Benchmarking on the example of a Russian company. What is benchmarking - types, methods, examples of this competitor analysis tool

Using the experience of leaders in their industry, focusing on the best practices they have tested in organization, production, management, etc., it is easier to reach a comparable level of your company and even gain an advantage. A method based on a rigorous analysis of someone else's experience, with the introduction of the best practices, the purpose of which is to optimize and increase the efficiency of one's own business, is called.

How to effectively use competitor analysis (and more)

Before starting the study, the first step is to select a standard, effective work and the commercial success of which is undeniable. Direct competitors, enterprises of the same industry, and even companies operating in completely different areas, but the most advanced in terms of production organization, management and marketing, can be used as a benchmark.

There are several types of benchmarking:

Competitive. Assumes comparative analysis competitors (similar products, implemented business processes, competitive advantages).

General. The best practices of companies in any industry are studied and adopted, in addition to the one in which the company using benchmarking operates.

Functional. The work of individual departments, the performance of specific functions (personnel management, supply, logistics, etc.) of close companies, not necessarily competitors, are compared.

Naturally, in the case of direct competitors, no one will reveal their cards voluntarily. Several methods of analysis are used here: the purchase of competitor products with the study of their advantages, interviewing employees of related companies (general suppliers, for example), direct purchase of information, attracting key competitor employees to work in their business. The most important thing is not just to study, understand the pros and cons of others, but to identify your own miscalculations and shortcomings, to introduce the best into your business.

Why Blind Imitation Doesn't Work

Through benchmarking, examples of better and more effective solutions and practices are tailored to the specific business. It is important not to use direct copying, but to synthesize something of your own, since simply copying the leader, which is taken as a standard, inevitably puts your business in the role of an eternal catch-up. It is important to understand the purpose of introducing someone else's experience, to correlate the cost of innovations and the magnitude of the result achieved. For example, the system ERP management not needed for a small company.

Benchmarking must be done continuously so as not to stagnate, not lose competitive advantage and constantly stay ahead. It is a continuous process of improving the functioning of the business, based on the evaluation of the products, services and performance of the strongest companies. This is a constant analysis, development and implementation of improvements, business optimization.

Successful benchmarking examples

One example of a classic analysis and implementation methodology is the development of XEROX Corporation, which includes 10 steps, divided into four stages:

Training. The object of benchmarking is identified, comprehensively evaluated in terms of money, all available information is analyzed, and an enterprise is selected for comparison.

Analysis. The main parameters are compared (quality, time and money costs, customer satisfaction), inefficient ones are singled out, the reasons why others are better are determined.

Implementation. Goals are set and optimization strategies are defined, the enterprise is made aware of the need for change, and a plan is drawn up. Changes are implemented with mandatory performance monitoring.

Repetition. Over time, all innovations become the standard on the market and require updating. Therefore, benchmarking is carried out on a new cycle.

In the course of analyzing the effectiveness of other companies, XEROX changed the order of warehousing of finished products, launched a two-level distribution (by the way, for the first time in Russia), accelerated the assembly of products in areas where manual labor was required, etc. The study and implementation of the best practices of many companies has provided XEROX with a competitive advantage.

A good example is the benchmark comparisons conducted by Ford. Benchmarking was carried out in the nineties in order to raise the shaken position of the company. Was held global study more than 50 car models in order to study their advantages and consumer preferences. Determined for each attractive property

About what prevents the purchasing department from becoming a full-fledged tool for increasing the company's profits.

Each of the factors mentioned in the last article reduces the effectiveness of the purchasing department. If you find similarities in several positions at once in relation to your company, the position can be considered critical.

The question arises →

What should the head of the company and the CFO do in such a situation?

Practice shows that it is possible to get out of the crisis only through thoughtful step-by-step transformations.

So, let's begin.

Step one. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the procurement department

Conduct an audit and get an objective picture of what is happening in Procurement:

• study the current workflow;
• highlight the TOP-20 categories and the amount of costs for them;
• designate the persons responsible for the purchase of these categories;
• specify the number and functionality of employees involved in the procurement process;
• evaluate the level of expertise in procurement by category.

Step two. Purchasing focus on strategic issues

Release Purchasing from non-core work by focusing employees on strategic issues:

1. Sourcing:

• market analysis;
• preparation terms of reference;
• tender/negotiations;
• preparation and implementation of the contract.

2. Management of interaction with suppliers:

• performance evaluation of suppliers by interviewing internal customers and market analysis;
• establishing feedback;
• recommendations to suppliers on how to make their service more efficient;
• introduction of innovations.

• procurement and consumption process;
• commercial terms;
• specifications.

2) Creation of a long-term category strategy and new procurement schemes. For example, switching to operating leasing or car rental instead of buying vehicles in the property.

Ensure full procurement coverage of strategic cost categories

Strategic Categories- categories that critically affect your business. Such categories (packaging, raw materials, transport, goods and services for marketing) usually make up the majority of budget expenditures.

Spot(one-time purchases with a low cost - purchase of 10 laptops, search for an office for rent, purchase of office furniture, etc.) and operational purchases(processing applications for goods for the office, expendable materials for stores, placing and tracking orders from suppliers) allocate to a separate operational function. To do this, create service center in a region with low labor costs, or outsource operational functions.

If these processes are left to the initiators, there is a high probability of nullifying the savings achieved during sourcing

Reasons for these losses:

Move the table

Step three. Strong expertise

Focus your purchasing expertise on strategic cost categories.

Important:

• hire specialized specialists for each specific categories;
• fire the "tired" - those who cannot be motivated;
• train employees (trainings, reference visits, etc.);
• accumulate knowledge gained from suppliers and companies from the same industry.

Step four. clear goals

Set a clear goal for Purchasing: optimize costs for specific purchasing categories. Entrust the achievement of economic indicators to Finance. And to effectively spend the savings from sourcing events, adjust the budget quarterly.

Important:

Finance does not take into account calculated, but actually received savings

Step five. Sourcing Action Plan

Agree with the purchasing department on a plan of sourcing activities designed for a year, and preferably for the next two years. This will allow you to assess the scale of savings and use the necessary labor resources.

Step six. Signing and tracking SLAs (Service Level Agreements)

Be sure to develop and sign an SLA between Purchasing and other departments of the company.

Quarterly measure the performance of the purchasing department.

Feedback can be obtained through surveys to help find out →

• Are the initiators satisfied with the service providers?
• To what extent are heads of departments satisfied with the service of the purchasing department?
• What are the pros and cons of running a procurement service?

We use the surveymonkey.com resource in our work.

Regularly discuss emerging problems between the initiators and Procurement, monitor the implementation of the planned activities. This will reduce the time for agreeing on tender decisions and procurement, as well as help achieve savings according to the sourcing plan.

Step seven. Getting shopping out of your comfort zone

Take shopping out of your comfort zone!

Try to find new opportunities for cost reduction.

One such possibility is the creation of procurement consortiums with other companies. Unfortunately, today many companies do not consolidate purchases even within own organization/ group of companies or even one division, which is reflected in their results.

