Using the Tools in Your Performance Excellence Toolbox: Part 20 Benchmarking Preparation

Using the Tools in Your Performance Excellence Toolbox: Part 20 Benchmarking Preparation

This is the twentieth in a series of posts on using performance excellence tools.  Benchmarking is a tool that can really help you determine the best solution to your problem.  This post will begin to cover more on the preparation for the benchmarking exercise.

First, set the date, time and place for the meeting.

To set the date and location requires you to determine the amount of time needed to cover the subject(s) and the number of people involved.

If the meeting will consist of a large number of people from the aggregate of total participating entities, you will need a room large enough to accommodate everyone.

Will you break out into sub committees? This means you may need additional rooms though in some cases just grouping in a corner of the room may be enough.

You need to determine the size and number of rooms required to see if there are rooms available at the time you are getting together.  Obviously, if not, you need to readjust the proposed date and/or time.

Do not forget that you have to match up each member’s calendar for the session(s) in which they are participating.

You need to calculate travel time.  Whether you are driving across town or flying across country, allow for delays.  I was part of a team flying from Corning, New York to Cincinnati, Ohio for a benchmarking sessions.  We were delayed for several hours at an airport where we had to change planes.  Three things happened during that layover.  One, they sent us to the wrong gate, two they failed to update the arrival and departure time for the aircraft and third, someone abandoned a briefcase in the waiting area and the bomb dog was brought in.  Fortunately, we had decided to travel the evening before rather than trying to get there in the morning.

Will this be a quid pro quo?   To set a time for this, each side should determine not only how long they intend to present but also more importantly how long they intend to ask and answer questions.

The formal presentation should be minimal if used at all.  People are not there for the sales pitch or feel good speeches that management and sales like to put out there.  They are there for specific reasons, have specific questions to ask not talk endlessly about irrelevant topics.  Allow for a brief introduction of the company, its markets, background etc.  There is no need for this to go for more than 5 minutes for each side.  As John Wayne said in Cowboys, “We’re burning daylight.”  The more time you waste on fluff the less time you have to get the data the data you came to get.

Once you have the logistics down, you can set the agenda that will be covered in the next post.

Oh by the way, if you do not need to see what they are doing, consider a phone call or teleconference/video conference call to save time and money.

Using the Tools in Your Performance Excellence Toolbox: Part 17 Benchmarking

Using the Tools in Your Performance Excellence Toolbox: Part 17 Benchmarking

This is the seventeenth in a series of posts on using performance excellence tools.  Benchmarking is a tool that can really help you determine the best solution to your problem.  It can point you to best/better practices.

First let’s understand what is meant by benchmarking.  “Benchmarking is the process of comparing one’s business processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries.”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking

The easiest way to do this is to start by saying what it is not.

• It is not a bogey or target that you set to measure internal progress. To illustrate this, I’ll relate a story from my experience as a consultant.  Consulting for a commercial records center, I asked the owner if he had benchmarks for key operations.  He said that he did.  The company had financial benchmarks to gage progress. That is not the type of benchmarking used in process improvement.
• It is not an excuse to make a field trip.  When I was first introduced to benchmarking in the 1980s, the division that I was with had a rough time understanding how to properly use benchmarking.  Immediately people wanted to get in a car or jump on a plane and go talk to the “experts” in the field.  That was a huge waste of resources.
• It is not even identifying the best in your business and talking to them.
• It is not for the faint of heart, untrained or impatient.

Successful benchmarking requires the following steps:

• Set aside a good amount of time to complete the process.  At a minimum you are going to spend 40 hours and for big processes with big problems you can be at it for months.
• Clearly identified and documented gaps or inadequacies in the process you want to benchmark.  To do this you need to:
  • Analyze your process
  • Identify the errors
  • Identify potential solutions (this can be done before or after benchmarking)
  • Identify potential benchmarking partners.  This is the most critical point.  You are looking for the best practice for the process you are working on.  This may come from an unexpected place.  Too often people want to benchmark the best in their business not the best in the process.  Let’s return to the commercial records center for an example.

They were trying to improve their delivery process.  When I explained the need to benchmark, the owner immediately said let’s benchmark the largest in the business.  That was the wrong answer.  They needed to benchmark the best at delivery not the best commercial record center with the best delivery process.  If you are going to improve your delivery process you look to the organizations where that is a core function.  They needed to benchmark companies like FedEx or UPS.

You have identified your potential benchmarking partners.  Now comes the hard part – enlisting them.  Benchmarking partners are not always easy to enlist.  For some the reason they are the best is held as a trade secret or their key competitive advantage.  Put yourself in their position.  How willing would you be to share what has made you the best of breed?

You need to be able to answer their WIIFM (what’s in it for me).  Some potential partners are open to sharing because what you are asking does not pose a threat to them.  You may not be a competitor in their market or business.

Others may be willing if you sign a nondisclosure agreement with them.

One of the best ways to enlist a partner is to share with them your results or cross benchmark with them.

There is much more to benchmarking.  I will cover it in upcoming posts.