Benchmarking

Benchmarking

The term benchmarking is the comparative analysis conducted between the input parameters to find the optimal and better output parameters. It is done in an automobile company before the development of a vehicle, to know the positive and negative aspects of a vehicle. Proper benchmarking will help the research and development of a company to focus on the actual area of the concentration, required by the customers.

Input parameters considered for benchmarking and its reasons:

The parameters considered are relevant based on customer information. So, it is said that the customer has 2 elders in his family. In order to satisfy the elder’s requirement, rear seat features are given high importance. The customer has a child. In order to satisfy the child requirement, child safety features like ISOFIX Anchorage Points for Child-Seat and Child safety lock are given high importance. The customer himself and his pair are segregated under adult categories. In order to satisfy the adult requirement, the parameters of engine, transmission, safety, and some dynamic considerations are given high importance. Moreover, the customer is going to use his car on Indian roads, with a higher preference for the crowded city and with a minimum preference for his home town for once in a month. In order to meet the environmental aspects, the parameters like boot space and ground clearance are given high importance. The budget of the customer is average. In order to meet the customer budget requirements, the parameters like BS norms, Car segment additional cost other than purchase norms, and maintenance norms are given high importance. Last but not the least, practicality is more important while selecting a car. The practicality is decided based on the advantages and disadvantages observed in a comparative study, along with some external assumptions, since it is required over here. For example, The rear seat measurements are done with a single person on different cars. But in real-time, all the passengers who are going to accommodate the seats would not be with the same outfits (overall body dimensions) and hence some parameters are assumed as per the adjustments provided in the vehicle since the actual ergonomic requirements of the customers are not available. The fuel cost is also one of the parameters needed to be considered under practicality. Considering all the above parameters and present scenario of automobile offers from the companies, I have picked XUV and some compact SUV segments for parametric benchmarking, since they adopt the maximum requirements based on customer information. I hope my benchmarking report will have a clear view.

BENCHMARKING BASED ON CUSTOMER REQUIREMENT
Model of Car	Brezza	XUV 300		Venue		Nexon
Company	Maruthi	Mahendra		Hyundai		TATA
Variant	VXI	W4	W4	S Turbo	S Diesel	XMA AMT	XE Diesel
Type of Engine	1.5L K15B	1.2L Turbo Petrol	1.5L Turbo Diesel	Kappa 1.0 Turbo GDI	1.5 L U2 CRDi	1.2 Turbocharged Revotron Engine	1.5 Turbocharged Revotorq Engine
Fuel	Petrol	Turbo Petrol	Turbo Diesel	Turbo Petrol	Diesel	Turbo Petrol	Turbo Diesel
Mileage [Kmpl]	17.03	17	20	18.27	23.7	17	21.5
Fuel Tank Capacity	48L	42L	42L	45L	45L	44L	44L
Engine Displacement [CC]	1462	1197	1497	998	1396	1199	1497
No of Cylinders	4	4		4		3	4
Power [bhp]	103.26bhp @ 6000rpm	108.6bhp @ 5000rpm	115bhp @ 3750rpm	118.35bhp @ 6000rpm	99bhp @ 4000rpm	118.3bhp @ 5500rpm	108.5bhp @ 4000rpm
Torque	138Nm @ 4400rpm	200Nm @ 2000-3500rpm	300Nm @ 1500-2500rpm	171.6Nm @ 1500-4000rpm	240Nm @ 1500-2750rpm	170Nm @ 1750-4000rpm	260Nm @ 1500-2750rpm
Gear	Manual 5-Speed	Manual 6-Speed	Manual 6-Speed	Manual 6-Speed	Manual 6-Speed	Automatic 6-Speed	Manual 6-Speed
Ground Clearance [mm]	200	180		190		209
Boot Space Capacity	328L	257L		350L	295L	350L
Rear Leg Room Length [cm]	20 Max - 0 Min	26 Max - 2.4 Min		22 Max - 0 Min		30 Max - 10 Min
Rear Head Room Length [cm]	9.5	8		10		8
Overall Rear Seat Width [cm]	128	128		120		128
Overall Vehicle Length [mm]	3995	3995		3995		3993
Rear AC Vent System [Base Varient]	Not Available	Not Available		Available		Available
Build Quality	Good	Good		Average		Good
N CAP Points [Adult]	12.51/17 [GNCAP]	16.42/17 [GNCAP]		34.90/38 [ANCAP]		16.06/17 [GNCAP]
N CAP Points [Child]	17.93/49 [GNCAP]	37.44/49 [GNCAP]		40.00/49 [ANCAP]		25.00/49 [GNCAP]
Total Safety Features	10	14	14	18		20	15
Total Comfort Features	12	7	7	21		11	7
Total Lighting Features	3	3	3	1		1	1
Total Indication Features	5	5	6	11		2	1
Bharat Stage Norms	BS 6	BS 6		BS 6		BS 6
On-Road Cost Madurai@[12/10/21]	9.77 Lakhs	8.95 Lakhs	9.79 Lakhs	9.67 Lakhs	10.33 Lakhs	9.86 Lakhs	9.57 Lakhs
Ex-showroom cost	8.675 Lakhs	7.95 Lakhs	8.70 Lakhs	8.527 Lakhs	9.075 Lakhs	8.759 Lakhs	8.499 Lakhs
Service Network	Good	Average		Good		Average
Min Avg Service Cost per Year	Rs. 6620	Rs. 3500	Rs. 4127	Rs. 2837	Rs. 3730	Rs. 3570	Rs. 4447
Practicality	Average	Average		Average	Average	Good	Above Average
Note: All the rear seat measurements are done with the same person on different cars. This comparison is done to get a better idea of the seating comfort of different cars.
CUSTOMER INFORMATION			REQUIREMENTS FOR BENCHMARKING
Customer Name	Mr D.S. Pughazhyendhii		Customer Safety	Active safety features like warning systems are more important than passive safety systems since it avoids the risk to the maximum extent.
Working & Native Cities	Bangalore		Seating space and comfort	Legroom distance acts as the most headache to most of the customers, mainly elders and hence comfortable legroom and headroom providing cars must be prepared.
Native City	Madurai		Driving comfort	Driver armrest, cruise control, automatic engine off at signals, Instant pick up with less effort are some of the main features for the driver to travel his car with comfort.
No of Family Members	Child-1, Adult-2, Elders-2		Maintenance Cost	The diesel variant cars have high maintenance costs than petrol variant cars and hence proper forecast calculation must be done before choosing the vehicle.
Travel Environment	City-96.5%, Highways-3.5%		On-Road Vehicle Cost	EX Showroom Price is not the actual cost. There are insurance and RTO costs involved in addition. Car length, type of engine & fuel type decides the tax of the car.
Designation	Automobile BIW Engineer		BS Norms & N CAP Ratings	N CAP safety rating is the source that provides the quality of safety systems in a vehicle to the customer. Higher BS norms are important for pollution control.
Height of the Customer	Six feet and above		Torque and Milage	Optimal torque value should be given more importance for riders in the city because for an instant pick up torque is more important.
Expected Budget	Eight to ten lakhs		Available Service Network	Proper service network and spare parts availability are important for maintaining the vehicle properly.
Customer Opinion	Fond of big cars. He loves native travel [500Km Max].		Resale Value	The resale value depends on the condition of the vehicle and so proper service network and maintenance cost are important for deciding the resale value.