With the support of management, purchasing specialists can consolidate all the volumes of the group of companies and conduct a sourcing event at a higher level

Suppliers will meet halfway: they are interested in signing a contract for a larger volume within the framework of one event.

Step eight. Use benchmarking

Carry out benchmarking - comparison of the current conditions of the company with the conditions of other market participants. For example, with regard to mobile communications you need to compare the costs per user per month.

Benchmarking helps stimulate Procurement and allows you to assess the potential for cost reduction. In addition, it provides guidance in negotiations with suppliers: what level of value should be aimed at.

Step nine. Involve Purchasing in covering all requests

Require Procurement to cover all purchasing categories - direct and indirect.

The participation of Procurement in the process of making strategic decisions increases their efficiency and competitive advantages, and allows the initiators to formulate requests more correctly and clearly

The purchasing service is involved from the very beginning in the company's projects, where high costs are planned.

Step ten. Finance oversight

Tasks of Finance:

• involve Procurement in the budgeting process;
• set aggressive budgetary savings targets for Procurement;
• monitor the achievement of these goals;
• participate in the audit of procurement activities.

Finances should set the goal of saving for the initiators as well. This forces proponents to cooperate with Procurement in the selection of suppliers, even in categories in which Procurement has not previously participated.

Step eleven. The head of the company is the main stakeholder

You, like no one else, understand that the results of the procurement service directly affect the company's achievements. So it's in your best interest to be the main stakeholder, purchasing function sponsor.

The CEO should regularly (quarterly):

• evaluate the results of the Procurement activity together with other functional managers;
• receive a reliable report on achievements/problems in the field of procurement;
• receive a report on the results of Procurement in comparison with similar companies.

Important:

Procurement concerns the activities of the entire company and all functional managers, so control and interest from the CEO is necessary. For this reason, in international companies, the head of the Supply function (supply) often reports directly to the CEO.

Summing up

If you want to get the most out of Purchasing, create a competitive environment in which Purchasing competes within their own team, with other departments within the company, and with other organization's purchasing departments. Otherwise, the Procurement activity will remain chaotic and will not bring tangible results.

In international companies, CEOs and CFOs are involved in strategic purchasing management issues. This is explained by the fact that purchases increase the company's profit on a par with sales.

Purchases in Russia long time remained on the sidelines, as the last 15 years saw an increase in consumption and sales. Purchasing inefficiencies were ignored by management in pursuit of super profits and lack of competition.

Procurement becomes competitive if the company's management is interested in it, sets strategic goals for Procurement and monitors their implementation

It's time to change focus. You will certainly be able to change a lot and profitably in the purchasing function in your company! If you need practical advice, .

Benchmarking is understood as a systematic comparison of organizational processes and performance, carried out on the basis of pre-selected indicators (Fig. 1). The purpose of benchmarking is to identify the gap between the best results achieved and those that the company is currently showing in order to develop new standards and / or improve processes.

There are four types of benchmarking.

1. Internal - comparison of performance results and applied techniques in different divisions of the company, i.e. in business units.
2. Competitive - comparing the performance and performance of the company with the performance and performance of its direct competitors.
3. Functional - comparison of indicators and performance of companies from the same industry.
4. General - comparing the performance and performance of companies from different industries, carried out to find the most effective methods work.

All types of benchmarking can be beneficial as they allow a company to better understand its strengths and weaknesses identify problems and possible solutions; they also show norms, set new directions, and generate new ideas designed to improve company performance.

Benchmarking methods vary depending on situational characteristics and/or explanatory factors that will help explain the difference in performance between the companies being compared. Moreover, some of the benchmarking methods identify expected trends and how best practices will be developed. Other practical issues may also be explored in this analysis.

When to Apply the Model

The choice of the type of benchmarking depends on the goal. Keeping in mind that what is conceived and its implementation in practice usually do not have a 100% match, we can formulate the purpose of benchmarking as follows: it is a method of obtaining an answer to one of the following questions.

• How well are we doing our job?
• Are we doing our job as well as others?
• How can we improve our performance?

The scope of a benchmarking project is determined by the impact it is likely to have on the company, how freely it can be communicated openly to all stakeholders to increase the likelihood of success in improvement projects, and the efforts that are required to achieve results that play an important role in practice.

How to use the model

Ideally, companies (or any other similar structures) participating in benchmarking should show higher or at least the same results as the company (structure) under study, which in this case is called the target. You can find such companies with the help of experts and through specialized publications. However, due to differences in products, processes, structures, or because of the peculiarities of leadership and management styles, it can sometimes be very difficult to compare companies.

This difficulty can be overcome by using one practical technique. Research shows that it is possible to compare companies in the sample using explanatory factors. Thus, the reliability of delivery of goods to the consumer depends, among other things, on the complexity of the product. Therefore, a number of companies with approximately the same product complexity will have similar indicators for this quality, which makes it possible to form a homogeneous group for benchmarking delivery reliability (Fig. 2 and 3).

The assumptions made about the performance of the target company can be more accurate if benchmarking is applied to an indicator (for example, reliability of delivery) taking into account several explanatory factors.

To conduct benchmarking, you must perform the following (sometimes overlapping) steps.

1. Determine the scope of the project.
2. Choose a benchmarking partner(s).
3. Determine the scores, metrics, and method for collecting the required data.
4. Gather data.
5. Analyze the differences, uncover the facts behind the numbers.
6. Present the results of the analysis and discuss their implications for the (new) goals.
7. Track the dynamics of the development of the event (monitor) with the help of ongoing benchmarking.

conclusions

Benchmarking is not easy at all. Too often, managers or consultants resort to benchmarking on their own initiative, forgetting to select in advance the necessary indicators or tools for conducting serious detailed analysis and presenting its results. It's hard to argue with the fact that many benchmarking projects fail. Comparing organizational processes and company performance in benchmarking is like comparing dissimilar items like apples and pears. Even if benchmarking is done correctly, significant differences in performance can be explained by the fact that “we are not like them”, and this “alienation syndrome” makes it difficult to use benchmarking as a mechanism to help set the company on a path of change in order to achieve higher results. In addition, the presence of competition may hinder the free exchange of information; sometimes this happens even within the company.

By using explanatory factors, benchmarking helps a company to generate data for comparison that allows leaders and managers not only to improve performance (actually point out opportunities for improvement), but also to show original and at the same time proven solutions, thanks to which they can cope with very difficult problems. Therefore, we argue that differences between peer group companies should be encouraged rather than trying to exclude "dissimilar" members from the peer group on the grounds that their products or processes are "incomparable" with others.

In simple words benchmarking(Eng. Benchmarking) is a comparison with the best. When collective farmers in Soviet films demonstrated their achievements at agricultural exhibitions and paid each other visits to exchange best practices, this was not called benchmarking, but in fact it was exactly that. When Nikita Khrushchev visited American farms and marveled at corn and milk yields, he also did some benchmarking.

Benchmarking helps to improve business processes relatively quickly and cost-effectively. It allows you to understand how leading companies operate and achieve the same or better results. The value of benchmarking is not only that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. By carefully studying the achievements and mistakes of other companies, you can develop your own most effective business model.

