Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a process of measuring the performance of a company's products, services, or processes against those of another business considered to be the best in the industry. The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for improvement.

The objective of benchmarking is to use the data gathered in your benchmarking process to identify areas where improvements can be made by:

1. Determining how and where other companies are achieving higher performance levels than your company has been able to achieve.
2. Comparing the competition’s processes and strategies against your own.
3. Using the information, you gather from your analyses and comparisons to implement changes that will improve your company’s performance, products, and services.

Common areas that you may want to target for benchmarking analysis include cost per unit, time to produce each unit, quality of each unit, and customer satisfaction. The performance metrics you get from these targets can be compared against others to help you determine best practices for improving your operations.

Steps in the benchmarking process

1. Select a subject to benchmark.
2. Decide which organizations or companies you want to benchmark.
3. Document your current processes.
4. Collect and analyze data.
5. Measure your performance against the data you've collected.
6. Create a plan.
7. Implement the changes.
8. Repeat the process.

Types of Benchmarking

Benchmarking can be internal (comparing performance between different groups or teams within an organization) or external (comparing performance with companies in a specific industry or across industries). Within these broader categories, there are three specific types of benchmarking:

1) Process benchmarking,

2) Performance benchmarking and

3) Strategic benchmarking.

The three main types of costs in benchmarking are:

1. Visit Costs - This includes hotel rooms, travel costs, meals, a token gift, and lost labor time.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Advantages of Benchmarking:

1. Improve processes and procedures.
2. Gauge the effectiveness of past performance.
3. Give you a better idea of how the competition operates, which will help you to identify best practices to increase performance.
4. Increase efficiency and lower costs, making your business more profitable.
5. Improve quality and customer satisfaction.

Benchmarking of different cars priced under 10 lakh(note: on road price of bengaluru at the time of doing challenge as available on internet)

Maruti Suzuki Vitara Breeza lxi

Advantages	Disadvantages
Gets segment-levelling features Cabin space Tall seating, ease of driving	Engine lacks mid-range punch Top-end variants are expensive

Hyundai venue E

Advantages	Disadvantages
Quality Road presence Multiple powertrain options	Cramped rear seat Unsorted ride quality Expensive top-end versions

Tata Nixon XE

Advantages	Disadvantages
Upmarket looks, five-star G-NCAP safety Spacious cabin compared to rivals Easy to drive and live with	Interior quality Low-end grunt from motors Infotainment screen not as good as rivals

Renault Kiger

Advantages	Disadvantages
Sprightly performance Feature-packed cabin Good-looking, affordable SUV	Tight for three in the second row The boot has a high loading lip Cost-cutting is evident

Conclusion

	Maruti Suzuki Vitara Breeza lxi	Hyundai venue E	Tata Nixon XE	Renault Kiger
Cost	9.60 lakhs	9.08 lakhs	9.16 lakhs	9.70 lakhs
Mileage	20.01 kmpl	17.50 kmpl	17.50 kmpl	19 kmpl
Tank capacity	48 lit	45 lit	44 lit	40 lit
Air bags	2 Airbags (Driver, Front Passenger)	2 Airbags (Driver, Front Passenger)	2 Airbags (Driver, Front Passenger)	4 Airbags (Driver, Front Passenger, Driver Side, Front Passenger Side)

Of all the 4 vehicles compared above Maruti Suzuki Vitara Breeza lxi overall a good package for people who are looking for tall seating and ease of driving.All the 4 vehicles are nearly priced Maruti Suzuki Vitara Breeza lxi has better mileage, good tank capacity, cabin space, comfort in driving it makes good choice above the rest.