Question

Plan, programme and execute a practical and suitable Benchmarking exercise, embracing all the usual Benchmarking stages outlined below:
Management commitment
Select process and owner
Determine quality performance measures
Collect the data
Analyse the data
Determine benchmark source
Agree action
Monitor

Answer 1

Benchmarking exercise involves measuring of an organisation's products, services, processes, operations, to establish some targets and achieves the goals leading to competitive advantage and cost cutting. The exercise is done so that analysis could be done and the company could analyse what should be the targets for the employees and what is the standard set to achieve the targets. By setting a benchmark employees get to know how they are performing and how well they have to perform, it also helps in telling what is the current expectation of target achievement from the employee and now much is he capable of doing it.

management commitment : the management has to make commitment to the employees that what sort of targets are set and how they will achieve them. Employees have to achieve the targets in a specified time period.

select process and owner : at this stage management have to choose the process which would be used in operations or different machines that would be used for production. Selecting a proper method for operation is important, this helps to reduce costs and increase productivity.

determine quality performance measures : performance measures are the standard benchmark that are to be set by the management because it is necessary to set standards and then the performance of the employees can be compared with the standards. This will tell how well the employees are working and if not, then what all improvement is required.

collect the data : after determining the performance standards, collection of data is next step to be done. Collecting the employee's data is crucial task because then only their performance can be rated and judged. This is then recorded for further process.

analyse the data : after the collection of data is done, then we do the analysis of the same. Data is analysed to see the performance of the employees and then their performance is compared with the standards set by the company. Management sees that the employees are meeting these standards or they are near to them or their perforce is better than the standards set.

determine benchmark source : determining the benchmark source is important as management has to tell why they have put the benchmark, and on what basis they have chosen that particular benchmark, why not a different benchmark. What ll factors have contributed for the establishment of the benchmark taken.

agree action : now that everything is set, its time to take action for the same.

monitor : in the end monitoring is done, to check whether everything is at its right place. Everything is working properly or not, how employees are working, are they working with passion or they are wasting time.