Benchmarking is not just copying the systems used by successful companies. This approach may not give the desired results due to differences in business structures. The main thing is the adaptation of these principles for internal application. It is thanks to this that the benchmarking system can be effective not only with direct competitors in the market, but also with firms whose target audience is completely different. You can even analyze the work of enterprises from a completely different field of activity.

Competent benchmarking of the company can radically improve its functioning, but only if there is an understanding of their own processes. When comparing two business models, you need to be well versed in both, otherwise you won't get a clear picture of the big picture. Therefore, you first need to analyze the production processes in your company, and only then proceed to benchmarking.

Goals and objectives of benchmarking

The exchange of experience, as well as the study of other people's developments, has always been beneficial. But we can not say that this happens in 100% of cases. Some organizations are so far apart in various ways that benchmarking may not be useful. In this regard, the need for this step must first be justified, that is, the strategic goals of the company must coincide with the need for such a study. Benchmarking is a full-fledged business management tool, since its goal is to improve the system and increase the competitiveness of the company in the long term. This goal is achieved through the solution of specific issues.

In the process of comparing business schemes of different companies, two main tasks are solved:

1. Calculation of indicators of your own enterprise and comparing them with the selected standard.
2. Analysis of someone else's experience and its implementation in your company.

How to make a company a market leader: the experience of X-fit

Irina Tumanova, Executive Director company X-Fit, told the magazine " CEO”, how from a small company X-fit managed to become a market leader.

Benchmarking features are as follows

1. To give an idea to the management about the current state of affairs in the company, to overcome stagnation in the management sector.
2. Strive for improvement.
3. Find out in time that the organization is lagging behind in a certain area.
4. Identify company resources and identify weaknesses to overcome.
5. Set challenging but realistic goals for the firm.
6. Determine priorities for optimizing work.
7. Determine the level of the company in comparison with the best in the world.
8. Calculate the degree of backlog of the company.
9. Identify the best management systems and put them into operation.
10. Prepare an action plan for corrective action.
11. Link a long-term development plan with the company's self-improvement efforts.
12. Find previously unused technologies or management methods.
13. Focus on those factors that bring undoubted benefits to the enterprise.
14. To achieve large-scale improvements in the work of the organization, a “breakthrough”.
15. With the help of someone else's experience, rid the company of the "need" to learn from their own mistakes.
16. Establish the principle of continuous improvement in the organization.
17. Reduce financial costs for improving the work of the company.
18. Reduce risks when introducing new methods.
19. Raise the main financial indicators.

Benchmarking objects

Products and services. This position is the first one that benchmarking is focused on. The activities of a competing company are analyzed, points are highlighted due to which its business is more successful than yours. After that, it becomes clear what needs to be done to increase the productivity of the native company. There is one moment. It is somewhat easier to use benchmarking in the case of manufactured tangible products than in the case of services. The fact is that it is much more difficult to obtain the information necessary for research on the latter parameter. It is necessary at least to analyze the production field and take several interviews with competing firms.

Financial indicators. Benchmarking financial indicators is not so difficult, of course, if you know where and what to look for. Typically, this information is publicly available. By organizing a study on financial performance, you can determine the possible achievements and tasks that should be set for yourself. Material investments for carrying out such an analysis require very little, and you can meet it in a short time.

Business processes. Business process research is the most effective part of benchmarking. In order to remain competitive in the market, a company must be engaged in the development of the business as a whole, constantly invest various kinds of resources in it and control all operations. The capabilities of a particular organization can be "calculated" from its business processes. This type of analysis is especially important in a situation where two enterprises directly compete with each other, offering the same product to the consumer. The organization that has managed to increase competitiveness as efficiently as possible at the lowest cost will win.

This study on the benchmarking system is primary. It is with the help of such an analysis that specialists subsequently paint all the further steps that need to be taken to increase the profitability of the company. But for this it is necessary to carefully study the entire chain of work of a competing company, from its suppliers to the labor organization system. By the way, it is not at all necessary to be limited to the study of the activities of only one organization. It is useful to take note of related businesses that work with the same product and benchmark their business processes.

Strategies. No business can function properly without a strategy. You can improve the performance of your own company by analyzing in the most careful way the strategy and organization of the work of the competitor firm. True, it is not so easy to obtain comprehensive information in this case. Often such data is a closely guarded secret of the company. When benchmarking a strategy, it is necessary, first of all, to use logic, and only then the study will bear fruit.

Staff. Thanks to personnel benchmarking, you can compare the performance of your own HR departments with those of the world's leading companies in several indicators. After receiving the results of the analysis, the company's management will be able to manage personnel more efficiently. Before starting the comparison, you should determine the main performance indicators of the HR service. Some managers consider this department almost a burden for a company that is steadily and unjustifiably absorbing financial resources. Only this is far from true. The fact is that the work of the HR service in one way or another affects the quality of the activities of many departments. Sometimes this happens in such an indirect way that the benefit this department it is difficult not only to evaluate, but even to notice. Therefore, carefully conducted benchmarking is needed, with the help of which you can get specific indicators of the activities of the HR service, as well as identify problems that require immediate attention.

Functions, groups and organizations. Using benchmarking, specialists collect information not only about the products manufactured by a competitive company, but also about exactly how this is done. Every company has a specific internal structure and organization of work. It is precisely the clarification of all such details that is included in the task of benchmarking on this topic. Moreover, attention is often paid to the most insignificant, at first glance, nuances. For instance, professional qualities competitors' employees. The analysis carefully examines the total number of personnel in the company under study, the groups created, their functions, etc.

To facilitate the process of benchmarking, in this case, various kinds of websites are often drawn up, with the help of which contacts are established between specialists. Thanks to this, research costs are significantly reduced, because to obtain information you do not need to pay the road for employees of the analytical department, and the quality of incoming data does not suffer.

Types of benchmarking

Internal benchmarking. Based on the name, it is clear that this type of research is carried out exclusively within the company. For comparison, processes, goods or services that are closest in parameters are taken. The advantage of the method is that the analysis can be carried out without much difficulty, since there are no difficulties in collecting data. The downside is the very limited opportunities for research, as a result of which biased results are possible.

Competitive benchmarking. The analysis is carried out on the basis of comparing the products and services of your company with the products and services of a direct competitor company, and the latter can work both in the local, regional or international market. This type of benchmarking will be more useful if you choose an international organization for comparison.

Functional benchmarking. In such a study, the processes of one's own company are compared with similar processes of another. The difference from other types of benchmarking is that the firm chosen as a benchmark operates in a completely different area. Advantages this method in less effort to obtain objective data, and by absolutely ethical and legal methods.

Generalized benchmarking. For analysis, companies are selected that have the best indicators of processes and approaches in a certain area of ​​activity. Moreover, information about the work of these organizations is in the public domain. For example, there are many publications about the production system at Toyota or Motorola. An analysis is made of the most suitable processes and approaches for the company's own, which, after appropriate adaptation, are introduced into the work.

