BENCHMARKING:

Benchmarking is defined as the process of measuring products, services, and processes against those of organizations known to be leaders in one or more aspects of their operations. Benchmarking provides necessary insights to help you understand how your organization compares with similar organizations, even if they are in a different business or have a different group of customers.

Benchmarking can also help organizations identify areas, systems, or processes for improvements—either incremental (continuous) improvements or dramatic (business process re-engineering) improvements.

BENEFITS OF BENCH MARKING

INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND PERFORMANCE OF COMPANY

• Studying other companies can highlight what it takes to enhance your company’s efficiency and become a bigger player in your industry.
• Benchmarking has allowed businesses to gain strategic advantages over competitors and grow industry averages.
• Benchmarking identifies where your company is right now compared to where you want it to go.

INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND PERFORMANCE OF EMPLOYEE

• Encouraging team-building and cooperation in the interests of becoming more competitive.
• Improving employee understanding of cost structures and internal processes.
• The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for improvement.
• It provides necessary insights to help you understand how your organization compares with similar organizations, even if they are in a different business or have a different group of customers.

IMPROVE QUALITY OF PRODUCT

• Benchmarking helps organizations to continuously improve the quality of their products & services.
• This help to improve the quality of product not for one time but it improves over time and is continuous.

COST EFFICIENCY

• Benchmarking provides organization with valuable data on the last technology, and processes followed in the business environment.
• A manufacturing company learn about a certain machine used by its competitor then this company might also adopt similar technology to lower its labor cost.
• These are aimed at increasing productivity while reducing cost.

IMPROVE THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING

• By studying companies with superior performance, breaking down what makes such superior performance possible, and comparing those processes to how your business operates, you can implement changes that will yield significant improvements.

BENCHMARKING PROCEDURE

Considerations

• Before an organization can achieve the full benefits of benchmarking, its own processes must be clearly understood and under control.
• Benchmarking studies require significant investments of manpower and time, so management must champion the process all the way through, including being ready and willing to make changes based on what is learned.
• Too broad a scope dooms the project to failure. A subject that is not critical to the organization’s success won’t return enough benefits to make the study worthwhile.
• Inadequate resources can also doom a benchmarking study by underestimating the effort involved or inadequate planning. The better you prepare, the more efficient your study will be.

Plan

• Define a tightly focused subject of the benchmarking study. Choose an issue critical to the organization’s success.
• Form a cross-functional team. During Step 1 and 2, management’s goals and support for the study must be firmly established.
• Study your own process. Know how the work is done and measurements of the output.
• Identify partner organizations that may have best practices.

Collect

• Collect information directly from partner organizations. Collect both process descriptions and numeric data, using questionnaires, telephone interviews, and/or site visits.

Analyze

• Compare the collected data, both numeric and descriptive.
• Determine gaps between your performance measurements and those of your partners.
• Determine the differences in practices that cause the gaps.

Adapt

• Develop goals for your organization’s process.
• Develop action plans to achieve those goals.
• Implement and monitor plans.

BENCH MARKING STUDY

Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii is a married man who lives in Bangalore, which is highly crowded city. His family comprises of 5 members including his wife, 5 year boy, father and his mother. He once in a month visit his native place Madurai. Which is almost 500Km away from Bangalore. Also he will be using his car to commute to his office. His budget falls between 8Lakhs to 10 Lakhs on road.

Note-: Pughazhyendhii is fond of big cars.

The main requirement of Pughazhyendhii according to me -:

• Budget falls between 8Lakhs to 10 Lakhs on road.
• Seats availability for 5 to 6 members.
• Good mileage.
• He is fond of big cars.
• Car for highly crowded city.
• Good comfort for long distance drive

SUGGETION OF CARS

1. HONDA AMAZE
2. TATA NEXON
3. MARUTI SUZUKI BALENO
4. MARUTI SUZUKI VITARA BREZZA

1. HONDA AMAZE

Price	₹ 8.43 Lakh onwards
Mileage	18.3 to 18.6 kmpl
Engine	1199 cc
Safety	4 Star (Global NCAP)
Fuel Type	Petrol
Transmission	Manual & Automatic (CVT)
Seating Capacity	5 Seater

