Benchmarking

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.

Incremental Quality Improvement vs Benchmarking Breakthroughs

Technical Benchmarking:

Technical benchmarking is performed by design staff to determine the capabilities of products or services, especially in comparison to the products or services of leading competitors. For example, on a scale of one to four, four being best, how do designers rank the properties of your organization’s products or services? If you cannot obtain hard data, the design efforts may be insufficient, and products or services may be inadequate to be competitive.

Competitive Benchmarking:

Competitive benchmarking compares how well (or poorly) an organization is doing with respect to the leading competition, especially with respect to critically important attributes, functions, or values associated with the organization’s products or services. For example, on a scale of one to four, four being best, how do customers rank your organization’s products or services compared to those of the leading competition? If you cannot obtain hard data, marketing efforts may be misdirected and design efforts misguided.

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

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

Collect

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

Analyze

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

Adapt

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

Below is the Benchmarking Case Study for the given problem:

For this Benchmarking Case Study, I have finalized four different cars as per user requirement:

Below is the detailed comparison of the cars chosen for study:

Vehicle Model	Hyundai Creta	Kia Seltos	Maruti Suzuki S-Cross	Renault Duster
Engine & Transmission
Engine	1497 cc, 4 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder, DOHC	1497 cc, 4 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder, DOHC	1462 cc, 4 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder, DOHC	1498 cc, 4 Cylinders Inline, 4 Valves/Cylinder, DOHC
Engine Type	1.5 l MPi Petrol	Smartstream G 1.5	K15B Smart Hybrid	1.5 H4K
Fuel Type	Petrol	Petrol	Petrol	Petrol
Max Power (bhp@rpm)	113 bhp @ 6300 rpm	113 bhp @ 6300 rpm	103 bhp @ 6000 rpm	105 bhp @ 5600 rpm
Max Torque (Nm@rpm)	144 Nm @ 4500 rpm	144 Nm @ 4500 rpm	138 Nm @ 4400 rpm	142 Nm @ 4000 rpm
Mileage (ARAI) (kmpl)	17	16.5	18.55	14.19
Driving Range (Km)	850	825	890.4	825
Drivetrain	FWD	FWD	FWD	FWD
Transmission	Manual - 6 Gears	Manual - 6 Gears	Manual - 5 Gears	Manual - 5 Gears
Emission Standard	BS 6	BS 6	BS 6	BS 6
Others			Regenerative Braking, Idle Start/Stop
Dimensions and Weight
Length (mm)	4300	4315	4300	4360
Width (mm)	1790	1800	1785	1822
Height (mm)	1635	1620	1595	1695
Wheelbase (mm)	2610	2610	2600	2673
Ground Clearance (mm)		190	180	205
Kerb Weight (kg)			1144
Capacity
Doors (Doors)	5	5	5	5
Seating Capacity (Person)	5	5	5	5
No of Seating Rows (Rows)	2	2	2	2
Bootspace (litres)	433	433	353	475
Fuel Tank Capacity (litres)	50	50	48	50
Suspensions, Brakes, Steering and Tyres
Front Suspension	McPherson Strut with Coil Spring	McPherson Strut with Coil Spring	McPherson strut with coil spring	Independent McPherson Strut with Coil Spring
Rear Suspension	Coupled Torsion Beam Axle	Coupled Torsion Beam Axle (CTBA) with coil spring	Torsion Beam with coil spring	Trailing Arm with Coil Springs and Double Acting Shock Absorber
Front Brake Type	Disc	Disc	Ventilated Disc	Disc
Rear Brake Type	Drum	Drum	Disc	Drum
Minimum Turning Radius (metres)			5.5	5.2
Steering Type	Power assisted (Electric)	Power assisted (Electric)	Power assisted (Electric)	Power assisted (Hydraulic)
Wheels	Steel Rims	Steel Rims	Alloy Wheels	Steel Rims
Spare Wheel	Steel	Steel	Steel	Steel
Front Tyres	205 / 65 R16	205 / 65 R16	215 / 60 R16	215 / 65 R16
Rear Tyres	205 / 65 R16	205 / 65 R16	215 / 60 R16	215 / 65 R16
Safety
Airbags	2 Airbags (Driver, Passenger)	2 Airbags (Driver, Passenger)	2 Airbags (Driver, Passenger)	2 Airbags (Driver, Passenger)
Middle Rear Head Rest	NO	NO	NO	YES
Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)	YES	NO	NO	NO
Child Seat Anchor Points	NO	NO	YES	NO
Seat Belt Warning	YES	YES	YES	YES
Braking and Traction
Antilock Braking System	YES	YES	YES	YES
Electronic Brake-force Distribution	YES	YES	YES	YES
Brake Assist	NO	NO	YES	YES
Comfort and Convenience
Air Conditioner	Yes (Manual)	Yes (Manual)	Yes (Automatic Climate Control)	Yes (Manual)
Front AC	Common Fan Speed Control	Single Zone, Common Fan Speed Control	Single Zone, Common Fan Speed Control	Single Zone, Common Fan Speed Control
Rear AC	Vents Behind Front Armrest	Vents Behind Front Armrest
Heater
Vanity Mirrors on Sun Visors	Co-Driver Only	Co-Driver Only	Driver & Co-Driver	Co-Driver Only
Cabin-Boot Access	YES	YES	YES	NO
Anti-glare Mirrors	Manual - Internal Only	Manual - Internal Only	Manual - Internal Only	Manual - Internal Only
Parking Assist	NO	NO	Reverse Camera	NO
Parking Sensors	Rear	Rear	Rear	Rear
Cruise Control	NO	NO	YES	NO
Headlight & Ignition On Reminder	YES	YES	YES	YES
Keyless Start/ Button Start	NO	NO	YES	NO
Steering Adjustment	Tilt	Tilt	Tilt & Telescopic	Tilt
12V Power Outlets	1	1	2	YES

Conclusion:

Model	Hyundai Creta	Kia Seltos	Maruti Suzuki S-Cross	Renault Duster
Good Things	The new-gen model comes with the global design language Segment-best features along with connectivity options Available with three engine and gearbox options	Design. Interior fit and finish. Feature loaded.	Comfortable ride quality Spacious cabin Cheaper than competition	Unparalleled ride quality Punchy turbo-petrol motor Spacious cabin with 475-litre of boot
Could be Better	The radical design might not be to everyone’s liking Certain key features only offered with top-spec trims Have gotten slightly expensive over the older model	Notchy gearshifts (MT). Inconsistent ride quality. Top-end trims are expensive.	Interior quality could have been better Competition offers more features Engine should have offered more punch	Some cabin plastic isn’t up to the segment expectation Feels outdated Clutch is slightly heavy

Based on the above comparison and given condition as per user requirements:

I suggest Maruti Suzuki S-Cross be the best option among the other compared cars keeping in mind the requirements of Mr. Pughazhyendhii.