• Lean: small steps for big goals

Benchmarking examples

Internal benchmarking at Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard Corporation was ahead of its direct competitors from Japan in many ways. In particular, products were produced no less high quality, but at a faster pace. The question arose about maintaining the competitiveness of the company. Hewlett-Packard decided to conduct an analysis of research and development activities to find effective methods to speed up production.

The company compared the activities of its divisions, using the payback period of the project as a criterion. In order for the products to meet the real requirements of consumers, the technology of deploying quality functions was applied.

The result of the benchmarking was the decision of the company to implement a methodology called Six Sigma. The optimization of production consisted in the complete documentation of the process, the measurement of characteristics with a decrease in the variability of their values. The search for ways to improve the algorithms was also constantly conducted. If you look closely, Hewlett-Packard Corporation acted almost on the principle of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analize, Improve, Control - definition, measurement, analysis, improvement, control).

Competitive benchmarking at Ford

Ford Corporation in many design parameters could not compete with its rivals. In addition, according to consumers, its products were not functional. It got to the point that the company's profits fell catastrophically. She was able to return the market only after a completely new family was created. cars Taurus. This machine was obliged to at least not yield to competitors' models. To achieve this effect, a benchmarking analysis was carried out. The company's specialists organized a survey among the population in order to find out which particular properties of cars are the most popular. After that, they chose the cars on the world market that best corresponded to certain requirements of potential customers. The task of Taurus was not only to reach their level in various characteristics, but also to surpass it.

Benchmarking studies were carried out taking into account a huge number of car brands, and it did not matter whether they were direct competitors of the company or not. For example, cars like the BMW and Opel Senator have never competed with the Ford Taurus, but have some features that appeal to buyers. About 400 parameters of more than 50 car models were analyzed. Ford developed and implemented new products based on the principles of DMADV (Define, Match, Analyze, Design, Verify - definition, measurement, analysis, development, verification). The result was not long in coming. Soon Ford Taurus became the car of the year and came out on top in sales.

Unfortunately, the success didn't last too long. The transmission of the Taurus revealed certain flaws that undermined the reputation of the car. Due to the constant improvements that followed, the company began to deviate more and more from the original concept. As a result, by the end of the 90s of the last century, Taurus sales decreased by almost seven times. They tried to correct the situation, but in 2006 the production of this family of cars ceased. However, they learn from mistakes, and Ford is no exception. The main lesson this time was the understanding that benchmarking of competing enterprises is not a one-time event. Such studies should be carried out regularly in order to update the results and adjust activities. In general, the Six Sigma methodology says almost the same thing: the search for sources of variation not only provides certain knowledge about the level of competitiveness of the company, but also shows a graph of its change. As a result, company management has the opportunity to take into account not only the short-term effects of the implementation of certain improvement programs, but also the future consequences of decisions made.

Functional benchmarking in General Motors

General Motors in 1982-1984. carried out benchmarking analysis, with the help of which she tried to find a way to improve the quality and reliability of products through alternative management options. At that time, as part of the "competition" with Japan, most firms began to pay increased attention to the quality of the goods, believing that this parameter is the main one in the struggle for competitiveness. General Motors performed research based on data from well-known companies: Hewlett-Packard, 3M, John Deer. Before proceeding with the analysis, experts from General Motors outlined 10 hypotheses about the factors that most affect product quality. These hypotheses had to be confirmed with the help of information from partner companies that also carry out benchmarking work.

An objective comprehensive assessment of the quality management systems adopted in the firms participating in the research was formed. As a result, a relationship was found between the quality of goods and the efficiency of enterprises. Moreover, largely due to this research, a little later, the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award appeared, and then the ISO 9000 series of standards, which established General requirements to quality management systems. General Motors was 14 years ahead of research on the criteria of the Baldridge model, however, as well as the requirements of ISO 9000 standards. This gave the company and its partners undeniable advantages over competitors. The fact is that customers considered their products to be of much higher quality than the products of other firms working in the same field.

But, as is typical of many benchmarking analyses, this study also suffered from the lack of regular study of working conditions and production processes in the company. Instead of constantly improving itself, General Motors was satisfied with the advantage achieved. And then she completely switched to following the requirements of the industry standard QS 9000 (the latter is a modified version of ISO 9000, taking into account the characteristics of the automotive industry). General Motors also regularly competes for the Malcolm Baldrige Award and masters the Six Sigma methodology. But now all automobile enterprises are engaged in this, and the quality management system must be constantly developed.

General Benchmarking at Xerox

Examples when benchmarking helped a particular company in difficult situation, enough. However, one of the most famous is Xerox's comparison of its logistics system with those of more successful enterprises. Involuntarily, Xerox confirmed the correctness of the American scientist William Deming, who argued that the crisis experienced by the organization often provokes an increase in quality. He forces executives to take certain actions to get the company out of trouble. In the late 1970s, Xerox began to succumb to pressure from Japanese competitors. For 10 years, from 1974 to 1984, the return on the firm's assets dropped from 22% to 4%. Xerox decided to try to get out of the crisis and find more suitable management methods with the help of benchmarking.

Fuji Xerox, the Japanese branch of Xerox, played an important role in conducting the study. The company analyzed three main parameters: its own processes and costs, the costs and processes of its branch, as well as similar components from competitors. Thanks to this study and open information on market prices For copiers, Xerox was able to figure out the cost of competitors' operations, and then figure out the areas in which they showed the best financial performance. As a result, the company was able to assess the size of the gap between itself and its rivals, but it was not immediately possible to eliminate it. Only after turning to the experience of the world's leading companies, Xerox was able to catch up with competing firms in areas where it had previously lagged far behind. But benchmarking in that situation did not play the role of a genie from a lamp that could get rid of all the troubles.

The 90s came, and digital technologies came to replace analog technologies. At the same time, Xerox switched from a cumbersome functional structure to a simplified scheme. Improvement production processes paid much less attention than before. Gaining leadership in the copier market by improving the quality of goods and conducting research is not only forgotten, but temporarily excluded from priority tasks. It follows from Xerox's experience that benchmarking is a tool that can help a company improve, but nothing more. It is not a panacea, much less Magic wand, waving which, you can solve all problems. In some situations, the usual copying of the experience of more advanced enterprises may not help.

Are benchmarking tools suitable for small companies?

If a medium-sized firm decided to do such an analysis, then it may have questions:

Don't give up on benchmarking just because there's a lot of work ahead. If you use all the opportunities provided by benchmarking correctly, you can take your company to a completely different level.

Benchmarking stages: from object selection to implementation of changes

Benchmarking is not an equation that is solved in a strictly defined way. unified system not here, each company uses its own developments. But all activities can be divided into several stages:

1. At the first stage, you need to select the benchmarking object, analyze and refine it. It can be some process, service or product produced by the enterprise. Here it is important to decide on the following points: what resources the company can afford to allocate for this study; a one-time action is planned or such a practice will become regular.

2. At the second stage, the characteristics that need to be analyzed are determined. The object of analysis can be certain process parameters, consumer properties of a product or service.

3. The third stage is the appointment of specialists who will conduct benchmarking. It is desirable to take people from different departments. This will give you the opportunity to take a broader look at the object of research both in your own company and in a benchmarking partner firm.