Detailed report on automotive benchmarking of Brezza:

Brezza is a compact SUV segment of the brand Maruthi. Maruthi is a well-known company for good service network and so the maintenance of the car will surely be good for the customers. But VXI is a mid variant SUV, the features like chrome linings, rear camera, rear window wiper, rear bumper, front armrest, alloy wheel and leather seat are only available with some additional amount. Fog lamps and skip grill are only available in top variants. While speaking about the interior features the infotainment system is an analog with buttons everywhere and dial-based indication systems with a fabric sating system at actual cost. No rear AC vents are available in this model. Outdated steering wheel design. Outdated interior design. No diesel variants are available in “Brazza”. The VXI model maybe sub 4 meters but it is provided with 1.5L engine type, which I see as a great disadvantage because the GST for 1.5L is 45% in petrol variant but in 1.2L or less then it the GST is 29%, as a result, I could see some discomforts due to lag of features. For example, I expect the safety features like ISOFIX Anchorage Points for Child-Seat and Child safety lock since my customer reference is having a child but it is not available over here at the actual cost for this variant. The Global N CAP rating for adults is acceptable but for children, it is too low. The overall safety and comfort features are comparatively less when compared with that of a compact SUV under a similar budget but other than this there are some advantage features available in this car. The fuel tank capacity is more. Boot space, ground clearance, and rear seat width are decent enough in this car. The engine and transmission features are good. This car is upgraded with BS 6 norms to avoid pollution. The vehicle build quality is good. Since Maruthi is good at service the resale value of this car will be good. Overall, this car is a very good package for adults who are comfortable with the traditional method of handling the interior systems of the vehicle. People who are not used to advanced automobile systems, but love driving and need a car with some upgrades can buy this car.

