Benchmarking
OBJECTIVE:
Benchmark with presently available cars in the market for the following 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, five-year-old boy, his father, and his mother. He visits his native place Madurai which is 500kms away from Bangalore once in 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 with options so that he will buy a good car for his family.
Note: Pughazhyendhii is fond of big cars.
BENCHMARKING:
Benchmarking is a process of measuring the performance of a company’s products, services, or processes against those of another business considered to be the best in the industry, “best in class.” The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for improvement. By studying companies with superior performance, breaking down what makes such superior performance possible, and then comparing those processes to how your business operates, you can implement changes that with yield significant improvements.
That might mean tweaking a product’s features to more closely match a competitor’s offering, or changing the scope of service you offer, or installing a new customer relationship management (CRM) system to enable more personalized communication with customers.
There are two basic kinds of improvement opportunities: continuous and dramatic. Continuous improvement is incremental involving only small adjustments to reap sizeable advances. Dramatic improvement can only come about through reengineering the whole internal work process.
STEP-BY-STEP BENCHMARKING:
Benchmarking is a simple, but detailed, five-step process:
- Choose a product, service, or internal department to benchmark.
- Determine which best-in-class companies you should benchmark against, which organizations you’ll compare your business to.
- Gather information on their internal performance, or metrics.
- Compare the data from both organizations to identify gaps in your company’s performance.
- Adopt the processes and policies in place within the best-in-class performers.
Benchmarking will point out what changes will make the most difference, but it’s up to you to actually put them in place. In order to benchmark anything, you need to have quantitative data available to study. That means breaking down internal processes to calculate performance metrics. Quantify everything, because only quantifiable information can be accurately compared.
BENEFITS:
In addition to helping companies become more efficient and profitable, benchmarking has other benefits, too, such as:
- Improving employee understanding of cost structures and internal processes
- Encouraging team-building and cooperation in the interests of becoming more competitive
- Enhancing familiarity with key performance metrics and opportunities for improvement company-wide
- In essence, benchmarking helps employees understand how one small piece of a company’s processes or products can be the key to major success, just as one employee’s contributions can lead to a big win.
SUGGESTED CARS:
1. TATA NEXON:
KEY FEATURES:
4-cylinder 1.5L turbo-charged engine
Max. power of 108.5Bhp
Max. torque of 260Nm
Equipped with ABS, EBD, TCS, In- car 6.5” display infotainment with GPS touchscreen
It has an average mileage of 19Kmpl.
It has price range of Rs.7.09 Lakhs to 12.7 Lakhs.
PROS:
Built quality is impressive and looks better than its competition.
Strong body offers safety
Ride quality
Ground clearance
CONS:
Rear seats are narrow and small
Fit and finish could have been better.
Automatic transmission is an AMT.
2. KIA SONET:
KEY FEATURES:
4 cylinder 1.5L diesel engine
Max. power of 113.42 Bhp
Max. torque of 250Nm
Comes with 6 airbags, ESC, HAC, central locking, front and rear windows, fog lamps and parking assist.
20.6” TFT display, AI voice assistant and Bose surround system.
Has various options to choose from with a price range of Rs. 6.79 to 13.19 Lakhs.
It has an average mileage of 19Kmpl.
PROS:
Diversified powertrain
Loads of features
Looks powerful
Lots of variants to choose from
Premium interiors
Ventilated seats
CONS:
Rear seat legroom is inadequate
Top variants are pricey when compared to its competitors.
Some features like steering wheel adjustment, illuminated window buttons, auto wipers are missing.
3. HYUNDAI VENUE:
KEY FEATURES:
3-cylinder 998cc engine
Max. power of 118.35Bhp
Max. torque of 171.6Nm
Comes with D-cut steering wheel, smart electric sun-roof, paddle shifter, ABS, EBD, driver and passenger airbags, central locking.
It has an average mileage of 18.15Kmpl.
It comes with a price range of Rs.6.86 lakhs to 11.66 Lakhs.
PROS:
Attractive pricing
Spot-on ergonomics and design.
Peppy and smooth engine
Blue-link technology which offers additional features like live vehicle tracking, vehicle statistics, geofencing and many more.
Premium interiors offer excellent comfort
CONS:
The car is smaller when compared to its competitors.
No All-wheel drive option
Stiff ride quality
Not a spacious 5-seater
4. MARUTI SUZUKI VITARA BREZZA:
KEY FEATURES:
4-cylinder 1.5L engine
Max. power of 103.26Bhp
Max. torque of 138Nm
Comes with ABS, EBD, Front and rear power windows, Driver and passenger airbags, Hill climb assist and many more.
It has an average mileage of 18.7Kmpl
The price ranges from Rs.7.39 lakhs to 11.40 Lakhs.
PROS:
Competent 1.5L engine
Smooth automatic gearbox
Excellent after sales service
Low maintenance
CONS:
No diesel engine
Not so responsive engine
Interior plastic quality
Lack of features
CONCLUSION:
I would suggest you to go with TATA NEXON, because of the safest car on all these segments. Also remembring all the incidents happening around our India it is only the safest car compared to all other cars.