4. The fourth stage is the actual choice of partners. These can be serious enterprises whose success in implementing the characteristics you are interested in is undeniable (you identified the characteristics themselves at the second stage). As partners, you can take both one company and several. With internal benchmarking of an organization, related divisions of the company will act as partners, processes within the enterprise or manufactured products will be analyzed.

5. At the fifth stage, the collection and analysis of data necessary for further comparison begins. Often the received information needs to be processed. The fact is that in different companies the same specifications product may be described in different ways. Everything will need to be brought to a common denominator.

6. The sixth stage of benchmarking is to assess the company's ability to catch up with the leading organization in terms of the required characteristics. Valuation methods can be different, for example, using a GAP analysis.

7. At the seventh stage, specialists determine what changes are needed in the work of the enterprise to achieve a specific result. Big Picture should be based on the results of adapting the acquired knowledge to the conditions of your own company.

8. The eighth stage is devoted to the development of strategic goals and drawing up plans to achieve them. Much depends on the scale of the proposed changes. Plans may relate to the organization of production, management systems and other aspects of the company.

9. At the ninth stage, the previously approved plans are being implemented. Moreover, this process requires constant monitoring. If necessary, plans are adjusted in the course of implementation.

10. The last step is to decide on re-benchmarking to solve new problems, if, of course, the past ones were successfully implemented.

2 approaches to benchmarking

Benchmarking wheel

Stage 1. Planning.

1. Creation of a team of professionals.
2. The choice of parameters for the study.
3. Definition of the process (product, service) that needs to be compared.

Stage 2. Search. Selection of benchmarking partners or other data sources.

Stage 3. Data collection. Selecting the method of obtaining information according to certain parameters.

Stage 4. Analysis. Comparison of indicators and finding out the extent to which your company lags behind the one chosen for benchmarking. Development and transmission of recommendations for improving performance.

Stage 5. Adaptation of the result. Making necessary changes to an organization's product, service, process or strategy.

The Xerox Approach

Xerox has come up with its own approach to benchmarking, which consists of five phases and 12 steps.

Phase 1. Planning.

1. Find out exactly what to compare.
2. Find a benchmarking partner.
3. Map out a way to get data and start collecting it.

Phase 2. Analysis

1. Determine how big the performance gap is between companies.
2. Develop and provide future levels of these indicators.

Phase 3. Approval

1. Associate the results obtained and the allowable gap in indicators.
2. Define functional goals.

Phase 4. Action

1. Development of a further action plan.
2. Implementation of individual events in the company with tracking the progress of the company.
3. Adjustment of comparison of indicators.

Phase 5. Completion

1. Leading out.
2. Bringing the experience gained into the company's activities.

Common Mistakes in Benchmarking

1. Some perceive benchmarking as a kind of audit of the organization. But this is far from true.

With the help of benchmarking research, you can get certain useful numbers, but the system itself is aimed at finding out what these numbers mean, that is, you can find out where the enterprise is in one position or another.

2. Many are sure that some basic parameters have been developed long ago and do not need any improvements.

It is not possible to apply such a system in a company simply because any market is not monolithic. There is a difference in customer preferences, availability of resources, production conditions, and so on. You need to find partners who will share their experience in achieving goals, as well as tell you whether your company is capable of reaching such a height.

3. Another common mistake is the lack of attention to the needs of the client.

Some firms after benchmarking are so carried away by the need to reduce costs while increasing the quality of goods that they completely stop paying attention to what the direct consumer needs from the product. To avoid such an error, it would be a good idea to use a specially developed integrated system business indicators - "balanced scorecard".

4. The desire to do everything and immediately positive results, most likely, will not give.

Managers who decide to benchmark absolutely all systems of the company at the same time make a big mistake. First, it's expensive. Second, it takes too long. Everything must be done gradually, analyzing one system after another.

5. Inconsistency also leads to failure.

Several points can be noted here. The use of benchmarking should be consistent with the company's strategy and not conflict with other initiatives. The process of implementing benchmarking must be directed and controlled by management.

6. It would be a mistake to set unspecific, too “vague” tasks.

Sometimes benchmarking is tasked with analyzing communications between company employees. But the question is, how can this be measured and in what units? Therefore, it is better to choose more specific goals for research, for example, to evaluate the system of distribution of powers in the company.

7. Benchmarking without a pre-prepared platform does not make sense.

A similar situation may arise when the study of some processes in competing firms or the search for benchmarking partners begins before data on the same processes in their own organization is obtained.

8. An insufficiently complete analysis of the research partner can be a fatal mistake.

If both your time and your partner's time is wasted, then it will not lead to anything good. The existing code of such research states that if you are able to obtain the necessary data or solve the problem yourself, then you do not need to worry your partner about this.

Iwao Kobayashi "20 keys - a technique for creating a quality work environment."

This paper describes a system of 20 keys with which organizations can improve the efficiency of their activities. This technique is convenient to use for benchmarking. The sequence of actions deduced by the author is extremely simple, transparent and useful. With its help, the fundamental problems of the production of goods and the provision of services are solved. Admittedly, the method proposed by Kobayashi, unlike many others, guarantees the achievement of the desired results with less time and effort. The book not only combines world achievements in productivity improvement, but also implements the interconnection of individual systems with each other.

Rob Rader Benchmarking strategy as a means to improve profitability.

After reading this book, you can easily understand the basic principles, methods and rules of internal and external benchmarking. It is easy to learn how to choose samples and benchmarks for planned studies, based on a study of the company's activities and an analysis of the needs of all interested parties. The book discusses the methods by which you need to collect benchmarking data and implement the experience of other firms in your own organization. The author talks about the code of conduct for participants in the process and the rules for reporting on the results of the analysis.

Rob Rader advises how to use benchmarking as a tool for organizational development, as well as for strategizing how to use the benefits gained. By following the recommendations of the book, an ordinary well-performing company can be transformed into a world-class company.

Harrington H.J., Harrington J.S. "Benchmarking in at its best! 20 steps to success.

This publication is practically a benchmarking of benchmarking itself. Having studied all the recommendations proposed in the book, you can improve both the work of any department of the company, and all its activities as a whole.

The authors review successful research methods, from the purchase of products from a competing firm to the analysis of the production process. With this guide you can choose the best way benchmarking.

The work used huge amounts of data from Ernst & Young. The language of the book is completely uncomplicated and free from professional jargon, which in many cases is very important. After reading this book on benchmarking, you can learn how some companies have achieved 2000% growth in production using this methodology in just eight months. Maybe you can do something similar?

Reading time: 15 minutes

In our country, there is an active development of business, the development of new management tools. This allows you to improve the quality of business processes, make them more perfect, and enterprises more competitive. One such tool is benchmarking.

From this article you will learn:

1. Types of benchmarking
2. The principles on which it is carried out
3. 4 stages
4. Benchmarking examples from world practice
5. How is benchmarking used in Russia?

What is company benchmarking and what is it used for?

Benchmarking

an ongoing process of evaluating the level of products, services and practices based on comparison with the strongest competitors or leading companies.