GOOD THINGS

• Spacious interiors - Fairly roomy overall, the rear seat is quite comfortable
• Big boot - The 420 liters of space can swallow up a family's holiday trip luggage
• Refined motors - Honda's renowned smooth/fuel-efficient motors with CVT convenience
• NCAP rating - The Amaze makes a strong case for itself with a four-star NCAP rating
• Ease of driving - Light controls, superior visibility and a comfortable ride

COULD BE BETTER

• Fit/finish in some areas - Lower sections of the cabin aren't up to Honda standards
• Features for the price - At the price point, there are some features missing
• Rear headroom - Tall occupants may find the headroom restrictive at the rear

HONDA AMAZE

Originally launched in 2013, the Honda Amaze is a compact sedan based on the Brio hatchback. While the Brio was discontinued, the Amaze received a second-generation update in 2018. It now features a new front grille. LED DRLs, automatic climate control, voice commands, two USB ports, a seven-inch infotainment unit supporting Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, keyless entry, keyless boot release, pinch-guard driver window, and rear windscreen defogger. It misses an electric sunroof, ambient lighting, a wireless charger, and a digital instrument cluster.

It rivals the Hyundai Aura, Maruti Suzuki Dzire, and Tata Tigor. An amazing car for small families who are looking for cars under 10 lakhs that are perfect for city and highway runs.

2. TATA NEXON

Price	₹ 9.55 Lakh onwards
Mileage	16.3 to 22 kmpl
Engine	1199 to 1497 cc
Safety	5 Star (Global NCAP)
Fuel Type	Petrol & Diesel
Transmission	Manual & Automatic (AMT)
Seating Capacity	5 Seater

GOOD THINGS

• Upmarket looks - Exciting and impactful design, proper no-nonsense SUV stance
• G-NCAP safety - A five-star NCAP safety rating ensure buyers get a very safe car
• Performance - The powertrains offer a satisfying mid/top-end grunt for most situations
• Spacious cabin - Despite the compact footprint, it is roomier than segment rivals
• Sorted ride/handling - Nicely tuned suspension offers apt damping at most speeds

COULD BE BETTER

• Interior quality, fit/finish - Scratchy hard plastics, rough edges, panel gaps
• Low-end grunt - The diesel motor needs some revving to get off the line properly
• Infotainment screen - Slow responses, low-resolution screen, interface not intuitive

TATA NEXON

Launched in 2017, receiving a facelift and a BS6 update in 2020, the Tata Nexon is another compact SUV in this list. The Nexon has an aggressive design and a proper road presence. Featuring a G-NCAP rating of five stars, the Nexon is a no-nonsense vehicle providing absolute safety to its passengers. Also, having a ground clearance of 205mm, it can easily handle potholes and bad roads, and has mild off-roading capabilities, considering it is front-wheel drive only. It has a very satisfying mid to top-end power and provides a spacious cabin room. The upper trims also receive wireless charging, an air purifier with an AQI display, an electric sunroof, and ventilated front seats. Providing more comfort for 3 people at the back, the Nexon is a proper family car and can easily house 5 people.

It rivals the Maruti Suzuki Brezza, Hyundai Venue, and the Kia Sonet, which also are found on this list of cars under 10 lakh.

3. MARUTI SUZUKI BALENO [2019-2022]

Price	₹ 7.40 Lakh onwards
Mileage	19.56 to 27.39 kmpl
Service Cost per Year	₹ 4997
Engine	998 to 1248 cc
Fuel Type	Petrol & Diesel
Transmission	Manual & Automatic (CVT)
Seating Capacity	5 Seater

GOOD THINGS

• Great value for money
• Spacious cabin
• Good engine performance

COULD BE BETTER

• Stiff low-speed ride
• Fit and finish are not the best
• Looks dated now

MARUTI SUZUKI BALENO [2019-2022]

Introduced in September 2015 and received 2 facelifts, once in 2019 and the second time in 2022. With this new update, the ride quality has improved, partly thanks to the engine refinement. Also, the cabin is now comfortable for three adults to commute for long hours at the rear. The Baleno now includes a first-in-segment heads-up display, a 360-degree view, a nine-inch infotainment unit with good graphics and touch sensitivity, audio tuning by Arkamys, connected technology, cruise control, and climate control. The Baleno does miss out on a sunroof, wireless charger, and a centre armrest at the back.

