environment in which active learning is

encouraged.
4) It can be used as a tool to motivate people to change.

5) Benchmarking can be used to help set direction and priorities for an HR

manager and helps him to focus on critical activities.

6) A well established benchmarking process can help managers set goals and

targets designed to make the company the best in its competitive field, and to initiate focused programs that move the company from its current position. By Benchmarking one can find out-

Who does the business process really well and has processes that are adaptable to my organization What areas are causing the most trouble Which employees contribute most to the critical success factors What are the performance measures to determine the effect of our actions? Who is the most compatible for me to benchmark with Most business processes are common throughout industry.

Fig- 1:5

CHAPTER- 2 TYPES OF BENCHMARKING

There are four types of benchmarking, process, performance, strategic and internal. Each one has it benefits and its short comings and one may be more useful in some situations that in others. A brief description of each follows type follows:

1. Process- benchmarking focuses on discrete work processes and

operating systems. It can look at customer service, billing, the way orders are filled, recruitment or the strategic planning process. Process benchmarking tries to identify the most effective operating practices from many other companies who perform similar work or deliver similar services. These practices become independent industry standards and this type of benchmarking has the ability to produce results that are seen immediately in performance improvements. These are evident in increased productivity, lower costs or improved sales with an end result of improved financial performance.
2. Performance- benchmarking is "competitive" benchmarking and allows

managers to assess their competitive positions through product and service comparisons. Also known as direct competitors benchmarking, this application focuses on elements of price, technical quality, labor product or service features, speed, reliability and other performance characteristics. This application uses direct product or service comparisons and the analysis of statistics as primary techniques. Many industries use performance benchmarking as a standard competitive tool. To protect confidentiality, of proprietary information, a third party is usually used.
3. Strategic- benchmarking examines how companies compete. It is

seldom industry focused and moves across industries looking for winning strategies (best practices) that have enabled high-performers to be successful in their markets. Also called outside-of-industry, this method is used widely by Japanese corporations as it influences the long-term competitive patterns of a

Company. As a result, benefits are slow to accrue compared to the immediate benefits which can be had from process benchmarking.
4. Internal benchmarking- This effort looks for internal best practices and

tries to establish them uniformly throughout the company. This method is

achieved by comparing all the functions in the various operations in a business organization. The main advantages of internal benchmarking are its ease of implementation and low requirement of time and resources. However, being internally focused, it targets only internal standards. For competitiveness, the internal standard should be measured against the best in class to determine if there is a gap and how wide it is. Most firms start benchmarking with an internal benchmarking exercise. Benchmarking is a tool that provides goals for realistic process improvement and helps you understand the changes required to improve performance. You may use benchmarking to identify and rectify problem areas, implement strategic change initiatives, or for continuous process improvement. Benchmarking is the practice of being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at something, and being wise enough to learn how to be as good as or even better than them. Companies benefit from benchmarking through improved performance and productivity levels. Benchmarking helps organizations understand their industry better, which leads to innovative thinking. Innovative thinking helps you to achieve the desired performance level more rapidly. Other benefits include the identification of the best practice to use in a particular process. Savings are generated through the use of benchmarking because it allows you to continuously improve performance and productivity, therefore eliminating costly errors. Benchmarking also enables competitors to talk to each other through structured studies and shared findings, which can raise the standard of excellence industry-wide. Since global competition is increasing, the need for a competitive advantage is necessary. Benchmarking can help your business gain that competitive edge through improved performance and productivity.

CHAPTER-3 THE METHODOLOGY OF BENCHMARKING

There is no single benchmarking process that has been universally adopted. The wide appeal and acceptance of benchmarking has led to the emergence of various benchmarking methodologies. One seminal book on benchmarking is Box wells Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage (1994). The first book on benchmarking, written and published by Kaiser Associates, is a practical guide and offers a 7-step approach. Robert Camp (who wrote one of the earliest books on benchmarking in 1989) developed a 12-stage approach to benchmarking.

Fig- 3:1

The 12 stage methodology consists of:

1.

Select subject

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Define the process Identify potential partners Identify data sources Collect data and select partners Determine the gap Establish process differences Target future performance Communicate Adjust goal Implement Review and recalibrate

The following is an example of a typical benchmarking methodology:

1.