Through the use of benchmarking, business becomes more efficient and open. This tool allows you to find answers to questions that arise in the course of conducting entrepreneurial activity, and has the following Benefits:

1. Its application makes it possible to overcome the stagnation in the leadership, allows you to point out to managers that they misrepresent the state of affairs.
2. Benchmarking motivates self-satisfied and complacent businessmen to strive for the best.
3. It helps to identify both the strengths of the organization and the weaknesses that need to be strengthened.
4. Its holding is an opportunity to warn the company in advance about the backlog.
5. Benchmarking sets difficult but achievable goals.
6. Helps to determine which actions to improve performance are prioritized.
7. Allows you to identify and include the best management processes and practices used in business.
8. It reveals the level of the company compared to the best in the world.
9. Determines how much the level of the firm's functioning lags behind the level of competing organizations.
10. Provides the organization with proven corrective action plans.
11. Allows you to combine the strategy and efforts of the enterprise to improve it.
12. Opens up new technologies and ways of managing a company.
13. Focuses on the main success factors of the company.
14. Allows you to carry out large-scale activities aimed at improving performance.
15. Helps to learn from the experience of partners and competitors. No company has enough time and resources to learn from its mistakes.
16. Creates a culture of continuous improvement.
17. Allows you to reduce the cost of ongoing improvements.
18. Allows approaches to be implemented more quickly and with less risk.
19. Contributes to the improvement of key financial indicators.

Depending on the field of application, benchmarking is classified into:

• Benchmarking the level of customer service.
• Benchmarking of information technologies.
• Benchmarking product characteristics.
• Product quality benchmarking.
• Benchmarking the development and training of employees.
• Benchmarking business process management.
• Phone customer service benchmarking.
• Performance benchmarking.
• Production benchmarking.
• Cost Benchmarking.
• Image benchmarking.
• Benchmarking of personnel management and recruitment, etc.

The history of benchmarking

Benchmarking began to be systematically applied in practice in the 1980s. The pioneer company in the use of this tool is Xerox.

She faced a foreign organization that competes with her and has a higher performance in most indicators. Xerox management decided to find out what the secret of the competitor's advantage was in order to reach its level or even get ahead of it. The task was divided into several components, which made it possible to answer the questions:

1. Which company's products, services and business processes can be considered the best?
2. What allowed this company to reach such results?

After Xerox, other organizations began to resort to the use of benchmarking, the scope of its application was expanded, and the methodology was finalized. The range of problems studied has become much wider, that is, the search for advanced methods of doing business has begun to be carried out not only in competing companies, but also in other organizations both in their industry and in those adjacent to it.

Recently, the search for answers to the second of the identified benchmarking questions has been improved. But observing and describing the methods of conducting the activities of organizations that are leaders is not enough. Separately, a rather difficult component of the task is the implementation of these methods in your enterprise.

The trends in management in the 1980s did not bypass benchmarking either. This period was marked by the development of the concept of integrated quality management ( total quality Management, TQM). The popularity of this concept was very high in the next 10 years.

Benchmarking is based on principles that are fully consistent with the concept of Total Quality Management. According to some experts, benchmarking is a tool without which it is impossible to implement TQM.

Be that as it may, the basis and concept of integrated quality management and benchmarking is the desire for high quality of the company's business processes, its products, and services.

TQM and benchmarking - components corporate culture continuous improvement, involvement of personnel in the business processes of the organization and customer orientation.

Submit your application

Why is benchmarking so popular today? Jason Grason Jr., head of International Benchmarking Clearinghouse cites these reasons:

1. global competition

Businesses are now globalized, and companies are realizing that it is essential to comprehensively and in detail study and then implement the best achievements of partners and competitors if they want to survive.

1. Quality reward

Recently, there have been more and more campaigns at the state level, during which enterprises that are leaders in terms of quality are identified and awarded. To take part in such a program, a company must not only prepare a presentation of the competitive advantages of its products. In the arsenal of tools for managing an organization, benchmarking must be present.

1. The need for widespread adaptation and use of world achievements in the field of production and business technologies

Any organization, regardless of size and scope of activity, needs to constantly study and implement best practices in the field of production processes and business technologies. This will keep you ahead of your competitors.

Types of company benchmarking

You need to know how process benchmarking differs from results benchmarking. Performance benchmarking simply compares performance. But in reality, benchmarking is meant to penetrate the processes behind the results; determine why performance indicators differ; borrow ideas that have been successfully implemented in practice.

It is not easy to categorize benchmarking activities because many companies that practice them ignore the recommended templates.

Internal benchmarking

It is used to compare different indicators of the same organization. For example, a retail chain outlets can compare traffic to their stores. The approach has a number of advantages: it is not difficult to obtain data, there are no problems associated with access to information. But there are also disadvantages: internal benchmarking does not provide for the search, study and implementation of the best achievements of competitors.

Competitive benchmarking

This tool involves comparing results and business processes across organizations. Conducting competitive benchmarking is not a problem for companies that can obtain information about the activities of competing organizations from the reports and reviews they publish, which are in the public domain. If access to such information is closed, then benchmarking is possible only if competitors are willing to share information.

Competitive benchmarking is practiced in the entertainment industry. Organizations in this sector provide each other with safety data, because if an accident occurs at an attraction in one park, this will serve as anti-advertising for everyone else.

Functional benchmarking

It is based on a comparison of results and processes in one business function carried out in different sectors of the economy. The ability to compare is due to the nature of the processes, and not the areas with which the activities of the organizations of interest are related.

An example of such benchmarking is the comparison of administrative functions (for example, work with personnel). It is less problematic to compare a certain function of your enterprise with a similar one in companies in other industries, since in this case there is no competition, and information exchange is more likely.

Functional benchmarking allows you to be innovative in solving problems, as it can be used to explore ways to solve problems in other industries.

General benchmarking

Involves the study of innovative solutions developed in other companies, which are not associated with either a specific function or sector.

In the UK, for example, the postal service took a chemical company as a model for safety compliance. The health and safety environments of these organizations vary widely, but learning about certain processes has helped the postal service learn a lot.

Principles by which company benchmarking is carried out

No. 1. Reciprocity

Benchmarking involves the need to interact, come to an agreement, exchange data in order to benefit each of its participants. But reciprocity cannot be achieved if you act blindly. First, you need to outline the boundaries of the range of information, agree on the procedure for exchanging information, the logic of the study.

Each partner must be sure that the behavior of other benchmarking participants will not go beyond the agreed limits. If the rules are followed by everyone, the result of the study will be brilliant. All conditions must be agreed in advance.

No. 2. Analogy

The similarity of the operational processes of the participating companies is necessary. Any process can be evaluated, the main thing is that its results can be applied by researchers in the context of their organization. The success of benchmarking is guaranteed if there is an analogy of processes and the selection of partners according to certain criteria.

No. 3. Measurement

Benchmarking compares the parameters defined for several organizations in order to find out why they are different and how to achieve the best values. It is most important to determine the main parameters of the process, then it becomes possible to improve them after the process has been studied.

No. 4. Reliability

Benchmarking should be based on factual data, accurate analysis and study of processes, and not just intuition.

