Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Business Tools: Benchmarking

One amazing tool for any business to improve itself is to benchmark other companies that have proved to be successful. Benchmarking is the process of looking at other company's best practices in order to implement those practices to better the business. This tool can also be used to measure what the competition can do.

The tool of benchmarking can be used in the industry that the organization is in, or it can be used in a completely different area. GE used Motorola as a benchmark for a new quality process called Six Sigma. This process of eliminating waste helped GE attain record revenue numbers and it helped the company stay ahead of the Japanese manufacturing processes that caused the downfall of many American companies. GE not only implemented the Six Sigma system that Motorola developed, but it also adapted the Six Sigma processes to the service industry. The financial success Six Sigma practices provided many companies is astounding, and the Six Sigma system has become one of the best known quality initiatives in companies today. GE's use of benchmarking is now being benchmarked by other companies that are looking to restructure their quality processes. This is what benchmarking does. It takes the best practices of other companies and implements these practices into making businesses better and more productive.

For more information about the basics of benchmarking check out this article found at About.com. The business tool of benchmarking is valuable to any type of organization, or it can even be used personally as a way for self improvement.

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