Benchmarking

Benchmarking:

It 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, “best in class.”

The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for improvement. This information can be used to identify gaps in an organisation's processes to achieve a competitve advantage.

• Improving employee understanding of cost structures and internal processes
• Encouraging team-building and cooperation in the interests of becoming more competitive
• Enhancing familiarity with key performance metrics and opportunities for improvement company-wide

Benchmarking as a tool:

Before taking the benchmark opportunity, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the company’s guidelines. Some companies have strict guidelines as to what information can be gathered, and whom practitioners can contact to get that information. Depending on the size of the company, practitioners may be surprised at what is readily available in-house.

Benchmarking is not just a matter of making inquiries to other companies or touring and documenting another company’s facilities or processes. When making use of benchmarking, a company should not limit the scope to its industry, nor should benchmark be a one-time event.

Classifications of Benchmarking:

1. Internal benchmarking: It is used when a company already has established and proven best practices and they simply need to share them. Again, depending on the size of the company, it may be large enough to represent a broad range of performance (i.e., cycle time for opening new accounts in branches coast to coast). Internal benchmarking also may be necessary if comparable industries are not readily available.
2. Competitive benchmarking: It is used when a company wants to evaluate its position within its industry. Also, competitive benchmarking is used when a company needs to identify industry leadership performance targets.
3. Strategic benchmarking: It is used when identifying and analysing world-class performance. This form of benchmarking is used most when a company needs to go outside of its industry.

Since Mr. DSP has suggested for daily commute in city traffic & occasional long drive.

The following are the list of parameters as mentioned in the question:

• Price - 8- 10 Lakh on road
• Seater - 5 (4 adults, 1 child)
• Occasional long trips - 1000 km (approx.)
• SUV Vehicle
• Mileage
• Comfort
• Saf

The following are the list of cars selected as per the parameters mentioned above:

Performance:

• Kia sonet and Maxindra XUV 300 are the front runners but TATA Nexon offers much stable performance both on the city traffic and highway with multi drive modes.
• Tata Nexon has Linear Power Delivery system and has better Engine power and torque only faling behind Maxindra XUV.
• The Reported ARAI Mileage shows Venue and Nexon are far better and Mahindra falls behind because of its power to weight ratio.
• Though the ARAI mileage of KIA Sonet is more, the sonet falls a bit short when it comes to handling,and on corners and turns.

Interior:

• Tata Nexon is the best amog these because of its spacious interior cabin with fairly large supportive seats and enough space in the second row to fit three individuals and suits best for the family drive.
• The golve box and rear HVAC vent are the standout features of TATA NEXON and a new ‘Xpress Cool’ button that has been added. This one puts the blower on max speed and simultaneously pulls the driver window down automatically. This helps in cooling the cabin faster which will be quite a delight owing to the hot and humid climatic conditions in our country.
• Nexon's infotainment touch screen has sub par performance compared to Kia sonet and Hyundai venue.
• Maxindra XUV has a better Plastic Interior trim quality and Dual tone variant of Hyundai Venue and material looks better whereas the Quality of XM variant Nexon is not superior compared to other models.

Exterior:

• TATA Nexon is a standout in this category and offers the max Boot space of 350 litres falling just behind Kia sonet but Nexon provide way better ground clearence of 209mm which will be well suited for the Indian Roads.
• The Facelift, Headlight and Tail Light are stylish in NEXON and gives a land rover discovery like front with beefy and bulky front end.
• The lagged out ABC Pillars of TATA NEXON offers sufficient leg room and better head room among the other models.

Safety and Comfort:

Quick diff of safty among the group:

• Almost all the models has same safety features of dual airbags (except sonet),ABS with EBD,Parking sensors, corner stability control but NEXON offers Roll-over Mitigation, Hydraulic Brake Assist, Electric Brake Pre-fill, Multi-drive Modes: ECO / CITY / SPORT, Umbrella Holder in Front Doors, Puncture repair kit and a dead panel which comes handy in the case of Mr. DSP for his frequent long drive.
• Apart from that automatic rain sensing wipers, Tyre punchure monitoring system are available in TATA NEXON 1.5XM within price range.
• TATA NEXON is the first Indian model to recieve 5star NCAP rating for its safety and crash test. Mahindra xuv also has 5star rating.

NCAP Report:

Detailed safty features of nexon along with HSS of TATA Nexon:

VEDICT:

TATA Nexon 1.5 XM is better model suited to Mr. DSP based on the benchmarking report done above. It offers much better stability in performance and spacious compared to other model and falls under the budget of 10 lakhs with top spec model. Kia sonet also provides better features but lags Nexon on the Rear Passenger comfort along with XUV and Hyundai Venue.

Here are few images to brief the TATA NEXON 1.5XM:

TATA NEXON Interior:

Cabin interior features:

TATA NEXON engine:

Comfort features:

Seating space:

350L Boot space in TATA NEXON:

side view of car/eternal view:

Customer reviews of the group:

CONCLUSION:

Therefore a detailed benchmarking of car is done and a car model is proposed for Mr.DSP(D.S.Pughazhyendhii) based on the requirements mentioned in the report of this case.