Benchmarking

1. Benchmark with presently available cars in the market for the following case.

Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii is a married man who lives in Bangalore which is a highly crowded city. His Family comprises five members including his wife, a five-year-old boy, his father, and his mother. He visits his native place Madurai which is 500kms away from Bangalore once a month. Also, he will be using his car to commute to his office. His budget falls between 8 to 10 lakhs on road. Please suggest to him options so that he will buy a good car for his family.

Note: Pughazhyendhii is fond of big cars

In my point of view,

I would suggest him Compact SUVs as below :

1. Maruti Brezza

2. Tata Nexon

3. Mahindra XUV 300

4. Kia Sonet

1. Maruti Brezza ( Ex Showroom Price 7.99 - 10.87 Lakhs )

Pros

• Spacious interior with a wide backseat. A good 5-seater
• Comfortable ride quality
• Compact dimensions and light controls make it a great city car
• Expansive list of features: Heads-up display, 360-degree camera, 9-inch touchscreen, sunroof and more

Cons

• Interior quality should have been better for the price
• No diesel engine option available unlike many alternatives
• Engine offers good useability but isn’t exciting

MODELS / SPECIFICATIONS	MARUTI SUZUKI VITARA BREZZA
ARAI Mileage	18.76kmpl
Engine Displacement (cc)	1462
Max Torque (nm@rpm)	138Nm@4400rpm
Transmission Type	Automatic
Fuel Tank Capacity	48
Max Power (bhp@rpm)	103.26bhp@6000rpm
Seating Capacity	5
Boot Space (Litres)	328
Body Type	SUV
Safety	12.51/17

2. Tata Nexon ( Ex Showroom Price 7.60 - 9.20 Lakhs )

Pros

• Spacious cabin with comfortable rear seats
• Comfortable ride quality
• Looks attractive and modern
• 5-star NCAP safety rating

Cons

• Engine refinement is lacking
• Infotainment system feels dated

MODELS / SPECIFICATIONS	TATA NEXON
ARAI Mileage	21.5 kmpl
Engine Displacement (cc)	1497
Max Torque (nm@rpm)	260Nm@1500-2750rpm
Transmission Type	Automatic
Fuel Tank Capacity	44
Max Power (bhp@rpm)	108.5bhp@4000rpm
Seating Capacity	5
Boot Space (Litres)	350
Body Type	SUV
Safety	16.06/17

3. Mahindra XUV 300 ( Ex Showroom Price 8.41 - 10 Lakhs )

Pros

• Comfortable even over bad roads.
• Feels premium because of class-leading safety and convenience features.
• Stable and fun to drive because of steering and good grip.
• Overtaking on highways easy, thanks to punchy diesel engine.

Cons

• Premium experience let down by quality issues like poorly fitting panels, mushy switches and flimsy stalks.
• Small boot will be a hassle if it’s the only car in the family.
• Cramped footwell, no space for dead pedal for driver
• Not the most spacious or comfortable backseat in the class

MODELS / SPECIFICATIONS	Mahindra XUV 300
ARAI Mileage	20.0 kmpl
Engine Displacement (cc)	1497
Max Torque (nm@rpm)	300Nm@1500-2500rpm
Transmission Type	Automatic
Fuel Tank Capacity	42
Max Power (bhp@rpm)	115bhp@3750rpm
Seating Capacity	5
Boot Space (Litres)	259
Body Type	SUV
Safety	16.42/17

4. Kia Sonet ( Ex Showroom Price 7.49 - 9.05 Lakhs )

Pros

• Presence. Tall height and bonnet gives the Sonet a strong stance.
• Feature packed: ventilated seats, wireless charging, ambient lighting, Bose sound system and lots more.
• Proper’ automatic options: 7-speed DCT for the turbo-petrol, 6-speed AT for the diesel.
• Comfortable ride quality: equally adept at tackling bad roads and high-speed cruising.

Cons

• Limited rear-seat width limits usability as a 5-seater.
• Silly cost-cutting measures: backlight only for driver’s power window, missing chilled glovebox, adjustable front armrest.
• Automatic transmissions limited to mid-spec HTK+ and top-spec GTX+ variants only

MODELS / SPECIFICATIONS	Kia Sonet
ARAI Mileage	18.4 kmpl
Engine Displacement (cc)	1493
Max Torque (nm@rpm)	250Nm@1500-2750rpm
Transmission Type	Automatic
Fuel Tank Capacity	45
Max Power (bhp@rpm)	113.43bhp@4000rpm
Seating Capacity	5
Boot Space (Litres)	392
Body Type	SUV
Safety	3/5

2. Prepare a report explaining what is Bench-Marking

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, “best in class.” The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for improvement. By studying companies with superior performance, breaking down what makes such superior performance possible, and then comparing those processes to how your business operates, you can implement changes that will yield significant improvements.

That might mean tweaking a product’s features to more closely match a competitor’s offering, or changing the scope of services you offer, or installing a new customer relationship management (CRM) system to enable more personalized communications with customers.

There are two basic kinds of improvement opportunities: continuous and dramatic. Continuous improvement is incremental, involving only small adjustments to reap sizeable advances. Dramatic improvement can only come about through reengineering the whole internal work process.

STEP-BY-STEP BENCHMARKING

Benchmarking is a simple, but detailed, five-step process:

• Choose a product, service, or internal department to benchmark.
• Determine which best-in-class companies you should benchmark against, which organizations you’ll compare your business to.
• Gather information on their internal performance, or metrics.
• Compare the data from both organizations to identify gaps in your company’s performance.
• Adopt the processes and policies in place within the best-in-class performers.

Benchmarking will point out what changes will make the most difference, but it’s up to you to actually put them in place.

In order to benchmark anything, you need to have quantitative data available to study. That means breaking down internal processes to calculate performance metrics. Quantify everything, because only quantifiable information can be accurately compared.

BENEFITS

In addition to helping companies become more efficient and profitable, benchmarking has other benefits, too, such as:

• 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

In essence, benchmarking helps employees understand how one small piece of a company’s processes or products can be the key to major success, just as one employee’s contributions can lead to a big win.

4. Provide a proper conclusion for the report, suggesting a single suitable vehicle among the comparison made with images.

As Above detailed report on suggesting a single suitable vehilce for Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii, i would refer him to buy TATA nexon Automatic Diesel Engine.