Company benchmarking: 4 stages

Stage number 1. Training

1. First you need to choose the object of competitive benchmarking. It is necessary to study how significant and relevant the selected object is, with the help of which the tasks and main functions of the enterprise are performed. In this process, the most difficult stages are singled out, bottlenecks and the most interesting areas are looked for.
2. In the second stage, thresholds are set to determine the success score. Subsequently, when considering the selected objects, some of the most significant aspects of the activity with the help of financial units will be taken into account. These aspects can be: costs, time, quality level, etc.
3. To make the analysis results more accurate and capacious, you need to use additional sources of information, such as: fairs, seminars, reports, business plans, surveys target audience, supplier surveys, exchange processes, inspection production capacity, reference information, chambers of commerce and industry, mass media, literary sources.
4. At this stage, you need to look for organizations for comparative analysis. The search should be carried out not only in your market sector. By studying businesses in other industries, you can learn about the most determined and innovative ways of working that will work for you as well. And if you are not a competitor for the selected company, then the likelihood that it will provide you with the data necessary for analysis and comparison is higher.

Stage number 2. Analysis

1. Identification of processes, services, goods and technologies with the least efficiency and identification of the reasons why they are ineffective, based on the values ​​and factors of the enterprise selected at the previous stage.
2. The choice of directions that will improve the efficiency of business processes and technologies. Here you will need to find out what is the reason for the advantage of enterprises competing with you.

Stage number 3. Implementation

This stage involves defining the goals of the planned changes and developing a strategy for their implementation.

1. The expected results are discussed in detail. At the same time, it is necessary to realize the need for changes and establish specific goals for the work of the enterprise, taking into account the requirements of new standards and the implemented forms of activity.
2. Compiled detailed plan actions, the costs of the reorganization are calculated, the employees responsible for the implementation of innovations are determined, a schedule of changes is developed and a forecast of the results of the planned improvements is made.
3. All the developed changes are being implemented in accordance with the developed plan and schedule.

During the implementation of the project, it is necessary to control all the transformations so that you can evaluate how effective the innovations are. In addition, it should be checked whether the work is carried out strictly in accordance with the plan and whether the deadlines are observed.

Stage number 4. Repetition

Development market methods and processes with high efficiency are very intensive, they are constantly changing and quickly move from the status of innovative to the standard. In this regard, at the fourth stage, it is recommended to connect a continuous process of improving the activities of the enterprise. It is possible to simplify work in this direction by documenting in detail the experience of benchmarking studies.

Companies that have carried out benchmarking: examples from world practice

Competitive benchmarking at Ford

The design parameters and functional properties of Ford Corporation products were significantly inferior to analogues produced by competing enterprises until it began to practice benchmark comparison. The return of the lost market share was possible only if a new, advanced family of passenger cars was created. The bet was made on Taurus.

In order for the developed model to be better than that of competitors, it was necessary to conduct benchmarking. First of all, we identified the most attractive features of the machines on the market for customers. After that, for each of these properties, the best cars in the studied class were determined. Taurus had to reach their level and even surpass it.

The scope of the study was wide. Cars of all world manufacturers were studied. Although they did not directly compete with the Ford Taurus, they were attractive to consumers due to the presence of certain properties. More than 50 models were analyzed according to 400 design parameters.

The company has laid the foundations to implement the principles of new car development using the DMADV (Define - Measure - Analyze - Develop - Verify) cycle.

As a result, the Ford car was recognized as the car of the year and came out on top in terms of sales.

Later, design flaws were identified in the Taurus transmission, and the reputation of the car suffered greatly. The model was refined several times, and more and more deviating from the original concept. In the late 1990s Taurus sales decreased from 400 to 60 thousand. The last batch of cars of this model was released in August 2006. The Taurus story showed Ford that competitive benchmarking needs to be done more than once.

Functional benchmarking at General Motors

by General Motors from 1982 to 1984. a benchmarking study was conducted, the purpose of which was to find alternative methods of quality and safety management. In those years, many managers accepted the challenge of W. Edwards Deming: "If Japan can, why can't we?", Which he threw in one program on television (NBC channel).

More attention has been paid to quality as the main distinguishing feature of highly competitive products. Such well-known companies as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, John Deer were involved in the benchmarking. Starting the study, General Motors formulated 10 hypotheses about the factors that have the greatest impact on quality. It was necessary to confirm their legitimacy with data on the activities of organizations that are partners in the study.

Benchamrking allowed General Motors to objectively and comprehensively evaluate the quality management systems of the organizations that participated in the study. Employees of the company found out what is the dependence of the overall efficiency of the company on quality management.

The report on research conducted by General Motors with partners was published in September 1984, while similar data, which allowed the development of the criteria for the Balbridge model and the ISO 9000 series of regulatory documents, appeared in the public domain at the end of 1998.

This advance in knowledge gave the benchmarkers, led by General Motors, some competitive advantage. The quality management systems of these enterprises have been improved, which has made it possible to achieve a higher opinion of consumers about the level of quality of their products compared to the products of other companies.

It is worth noting that General Motors did not systematically and purposefully study the working conditions of the enterprise and the main business processes, although the results of such studies are the basis for the organization's self-improvement. Benchmarking made it possible to determine the main parameters of the quality management system, and they did not repeat it. This approach is typical for most benchmarking studies.

In addition, General Motors has directed efforts to meet the requirements of the industry standard QS 9000 ( normative document, developed on the basis of ISO standards 900, taking into account the characteristics of the automotive industry), to participate in competitions for the Malcolm Balbridge Award, to master the Six Sigma methodology. However, experience shows that the improvement of the quality management system should be evolutionary.

GIA Group Benchmarking Circle

The Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is a group of companies specializing in consulting. They research the market and help establish and operate market research processes.

As part of its activities, the GIA group organizes benchmarking circles, the purpose of which is to meet leaders of market research, discuss and exchange best practices that are related to various aspects of the management of this research.

The group has conducted more than 40 benchmarking workshops since 1999. These projects have involved market research specialists from 30 organizations. A typical project is to hold 2-4 thematic meetings to discuss issues identified by the project participants, with the support of a consultant from the GIA team.

The benefits that companies derive from such meetings are clear:

• they get best-in-class training and use cases without spending a lot of money;
• adopt the experience of other organizations;
• exchange ideas with specialists with extensive experience in other sectors of the economy;
• learn from the mistakes of other enterprises, which allows them to avoid unnecessary expenses in their activities.

At the heart of the GIA benchmarking process are meetings on various topics. They are carried out in turn by all participants. The duration of the meetings is 6-8 hours. Their themes are not repeated.

The main topics of the meetings are as follows:

• integration of market research and strategic planning;
• integration of market research and marketing activities, sales;
• development of a network for collecting information about the market within the company;
• competitive counterintelligence;
• development of market research reports;
• scheduling scenarios and organizing learning games.

Social media and Nokia benchmarking

The purpose of Nokia's benchmarking research is to support and set new development goals in various areas (logistics, research and development, employee relations). Benchmarking is an integral part of company development projects and training programs.

The company practices various types of research (joint and competitive benchmarking), participates in benchmarking groups, projects on selected topics and in relation to certain organizations. Nokia experts are also conducting broader benchmarking studies. Sharing benchmarking data can also be part of academic research projects involving multiple industrial companies.

New opportunities for research have opened up as social media channels are used not only within the company, but also outside it. Social media contributes to the strengthening of interaction in the course of joint activities. These interactive platforms enable the sharing of knowledge during the planning and preparatory phases, as well as during analysis and implementation of improvements.

External resources such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook have become widely used in benchmarking research. In each of these social networks, trade union groups have been created in which it is possible to discuss in detail topics that are of interest to each participant.

Thanks to the work in social networks and the use of platforms for joint activities, it became possible to take information from additional reliable sources, interact with other organizations, adopting their experience in order to support benchmarking (primarily in the field of projects software, the source code of which is open, and the corresponding developer communities).

Nokia has been experimenting with social media to explore new ways to share information and discuss technology advancement. IBM was involved as a partner in these experiments.

Of particular interest are the following areas: methods of working on open source software projects, the use of virtual 3D spaces to work in a global context on professional level, software development and open source innovation.

Blogs and wikis run by professionals, discussion forums such as YouTube and Slideshare are dynamic and direct sources of information, interaction and sharing. Usage social networks possible at any stage of benchmarking. Internal blogs and wikis also help prepare, conduct research, and share results.

How benchmarking is used in Russia: examples of companies

In our country, benchmarking is not as widespread as in the United States of America and Japan. For example, such studies are regulated and supported by the state abroad, there are special organizations that help to look for partners in benchmarking. In Russia, there is no such practice.

The only Russian event held every year that can be considered to support the development of benchmarking is the Government Quality Award. This award allows companies to improve various aspects of their activities, to become the object of reference comparison when conducting research by other enterprises. In addition, the award winners have a good image, consumers perceive them as reliable manufacturers of high quality products. It is easier for such companies to find partners.

Table 1 contains examples of various benchmarking studies carried out by domestic manufacturers

Table 1- Examples of conducting different types benchmarking by domestic companies

The table shows that Russian enterprises prefer to conduct competitive benchmarking. For example, specialists from the Irbit Motorcycle Plant (IMZ) explore the experience of Western companies in the following areas:

• the production structure of the enterprise: the goal was to identify which divisions of the company should be left; after the European experience was studied, the leaders decided to sell the foundry, forging and several other workshops, which made it possible to free up funds that contained unnecessary equipment;
• performance efficiency: the Indian company Royal Enfield, which produces motorcycles, was taken as the benchmark; In the course of the study, experts found that the staff of the reference organization is similar to the IMP, but at Royal Enfield there are 25 manufactured units of goods for each employee, and at IMP - 1.7 motorcycles. The following decision was made: to reduce equipment downtime, train employees in additional professions, send them to advanced training courses.

Other areas of the enterprise's activity can be selected as objects of competitive benchmarking, for example:

• production indicators: specialists from OAO Severstal (a metallurgical plant with a full production cycle) studied the experience of a number of Russian enterprises and 56 Western metallurgical companies; the analysis of the benchmarking results made it possible to identify areas that require changes. It was decided to cut costs, develop the market, introduce new technologies;
• product quality: the leaders of the plant them. Stepan Razin applied to the Baltika company with a request to conduct a comparative analysis of the quality of the drinks produced; benchmarking showed the need to purchase new equipment for beer fermentation; after its launch, the quality of products has become higher;
• reporting indicators: the telecom operator CJSC Peter-Star conducts a comparative analysis of reporting indicators in a certain format with a similar company, Golden Telecom. Comparison of individual performance indicators is carried out with the data of the Svyazinvest organization.

Functional benchmarking is carried out by Nizhpharm. The standard of comparison was the company Wimm Ball Dann, the object of comparison was the display of products in pharmacies.

The results of the study showed that Wimm Bill Dann products are always relegated to best places on shelves. After analyzing the activity of the standard, the Nizhpharm organization changed approaches to merchandising. It turned out that the most advantageous place for placing medicines in pharmacies are the shelves to the right of the checkout window.

Another type of benchmarking is internal. It is used when it is necessary to analyze the processes or work of personnel in one company. An example of such a study is the internal benchmarking of banking organizations, as well as the main clinical hospital No. 1 in the city of Novosibirsk.

In the second case, the quality of medical care provided by each of the departments of the hospital was studied. According to the results of the study, three leaders were chosen. Their experience became an example for the rest of the departments, who tried to apply it.

Although benchmarking is used by a number of Russian enterprises, it has not yet become widespread in our country. In order to successfully carry it out, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of domestic companies. The full and successful application of benchmarking in Russia is hampered by the following reasons:

1. The ethical culture of enterprises is inferior due to underdevelopment.
2. There is no practice of conducting benchmarking studies in Russia.
3. National accounting has certain features.
4. Procedures management accounting are underused.
5. Companies do not trust the benchmarks they choose and benchmarking partners.

Typical company benchmarking mistakes

• To learn is not to use

Researching the activities of an enterprise operating in your industry does not mean extracting useful experience. It is not enough to get certain data you are interested in, you need to organize a benchmarking process in order to understand what is behind it.

• Blindly following standards

For example, a study showed that the cost of a particular operation in a benchmark company is $1. You don't have to aim for that number at all. It may well turn out that you will not be able to apply the chosen benchmark to your customers, or to the market, or to resources. The standard of comparison must be selected one whose situation is similar to yours.

• Forgotten interests of the consumer

It happens that some enterprises, studying the experience successful companies and directing all efforts to reduce the cost of operations, bringing them closer to the "reference", they completely forget about consumers. If you reduce costs, then with a high probability the service will deteriorate, as a result, customers will be lost, the business will decline. The approach to solving any issues must be balanced.

• Complicating the task

What indicators do you study as part of benchmarking? A process is a set of tasks, and a system is a set of processes. Studying and evaluating the entire system is not possible; these are long and expensive processes. Select one or more processes from the system, study in detail. After that, start exploring the next part.

• strange direction

Don't dwell on topics that don't align with your strategy and goals, or that conflict with other firm initiatives. There should be monitoring of benchmarking projects by strategists to ensure they are not irrelevant.

• "Slippery" concepts

If you choose a topic that is very difficult to work through, then you will waste a lot of effort. One such topic is corporate communications. If you want the ongoing research to benefit you and your company, then highlight from this area of ​​activity the main goals for implementation that can be rigorously measured (for example, dissemination of memos around the enterprise).

• indefinite basis

The essence of this mistake is to study the experience of other companies without a preliminary analysis of their own activities. Benchmarking involves the need to have data on the performance of your company. This information may be provided by the organization to research partners in exchange for information of interest to it.

• Ill-conceived questions

There is a benchmarking etiquette, and its main rule is: do not ask your partner questions, the answers to which can be easily found in the literature.

• Spy passions

Partners need to know what data you need, how you will process it, who will have access to it, what is the purpose of its use. The ideal option is for the participants in the benchmarking study to enter into a formal agreement between themselves, in which these issues are stipulated.

To avoid mistakes when benchmarking using social media, contacting professionals will help.