Identify your problem areas - Because benchmarking can be applied to include: informal conversations with such customers, as focus employees, groups; or or inre-

any business process or function, a range of research techniques may be required. They suppliers; exploratory depth marketing research techniques

research, quantitative

research, surveys, questionnaires,

engineering analysis, process mapping, quality control variance reports, or financial ratio analysis. Before embarking on comparison with other organizations it is essential that you know your own organization's function, processes; base lining performance provides a point against which improvement effort can be measured.
2.

Identify other industries that have similar processes - For instance if

one were interested in improving hand offs in addiction treatment he/she would try to identify other fields that also have hand off challenges. These could include air traffic control, cell phone switching between towers, transfer of patients from surgery to recovery rooms.

3.

Identify organizations that are leaders in these areas - Look for the very

best in any industry and in any country. Consult customers, suppliers, financial analysts, trade associations, and magazines to determine which companies are worthy of study.
4.

Survey companies for measures and practices - Companies target

specific business processes using detailed surveys of measures and practices used to identify business process alternatives and leading companies. Surveys are typically masked to protect confidential data by neutral associations and consultants.
5.

Visit the "best practice" companies to identify leading edge practices -

Companies typically agree to mutually exchange information beneficial to all parties in a benchmarking group and share the results within the group.
6. Implement new and improved business practices- Take the leading edge

practices and develop implementation plans which include identification of specific opportunities, funding the project and selling the ideas to the organization for the purpose of gaining demonstrated value from the process. Companies benefit from benchmarking through improved performance and productivity levels. Benchmarking helps organizations understand their industry better, which leads to innovative thinking. Innovative thinking helps you to achieve the desired performance level more rapidly. Other benefits include the identification of the best practice to use in a particular process. Savings are generated through the use of benchmarking because it allows you to continuously improve performance and productivity, therefore eliminating costly errors. Benchmarking also enables competitors to talk to each other through structured studies and shared findings, which can raise the standard of excellence industry-wide. Since global competition is increasing, the need for a competitive advantage is necessary. Benchmarking can help your business gain that competitive edge through improved performance and productivity.

CHAPTER-4 TEN STEPS OF BENCHMARKING

Benchmarking is a method of comparison against some standard of excellence. It was pioneered by Xerox Corporation in the 1979s, as part of their response to international competition in the photocopier market, and originated from reverse engineering of competitors' products. Its scope was then enlarged to include business services and processes. Xerox now benchmarks nearly 240 performance elements although, when they started benchmarking several years ago, considerably fewer elements were benchmarked. Benchmarking of business processes is usually done with top performing companies in other industry sectors. This is feasible because many business processes are essentially the same from sector to sector. A benchmarking team usually consists of 6 people but may include more. A leader is assigned and takes "ownership" of the project. Investigations take from one to 12 months and can involve one company or consortia of many companies. Comparing performance levels is only the preliminary phase of benchmarking. The bulk of the effort involves an analysis of how and why these performance levels are achieved. The Ten Steps are:
1. 2.

Identify what is to be benchmarked; it can be a service, process, or practice. Identify the organization you want to benchmark against. It can be other

operating units within the company, competitors or unrelated companies. However, they should be a leader or "best in class" in the area being benchmarked.
3.

Determine the data collection method and collect data; measurements must

be chosen to provide a meaningful comparison; collection usually involves inperson meetings and site visits of areas being benchmarked.
4.

Determine current performance levels; this includes identifying gaps

between your organization and your benchmarking partners.

5.

Determine future performance levels; forecast the expected improvements

of benchmarking partners so that goals set for the improvement program will not become quickly outdated.
6.

Communicate the benchmark findings and gain acceptance from senior

management and employees who will be asked to make improvements; present the methodology, findings and strategy for improvements.
7.

Establish objectives; after concurrence on findings and strategy, the team

presents final recommendations on goals and how the organization must change to attain them.
8.

Develop action plans for each objective; they should be designed to gain the

required support within the organization.

9.

Implement specific actions and monitor process; this includes collecting data

on new levels of performance; using problem-solving teams to investigate problems; and adjusting the improvement process if goals are not being met.
10.

Recalibrate benchmarks; benchmarks are re-evaluated and updated, based

on the most recent performance data. This ten-step process closely parallels the PDCA Cycle and other methods discussed in Process Improvement Methods. However, companies who undertake benchmarking find that it is a very complex process. We recommend that before undertaking benchmarking, those involved should read literature such as Robert Camp's book, Benchmarking.

Fig- 4:1 Tool of Benchmarking

CHAPTER-5 HOW TO BENCHMARK

The following describes the phases of a benchmarking process:

Phase I: PLAN
Develop a School-to-Work benchmarking team which represents all stakeholders. Where possible include someone with benchmarking experience.