Maruthi VItara Brezza

Detailed report on automotive benchmarking of XUV 300:

Mahendra is a well-known company for SUV production with many varieties of SUV segments. XUV 300 is a sub 4M compact SUV but the term XUV refers to a Crossover Utility Vehicle, which means this car has the mixed features of different car segments. This car is available with both petrol and diesel options but the diesel option has a 1.5L engine type which may increase the GST percentage, but it is worth enough because the torque and millage of the diesel variant are good and the petrol variant is decent enough with torque and mileage parameters. As I already said this car has mixed features of different car segments, as a result, we could observe average ground clearance and boot space which is more or less equal to hatchback segments. This car has decent rear space and high Global N CAP safety ratings both for adults and children. The build quality of this car is good. Some feature requirements like rear seat headrest, touch screens, alloy wheel, speaker, music system, steering wheel control options, rear AC vents, and partial tray are not available in the basic W4 variant but some of these features are available in W6 variants but it almost requires an additional 1 lakh cost. This car has an adequate amount of indication and safety features. The active and passive safety systems are balanced well in this car. While speaking about the design aspect the exterior is outstanding for this car but the interior requires a slight upgrade. This car is good for highways and average for off roads. The projector light type is available in this car. The projector light type system would favor longer visualization options with no blind spot to drivers from the opposite side. Whereas the reflector light types will scatter the light in a wider manner, leading to the inadequate focus of the driver on long-range visualization and blind spot to drivers from the opposite side. Seat belt warning, door hazard warning, and overload rear boot space warnings are the impressive features of this car for basic variant, moreover, though the boot space requirement is less the passenger space is more and hence smart management in handling luggage can solve the boot space problem to some extent, apart from this boot space liter adjustments, foldable adjustment rear seats and partial tray can solve the boot space problem to a certain extent but in practice, these adjustments will affect the comfort level of the passengers. This car is provided with BS 6 safety norms. The service network of Mahendra is average and hence the resale value would be decent enough. On the overall XUV, 300 is a driver’s car. It has a high torque advantage which gives a good drive feel in cities. This is the car with the highest safety ratings for children. The people who love ride and comfort, people who are optimized with handling loads, and people who love majestic external appearance with high safety features can buy this car.

Mahendra XUV 300

Detailed report on automotive benchmarking of Nexon:

TATA is one of the best competitors in the automobile industry. Nexon is a unique brand that is adopted with feature success in all criteria. Nexon is available with 3 fuel modes [petrol, diesel, and electric], but considering the practicality factor at the current scenario I have made benchmarking with two different fuel modes neglecting the EV mode. Nexon variant XMA AMT is an automatic mode 6-speed transmission variant with 3 cylinder engine. Whereas the diesel variant is available with 6-speed transmission as manual mode. The major difference between the two different variants is the petrol (fuel) variant has 3 cylinder engine and AMT together, while the diesel (fuel) variant has 4 cylinder engine and manual transmission together, and so the people who need smooth drive in cities can choose AMT version whereas the people who are more interested in drive performance can choose manual transmission variant. The parameters like power, torque, and mileage always depend on the driver who uses the vehicle in manual transmission mode, whereas in AMT the transmission control unit is responsible for gear shifts, so the drive performance will not vary with the person who drives the car. Moreover, the maintenance of 3 cylinder engine requires the high effort of maintenance in manual transmission mode when compared to that of 4 cylinder engine, in order to solve the problem due to lag in maintenance on manual transmission mode, AMT stands by 3 cylinder engine to solve the lag in maintenance on comparative analysis. The power is good in the automatic variant with a slight delay in achieving power since the rpm is high, but torque is good in the manual variant at very low rpm so instant pickup could be felt easily. As per the specifications provided by the company, the manual transmission variant has high milage the automatic variant but in real-time, the millage varies with handling and maintenance of the driver. Mostly the performance of milage is always high for automatic transmission variant then manual transmission variant. As always the engine type of diesel variant is 1.5L which makes a significant increase of GST when compared to that of 1.2L and less than it, but 1.5L is necessary over here for diesel variant for achieving high torque at minimum rpm. The vehicle has high ground clearance which makes it suitable for off-road. While speaking about the interior the infotainment system is very good, all seat spaces are sufficient enough. The interior roof of the rear seats and backside of the front seat is provided with scup [curvature on interior] for achieving sufficient headroom and legroom, moreover, the front seat adjustment limits are high when compared with cars of similar segments. The rear seat width is sufficient enough for two average elder persons and one child at the mid-school level. The safety aspect of this car is good, this car has a very good build quality. This vehicle has a high Global N CAP rating for adults and an average rating for children. This car has a sunroof, scratchproof plastic cladding, tubeless tires, good boot space with partial tray set up, front and rear armrest with rear AC vents which makes the comfort requirements of the passengers to be satisfied. The warning indication features and lighting features are comparatively less when compared with that of other compact SUVs of similar segments within an 8 to 10 lakhs budget. This vehicle is provided with BS 6 norms features for pollution control. The service network is average and so this car requires some good effort from the customers for maintenance. A decent enough resale value can be expected for this car. The exterior and interior are recognized with a tri arrow design in most of the features as far as possible. Overall, this car is value for money for a family of five people category, since it clears all the aspects of my customer referral requirements.