It rivals the Hyundai i20, Tata Altroz, and Toyota Glanza. Small-sized families who are looking for cars under 10 lakh should consider this car.

4. MARUTI SUZUKI VITARA BREZZA

Price	₹ 9.62 Lakh on road price
Mileage	19.8 to 19.9 kmpl
Engine	1462 cc
Fuel Type	Petrol
Transmission	Manual & Automatic (TC)
Seating Capacity	5 Seater

GOOD THINGS

• Lots of features - Gets a slew of notable features that add convenience.
• Interior space - The cabin feels airy with ample storage spaces all over.
• Tall seating - Offers a commanding driving position with good outward visibility.
• Ease of driving - Light controls and the compact proportions make it nimble.
• Service network - Is backed by Maruti Suzuki's exhaustive and robust network.

COULD BE BETTER

• Engine lacks punch - The mid-range grunt could have been more exciting.
• Pricey - Top-end variants are expensive when stacked against segment rivals.
• Ride quality at slow speeds - Conspicuous vertical movement over broken roads.

MARUTI SUZUKI VITARA BREZZA

Launched in 2016, it was earlier known as the Vitara Brezza where ‘Vitara’ tag was dropped after the recent 2022 facelift which was launched in June. The new update brought in LED projector headlamps, twin L-shaped LED DRLs, and a new grille design to name a few. The interior also got an update, with an electric sunroof, paddle shifters, heads-up display (HUD), and a nine-inch touchscreen infotainment unit borrowed from the Baleno. With an interior space rivalling that of the Tata Nexon, as well as good visibility paired with nimble steering, the Brezza is undoubtedly a dream car for any driver. The Brezza gets a 360-degree camera, an auto-dimming Inside Rear View Mirror (IRVM), wireless charging, a cooled glovebox, cruise control, and automatic climate control, to name a few. Overall, this car is feature packed and one of the most popular cars under 10 lakh. The compact SUV is meant for middle-sized families with a seating capacity of 5.

its rivals are the Kia Sonet, Hyundai Venue, and the Tata Nexon.

COMPARISION AMONG THESE

SPECIFICATION	HONDA AMAZE	TATA NEXON	MARUTI SUZUKI BALENO	MARUTI SUZUKI VITARA BREZZA
ENGINE	1199 CC	1199 CC	1197 CC	1462 CC
MAX POWER (BHP@RPM)	89 bhp @ 6000 rpm	118 bhp @ 5500 rpm	82 bhp @ 6000 rpm	103 bhp @ 6000 rpm
Max Torque (Nm@rpm)	110 Nm @ 4800 rpm	170 Nm @ 1750 rpm	113 Nm @ 4200 rpm	138 Nm @ 4400 rpm
Mileage (ARAI) (kmpl)	18.6	17.5	19.56	17
Driving Range (Km)	651	773	723.72	817
NCAP Rating	4 Star (Global NCAP)	5 Star (Global NCAP)	Not Tested	4 Star (Global NCAP)
Length (mm)	3995	3993	3995	3995
Width (mm)	1695	1811	1745	1790
Height (mm)	1498	1606	1510	1640
Wheelbase (mm)	2470	2498	2520	2500
Ground Clearance (mm)	-	209	170	198
Bootspace (litres)	420	350	339	328
Fuel Tank Capacity (litres)	35	44	37	48

CONCLUSION

After benchmarking among these 4 cars, I would suggest TATA NEXON for Mr. D.S. Pughazhyendhii. It has a 5 STAR NCAP Rating, which means it is the safest car in its segments. It is very suitable car for the family in crowded areas of Bangalore. In this car 5 seat is available for comfortable seating for 5 members of this family. As he goes once a month to his native place 500km away from Bangalore. So its driving range is also 773kms which mean the car can travel after one time charging or refilling the fuel tank easily without stoppage. And the car budget falls between 8Lakhs to 10 Lakhs on road.

Note-: Pughazhyendhii is fond of big cars -: So, the width of the car is 1811mm, which is widest among all.

Thus all criteria of Pughazhyendhii is available which are needed. So, I would like to suggest to buy Tata Nexon.