Provide team with information and overall materials necessary to build a plan.

Identify results you want to achieve through examining other school-to-work systems and resources.

Develop a vision of what doing school-to-work well means. Choose sites to benchmark Determine how information will be collected Prepare a questionnaire of key elements and share this with sites to be benchmarked.

Phase II: ANALYZE

Determine strengths and weaknesses presented in the information. Identify quantitative data that can help you measure performance and set future targets

Identify qualitative data that explains success factors and how system became a best-in-class

Compare data and determine what you can learn from it. Determine how you can apply what youve learned to your own school-towork initiatives.

Phase III: INTEGRATE

Modify any of your original goals of the school-to-work process based on results of analysis.

Communicate findings and gain acceptance among key stakeholders. Consider the benefits of pursuing or not pursuing findings.

Phase IV: ACTION

Develop action plans to implement findings Identify any problem solving or continuous improvement opportunities Develop a process for monitoring and evaluating progress Implement plans. Assess plans and resource objectives and process.

Fig- 5:1 Flow Chat of Testing

CHAPTER-6

SHAPING THE STRATEGIC PLAN

Organizations' goals all too often fall short of stakeholder expectations. A primary contributor to this sad state of affairs is the fact that goal-setting tends to be based on past trends and current internal practices. The external perspective is frequently overlooked, yet customers' expectations are driven by their experiences with the best providers in the industry and superior providers in other industries. Benchmarking can capture these external references and provide a basis for comparative analysis. Exhibit 2 shows some ways in which benchmarking can help to shape an organization's strategic direction. It depicts a typical strategic planning process for performance improvement that begins with an organization's vision for the future:

The vision will always be influenced to some extent by the organization's business environment and what others have been able to achieve. Benchmarking supplies detailed analyses of this environment and a factual basis for understanding what it means to be world-class, thereby helping to bring focus. the organization's vision into

Assessing current performance and measuring the distance from there to the vision are critical activities for ensuring an organization's long-term sustainability. While many tools are available for measuring current performance, benchmarking including adds market the research ability and competitor to clarify analysis, the

organization's position in relation to both the external business environment and the vision and to identify performance gaps. It enables the organization to adjust its strategy so that it can close the gap between its current reality and its vision of the future. Long-term plans or key strategies derived from the vision comprise strategic goals that address all aspects of the organization's performance, including business process performance, product or service performance, competitive performance, and customer satisfaction. By necessity, these goals will be constantly evolving.

Benchmarking analyses enable the organization to set these objectives based on the external reality.

FIG- 6:1 Mix of Publications

CHAPTER-7

HOW GOOD DO YOU NEED TO BE?

Benchmarking enables decision-makers to understand exactly how much improvement they'll need to accomplish in order to achieve superior performance. Frequent and regular benchmarking helps you to create specific and measurable short-term plans that are based on current reality rather than historical performance, and which can support step-by-step improvements in performance overtime. The objective is to overtake the top performers, turning a performance deficit into performance leadership. An implementation process is required to convert long- and short-term plans into operational plans. You'll need to know exactly how your specific strategic goals are to be met and who has responsibility for executing the necessary actions. You'll want to calculate and allocate the resources required and schedule and control the implementation. The output from your benchmarking effort feeds into this effort by providing vital information about best practices. Benchmarking is a powerful tool that can significantly enhance an organization's ability to strategically manage its performance. It forces managers to consider the broader perspective, to learn from outstanding performers, and to push beyond their own comfort zones.

Fig: 7:1

7:1 FOR EXAMPLE- HOW IS BENCHMARKING USED AS A SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT TOOL?

Our benchmarking analysis produces school-to-school comparisons that create the opportunity to accelerate improvement planning.

Benchmarking is a tool to add to your school improvement planning kit. The "planning cycle" shown below demonstrates how benchmarking can support and accelerate a school's improvement efforts.

Fig- 7:2 Improvement Tool

Benchmarking supports effective improvement planning by facilitating target setting and identifying effective programs, strategies and practices to achieve those targets. Consider the example of Alpha School. The following chart shows the relative difference in the performances of Alpha School and its benchmark school (Copenhagen Central School). Alpha School's performance is scaled to 100% and shown in red bars. The benchmark schools performance is scaled accordingly and shown as blue bars.