Tata Nexon

Detailed report on automotive benchmarking of Venue:

Hyundai brand is originated in South Korea. The compact SUV model Venue is available in dual-fuel modes. The petrol variant is available with turbo, whereas the diesel variant is available with additional CC advantage to boost the engine performance. Hyundai has concentrated on boosting the mileage performance of the engine then power for both petrol and diesel variants. In the diesel variant, the torque is a bit high the petrol variant, but the power is very low. In the petrol variant the CC value is reduced to 998CC this will directly impact customers for a higher level of the maintenance cost, this scenario is almost like less muscular men trying to pull more power but even though he could fetch more power his efficiency will drop soon, as a result, the less muscular men needed to be fuelled properly with careful maintenance to attain a sustained efficiency, which is a great headache to the customers. On the other hand, the diesel variant does not have a turbo unit in it, as a result, though the torque is good in the diesel variant the horsepower is very low, the pick up [Torque] is good but the [Pull] is less. The fuel capacity and millage for both petrol and diesel variants are good. This vehicle is available with optimal ground clearance. The boot space capacity for the petrol variant is good but the boot space capacity for the diesel variant is optimal and sufficient enough. The ground clearance is optimal and sufficient enough for both on-road and off-road on Indian roads. The rear seating space is a bit congested when compared to that of other cars under this segment. The front seat adjustment limit is sufficient enough. The headroom is sufficient enough but the legroom is less, the person with long legs would suffer in comfort during the ride, due to insufficient knee space. The width of the rear seat is sufficient enough for the proper BMI of two elders and one child, but in an actual circumstance, this scenario is not possible for everyone and so the passengers would feel a bit congested. This vehicle has more comfort and safety features. This vehicle has more indication and warning features than any other car under this segment. Usually, while speaking safety features active safety features has both positives and negatives, the positive is it safeguards the people from the accident to occur but the negative is its precision. When a vehicle has a high active safety system, it must be customized according to the driver and the roads in which it is used, the sensors showing its nature during unexpected situations without warning will make the driver panic and it also creates panic over the people who are driving along with that car on roads. This vehicle is available with BS 6 norms based features to control pollution. The service network for this car is good. Overall this car is more suitable for people who know well to drive and maintain a car. This car will give a good resale value for the people who have handled and maintained the car properly because the service network is good. So, the maintenance of this car is always in the hands of customers who use this car. Proper handling of this car can save the maintenance cost and give a better resale value. The Australian N CAP rating for adults is good and the child is above average in this car. But this safety rating cannot be considered completely reliable for Indian roads and so, even though this car satisfies most of the needs of customers, the quality aspects of this car are not that good. This car has an average build quality. Hence considering the negative aspects, this car gets a tough call in choosing it.

Hyundai Venue

Personal suggestions about the variants considered under Benchmarking:

Breeza: Diesel fuel mode is not available. Many additional costs are involved other than ex-showroom costs. Interior design is not impressive. The service network is good. Perfect for the traditional mode of driving persons.

XUV 300: Comfort is good. space requirements are not satisfied. Drive quality is good. Feature availability is average. Safety is good for both adults and children. Preferable for Indian roads. Practicality defers with the person.

Nexon: Good exterior and interior design which is suitable for both on-road and off-road. Adult safety is good but child safety is average. Insufficient instrumentation & communication features. Average service network.

Venue: Safety aspects are not as impressive as the comfort aspects. Maintenance cost will be high for the petrol variant. The initial investment will be high for the diesel variant. Many features are available. Good service network.

Note:

The safety aspects considered for ANCAP are a bit high than GNCAP. ANCAP has whiplash and oblique pole test whereas GNCAP does not have them. Though the safety aspects considered for ANCAP is high, they do not show specific importance to safety aspects for basic variants whereas the GNCAP consider all their safety aspects only with the basic variant, the idea of GNCAP is, if a basic variant safety rating is high, then higher variant safety rating will also be high, moreover all customers from basic to top variant can rely on a common data for safety aspect which could be reliable. For example, The safety rating points of KIA Seltos in ANCAP is 32.6/38 for adult [85.789%] and 40.9/49 for the child [83.469%]. Whereas the safety rating points of KIA Seltos in GNCAP is 8.03/17 for adult [47.235%] and 15/49 for the child [30.612%]. This massive difference in values is due to the variants selected for inspecting the safety aspects.