Benchmarking

DETAILED REPORT ON BENCHMARKING

Aim:

1. To prepare a report explaining what is bench marking.
2. To suggest Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii a good car for his family.

WHAT IS BENCHMARKING ?

Benchmarking in auto mobile industry involves a structured comparision between similiar products, services, or processes on some dimensions of performance.

According to Moriarty and Smallman (2009), “Benchmarking is an exemplar driven teleological process operating within an organization with the objective of intentionally changing an existing state ofaffairs into a superior state of affairs”.

We can summarize from all the definitions that benchmarking encompasses identification of improvement opportunities, search for best practices, and ultimately adaptation and implementation of these best practices in a systematic, ordered and standardized manner in order to address the diversities and specialties of a company’s own processes and priorities.

Types of benchmarking:

The types of benchmarking are as below:

• Process benchmarking: It is concerned with distinct work processes andoperating systems. Processes or operations are improved by comparison withprocesses or operations of benchmarking partners. 
• Performance benchmarking: It is a comparison of performance measures for the purpose of determining how good the company is, as compared to others. It provides competitive position of the organization through product and  serviceattribute comparisons.
• Strategic benchmarking: It is a study which is carried out when an effort is being made to change the strategic direction of the company.
• Internal benchmarking: If the benchmarking partners comprise of other units of the same organization, it is known as internal benchmarking.
• Competitor benchmarking: Competitor benchmarking focuses on the comparison with companies having similar products and processes and which are in direct competition. Hence, competitor benchmarking facilitates access to superior practices of competitors.
• Functional benchmarking: Functional benchmarking takes place when benchmarking partners are the organizations which are recognized to be the best in similar activities. Functional benchmarking involves comparison of processes with the best practices of similar processes of those companies which share some common functionality, but are outside one’s industry.

Interestingly, despite their different names and applications, all types of benchmarking aim to examine the processes from the perspective of improving performance. This is attributed to the fact that a thorough understanding of the transformation of a given system to convert various inputs into desirable outputs is solely responsible for superior results.

Step by step about Benchmarking:

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

• Choose a product, service, or internal department to benchmarking.
• Determine which best in class companies  you should benchmarking against, which organizations you will comapre your business to.
• Gather information on therir internal performance,or matrics.
• compare the data from both organizations to identify gaps n your company's performance.
• adpot the processes and policies in place within the best-in-class performers.

In order to benchmarking anything, you need to have quantitative data available to study. That means breaking down internal processes to calculate performance metrics.Quantify everything, because only quantfable normation can be accurately compred.

Benefits:

• Monitor Performance: Benchmarking involves looking at current trends in data and projecting future trends depending on what you aim to achieve. In order to know you have been successful, benchmarking needs to be a continuous process. Monitoring performance is an inherent characteristic of it.

• Continuous Improvement: As well as monitoring performance, continuous improvement is an essential attribute of benchmarking. This is because the aim of benchmarking is to improve certain elements of a business. This improvement should not merely be something that improves once and is forgotten, but something that improves over time and is continuous.

• Planning and Goal Setting: Once benchmarking has been carried out, goals and performance metrics are set in order to improve performance. These goals are new, more competitive targets for a company but they must be achievable. If goals are unrealistic to achieve teams become demotivated and goals are destined to remain unfulfilled.

• Encourage Ownership: When companies look at their processes and metrics they need to ask hard questions to get all the answers they need. This includes talking to everyone in the business and understanding their roles. By asking these questions and gaining a better understanding of everyone’s role, ownership of processes and performance is encouraged. This means that employees will take pride in their job and the work they do. This pride leads to better performance and higher-quality end results.

BENCHMARKING 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.(to compare at least 4 vehicle).

Requirement of Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii:

• A family car.
• A 5 seatercar.
• Good mileage.
• He is fond of big cars.
• A car suitable for both long distance journey and within city.

	Maruti suzuki dezire	Tata Nexon	Mahindra XUV300	Hyundai verna
Price in lakhs	9.31	9.44	10.00	9.36
Fuel type	Petrol	Petrol	Petrol	Petrol
Max. power(bhp@rpm)	89bhp @ 6000rpm	118 bhp @ 5500 rpm	109 bhp @ 5000 rpm	113 bhp @ 6300 rpm
Mileage (ARAI) (kmpl)	24.1	16.3	17	17.7
Engine	1197 cc, 4 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder	1199 cc, 3 Cylinders Inline, 2 Valves/Cylinder	1197 cc, 3 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder	1497 cc, 4 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder
Transmission	AMT - 5 Gears, Manual Override	AMT - 6 Gears, Manual Override, Sport Mode	Manual - 6 Gears	Manual - 6 Gears
Seating capacity	5	5	5	5
L×B×H(in mm)	3995×1735×1515	3993×1811×1606	3995×1821×1627	4440×1729×1475
Airbags	2	2	2	2
Child seat anchor and seat belt warning	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fuel Tank Capacity (liters)	37	44	42	45
Bootspace (liters)	378	350	257	480

Conclusion:

I would suggest Tata Nexon for Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii family, Nexon is a excellent offering which is safest car in its segment. It is also value for money product with class leading features.