Benchmarking

What is benchmarking?-

Benchmarking is a comparative analysis in an automobile domain that involves a structured comparison between similar automotive companies cars, services or processes related to the study of manufacturing techniques and performance of the final product. Basically, it compares and studies different cars available in markets and their respective performance which results in improvement of the product which is an advantage to both the industry and the customer.

It is especially useful for comparing not only performance but also practice – in other words, what different organizations are doing to enable this performance to be delivered?

Process benchmarking program at the industry of this kind can operate at several levels as follows-

• 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.

The vehicle benchmarking program considers these below attributes for comparision

• Performance
• Driveability
• Milage and power.
• Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS)
• Fuel emissions
• Ride Comfort
• Safety

Although it offers a significant learning opportunity benchmarking between competing organizations is harder than the other three because competitors do not want to disclose their process information since it is a source of competitive advantage to them.

Benchmark report for Mr D.S. Pughazhyendhii according to hid demands.

As per Mr D.S. Pughazhyendhii's demands, considering his limitations and needs I have studied the availability of cars in the present market and made a table which depicts the good and bad characteristics of the cars.

In his case, since he will be travelling to his native every month which is a 500 kms journey, he needs a car which has more mileage and obviously he needs speed and power to save time in the journey. Also, he has a father and mother and a child to travel with, so in terms of safety child's safety is very important and even his parents if they are very old they might also need an extra safety concern. Now considering his budget there are pretty decent cars available in the market. He also uses it to commute daily to his office the car should be durable and the chances of the car leading to repairs and maintenance should be minimal.

In the above table, I have compared 4 cars of different make wrt the price range of 8-10 lakhs. The red coloured highlighted features are marked as not Disadvantages, and green as advantages.

So going thru the table we can see the price of the respective models, they are all in the 8-10 lakh rupees range.

FORD FIGO Titanium- This car is relatively less priced compared to others. Which is a good advantage in terms of money. It has good features overall but the Mileage seems to be very low, for a daily commuter and for long-distance travelling it is not recommended. And the torque seems to be low for a car that is 8.3 Lakh. The weight of the car is ok and it has got a 3-star safety rating from NCAP.

VOLKSWAGEN POLO- Volkswagen is known for the good build quality vehicle in all of their cars which makes this company unique and a better one compared to other Indian industries. With only 999 cc of displacement, it offers an engine output and therefore engine design will be simpler and lightweight. And also the safety rating is good like all other cars of Volkswagen.

The drawback of this is it has a low mileage compared with its competitor brands. The boot space is also less which makes it too compact for a few it may feel uncomfortable.

MARUTHI SUZUKI SWIFT AMT- The maker of this car has given a lot of good features at a price that no other maker can give. It has an automatic 5-speed transmission which no other model has at that price. Performance-wise it seems to be good and has good mileage, But the build quality is not appreciated it seems to have a very low build quality and even the kerb weight is too less, The chassis is not built strongly enough to earn a better safety star rating. The chassis strength is compromised to gain mileage and power of the engine. It may be the having good features wrt the price but cannot expect much in safety and build quality which is also an important factor in a 4 wheeler.

The automatic transmission in this is really an added advantage since he needs to commute daily to work In a crowded city like Bangalore, he has to worry less about changing gears often in the traffic.

TATA ALTROZ (XMplus) - The best thing about this car is It has good mileage good engine output and also has a 5-star safety rating. Tata has come up with better engineering and made this car better in many aspects. It is available in both petrol and diesel. There are many variants available in both Petrol and Diesel ranging from 8.5 Lakhs to 11.5 lakhs. The one I suggest for Mr D.S. Pughazhyendhii is the diesel variant worth 9.5 lakhs.

Since it is diesel it has good power output and better mileage which is important for the customer's demands and in the hatchback segment it has a good boot space as well and many other interior features and etc.

Concluding with the above study as per me, out of these 4 cars, I would suggest Mr D.S. Pughazhyendhii to consider and have a thought on the Tata altroz diesel variant. Other than Tata he can consider going with Polo looking at the drawbacks as well but especially since the boot space is quite small.