Benchmarking

WHAT IS BENCHMARKING?

“Benchmarking is a way to extend the knowledge you have of your own production to the worldwide view and based on that knowledge you can innovate”.

“Benchmarking is basically helping you [expand] on your knowledge about car engineering in general, to innovate not only from what you do, but innovate from what everybody is doing. So it’s a way to help you innovate and optimize the work that you do in engineering.”

it can be used to compare the availability and delivery of features in a product and in this form often provides the basis of consumer tests and reviews. These look at products and services and provide recommendations based on which is best or some form of ranking amongst competitors.

It is particularly useful when comparing not only performance but also practice – in other words what do the different organizations do to enable that performance to be delivered? And applied in this way it is a powerful tool in process innovation on studying how the ‘best’ achieve their performance can provide powerful clues for changing the way processes operate.

Process benchmarking of this kind can operate at several levels:
• Between similar processes in the same factory or service branch
• Between different factories or service branches
• Between different competing organizations
• Between different sectors using the same process

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

The shortlist of the cars that are presently available in the market as per requirements,

Comparison Parameters of the Car Models

PERFORMANCE

• Maxindra XUV and Hyundai Venue 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.

INTERIOR

• TATA Nexon is the best among the group because of its spacious Cabin Interior with more Leg room for the rear passengers and suits best for the family drive by giving best seating for the fifth passenger.
• The Glove Box and Rear HVAC Vent are the standout features of TATA NEXON and also has improved sunvision and Instrument Panel Clusters with added utiliy holders along the side doors.
• Nexon's Infotainment touch screen has sub par performance compared to 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
• The Blue link connectivity App with smarphone from Hyundai Venue gives additional scoring for Venue among others

EXTERIOR

• TATA Nexon is a standout in this category and offers the maximum bootspace of 350 litres falling just behind Venue 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 better head room among the other models.

SAFETY and COMFORT

• Almost all the models has same safety features of Dual Airbags, ABS with EBD, parking sensors, corner stability control but NEXON offers Dead pedal which comes very handy in the case of Pughazhyendhii for his frequent long drive.
• Apart from that Automatic Rain Sensing Wipers, Tyre pressure monitoring system are available in TATA NEXON 1.5XM within the price range
• TATA Nexon is the first Indian Model to recieve 5star NCAP Rating for its safety and crash test. Mahindra XUV also has a 5 star rating

VERDICT

TATA NEXON is better model suited to Pughazhyendhii 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. Hyundai Venue also provides better features but lags Nexon on the Rear Passenger comfort along with XUV and Eco Sport.