7:2 Target SettingSchool-to-school comparisons create the opportunity to set realistic targets for improvement. Alpha School is challenged by the benchmark school's performance.

Whereas the benchmark has 86% of its students graduating within four years and 92% within five years, Alpha School has 66% and 74%, respectively. Additionally, the benchmark school's five-year dropout rate is 4%, whereas Alpha School's is 16%. There is large opportunity gap for Alpha School. It now has a compelling benchmark school to help it set and, more importantly, justify improvement targets.

7:3 Exchange of effective practicesThe full value of benchmarking is realized in detailed, school-to-school discussions. Benchmarking identifies both the discussion partners and the agenda.

What might the benchmark be doing differently than Alpha School to achieve

better results despite its greater constraints?

Is there anything Alpha School could learn from the benchmark regarding

the following:
o o o o o o o o

Curriculum alignment Local assessment of student performance Instructional practices Organizing and scheduling for learning Professional development Parent involvement Use of data to inform instructional decisions Academic intervention service design

Alpha School can pursue answers to these questions via phone conversations, site visits or best-practice conferences. Or where it is available, Alpha School can benefit from university research conducted at the benchmark school campus.

7:4 International BenchmarkingThere are already important developments in international benchmarking. Some areas of government have initiated or are preparing their own benchmarking efforts and various public utilities in Europe have been benchmarked. The OECD has for

many years been active in comparisons that have at least elements of benchmarking. These include:
Performance indicators for public telecommunications operators; International education indicators and performance standards in education; Health systems statistics; Many OECD country surveys have elements of benchmarking in relation to

specific sectors. The objectives of international benchmarking are similar to other benchmarking projects. However, since international benchmarking involves higher costs and more complexities than other benchmarking projects, it can only be justified by benefits that cannot be achieved through other forms of benchmarking. International benchmarking has a number of benefits that cannot be achieved through other forms of benchmarking. The development of the public sector in one country depends to an increasing extent on developments in other countries. International benchmarking is particularly useful:
When an organization is providing an unique service and there are no

organizations within the country that it can be benchmarked against.

In macro benchmarking of whole service delivery systems across countries. To assess the general level of performance of the public sector.

Benchmarking across countries may reveal more differences in performance than if the comparison is only done within a country.
To try to find innovative and alternative ways of providing a service or

responding to a problem. Usually more divers methods will be found if organizations are compared across a number of countries.

International benchmarking involves more complexities than benchmarking within countries. The differences between the countries mean that information that needs to be used in benchmarking is often not directly comparable. These comparability problems are both technical and more fundamental. The technical

problems should be solvable but the more fundamental comparability problems are more difficult to tackle. However, some of these differences should not necessarily be Comparability issues include:
Cost information: Methods for accounting costs may vary substantially

between countries. Some countries report costs on cash basis while other report full accrual costs, including cost of capital. Another problem is that the costs of internal service in the public sector may in some cases be allocated to the provider rather than the receiver. Funding practices may also be different, making it difficult to get information about the total cost of a given activity.
Different prices: Prices between countries are variable. Cost information

may therefore not be the best indicator of the relative performance of a given service.
Differing social systems and differing social roles of the same

delivery systems: The systems for providing services are different between countries, services may for example be provided at levels of government, involvement of private different and voluntary

organizations may differ and the same or similar services can be provided by different service systems. Different needs, conditions and expectations: The need for a given service may vary between countries. Comparisons of quantity have to reflect those different needs. Conditions may be different. It is more expensive to provide service in rural areas than in cities. The rural areas may on the other side have fewer social problems than large cities. The expectations of customers may vary between countries and this may affect results in relation to many service quality measures.

7:5 COSTSThe three main types of costs in benchmarking are:

Visit Costs - This includes hotel rooms, travel costs, meals, a token gift, and lost labor time.

Time Costs - Members of the benchmarking team will be investing time in

researching problems, finding exceptional companies to study, visits, and implementation. This will take them away from their regular tasks for part of each day so additional staff might be required.

Benchmarking Database Costs - Organizations that institutionalize

benchmarking into their daily procedures find it is useful to create and maintain a database of best practices and the companies associated with each best practice now.

FIG- 7:3

CHAPTER-8 BENEFITS AND USE

In 2008, a comprehensive survey [1] on benchmarking was commissioned by The Global Benchmarking Network, a network of benchmarking centers representing 22 countries. Over 450 organizations responded from over 40 countries. The results showed that:
1.

Mission and Vision Statements and Customer (Client) Surveys are

the most used (by 77% of organizations of 20 improvement tools, followed by SWOT analysis (72%), and Informal Benchmarking (68%). Performance Benchmarking was used by 49% and Best Practice Benchmarking by 39%.
2.

The tools that are likely to increase in popularity the most over the

next three years are Performance Benchmarking, Informal Benchmarking, SWOT, and Best Practice Benchmarking. Over 60% of organizations that are not currently using these tools indicated they are likely to use them in the next three years.

8:1 Collaborative BenchmarkingBenchmarking, originally described as a formal process by Rank Xerox, is usually carried out by individual companies. Sometimes it may be carried out collaboratively by groups of companies (e.g. subsidiaries of a multinational in different countries). One example is that of the Dutch municipally-owned water supply companies, which have carried out a voluntary collaborative benchmarking process since 1997 through their industry association. Another example is the UK construction industry which has carried out benchmarking since the late 1990s again through its industry association and with financial support from the UK Government.

8:2 LIMITATIONS OF BENCHMARKINGToo much obsession with what others are doing can distract companies from what they can do to create differentiation. By definition, benchmarking is about the past, or at best the present. It is a bit like driving by looking into the rear view mirror.

Vijay Govindrajan, a leading management thinker once said that companies should be forward looking, thinking about the next practices, rather than best practices. By copying somebody elses best practice, companies can at best aspire to reach their levels of performance, and in the meantime, the companies they are copying may move forward, sometimes by taking discontinuous leaps ahead. The other danger of benchmarking is that it can lead to a sense of complacency and stagnation in an entire industry. Over a period of time, companies, especially in a mature industry, achieve similar levels of performance and efficiency and their benchmarking confirms it. This narrowing of the gap reduces the incentive or the pressure to break new ground or evolve better practices. This opens the whole industry to sudden challenges from new paradigms. For example, off shoring of IT jobs to India, and manufacturing to China, were such paradigms creating developments. If IT or manufacturing companies in the developed world were benchmarking only among themselves, they would have been congratulating themselves for having progressed steadily. It is clear in hindsight, that this would have been a case of a false sense of security.

FIG- 8:1

CONCLUSION

A scrutiny of the publications shows that several aspects of benchmarking along with many interesting and diverse applications have been covered in sufficient detail. These publications can serve a great deal towards quality improvement The present review of literature on benchmarking, carried out as a part of ongoing research, has identified certain issues which have not been satisfactorily addressed or not been addressed at all. These issues can be regarded as inadequacies and they offer scope for further research and exploration.

Cost aspects of benchmarking: The overall cost incurred in carrying out a

benchmarking exercise needs to be established, say in terms of cost models or cost equations.

Duration of benchmarking exercise: Guidelines regarding setting up of a

timeframe for conducting benchmarking are not available.

Selecting benchmarking partner:

Selection

of partner or superior

performer, their duties and responsibilities, legal and business aspects are to be further elaborated.

Reference

Adam, P. and Vandewater, R. (1995), "Benchmarking and the

bottom line: translating business re engineering into bottom line results", Industrial Engineering, Vol. 27

No. 2, pp. 24-6 Bean, T.J. and Gros, J.G. (1992), "R&D benchmarking at AT

and T", Research-Technology Management, Vol. 35 No. 4, pp. 32-7.

Chapple, A. (1992), "Benchmarking pits industry against world's best in

class", Engineering Times, Vol. 14 No. 4, pp. 1-6.

Davis, T.R.V. and Patrick, M.S. (1993), "Benchmarking at Sun

Heath Alliance', Planning Review, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 28-31, 56.

Jackson, N. (2001), "Benchmarking in UK HE: an overview",

Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 218-35.

Kumar, S. and Chandra, C. (2001), "Enhancing the effectiveness of

benchmarking in manufacturing organizations", Industrial Management and Data Systems, Vol. 101 No. 2, pp. 80-9.

Nandi, S.N. (1993), "Interfere comparison for productivity improvement",

APO Productivity Journal, pp. 153-80.

Raghunath, R. (1998), "Quality standards for business schools", Financial

Express, November, p. 25.

Ryan, C. (1993), "Using peer group benchmarks as analytical tools",

National Underwriter, 16 August, pp. S6-S8.

Singh, D.P. (1997), "Benchmarking swifter, higher, stronger",

Analyst, pp. 14-25.

Subramanian, S.K. (1984), Interim Comparison Some Experiences, Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo.