Achieving Performance Excellence through Benchmarking

Introduction

A key element to continuous improvement is Benchmarking. Without benchmarking it is we do not know how competitive we are or where we need to focus improvement efforts. Benchmarking helps organizations to balance their internal problem-solving and improvement activities with the realities of the external environment. This includes other industries that perform similar functions, similar businesses that are geographically separated, and non-profit or public institutions. Under the right conditions, benchmarking can be performed by direct competitors, resulting in improved performance benefiting all stakeholders. Benchmarking not only provides awareness of what and where "best" performance lies, but more importantly, it enables the paradigm shift that internally focused teams sometimes fail to achieve. It fosters creative adoption and adaptation of "best" practices to help organizations gain and maintain a competitive advantage.

Course Objectives of Achieving Performance Excellence through Benchmarking

• How to set about implementing an effective performance measurement system for shared services.
• How to interpret results from performance measurements and therefore whether or not the process is ready for improvement.
• In the case that a process is not ready for improvement, delegates will know what actions are required to prepare it for improvement.
• How to use an effective improvement methodology to improve process performance.
• What is benchmarking and why it is becoming increasingly important for organizations to become involved in benchmarking activities?
• How to select, define, plan, and implement successful benchmarking projects.
• How to ensure that best practices are identified and implemented within the organization, being adapted if appropriate.

Achieving Performance Excellence through Benchmarking Course outlines

Day 1

Performance Measurement: The Starting Point for Improvement

• The Need for Measurement.
• Data Use and Abuse: Using Data Constructively.
• Methods of Selecting Performance Measures.
• Developing a Framework for Measurement.
• Understanding Variation: The key to understanding performance.
• What do histograms, run charts, and control charts tell us about performance?
• The Rods Experiment.

Day 2

Continuous Improvement

• Understanding Variation: The Range and Standard Deviation.
• The Rods Experiment Part 2: Understanding the Results.
• Taking Appropriate Action on a Process: Improvement or Investigation?
• An Introduction to Control Charts: The Key to Taking Appropriate Action.
• The Juran Trilogy.
• How to Improve a Process: An Introduction to the 12-step Methodology.
• The Power of Teamwork.
• Problem and Mission Statements.

Day 3

The Tools of Continuous Improvement

• Understanding and Analyzing a Process: Flow Diagrams.
• Identifying causes of problems, and potential solutions: Brainstorming.
• Demonstrating the link between a cause and its effect: Cause-Effect diagrams.
• Understanding the Process: Quantitative Display Tools (line charts, bar charts, and pie charts).
• Selecting the key aspects to focus on. Pareto Analysis.
• Investigating Relationships between Variables: Scatter Diagrams and Correlation.
• Advanced investigations: An Introduction to Regression.

Day 4

An Introduction to Benchmarking

• What is benchmarking?
• Why do we need to benchmark?
• The Benefits of benchmarking: Why organizations benchmark.
• History of benchmarking.
• Different Methods of benchmarking and how they relate to each other.
• How to identify potential benchmarking projects.
• An overview of the benchmarking process.
• Advice on selecting your first project.

Day 5

Running a Successful Benchmarking Project

• Scoping a benchmarking study.
• Planning and resource scheduling.
• Normalising.
• Identifying and selecting benchmarking Metrics.
• Identifying and selecting benchmarking partners.
• Securing benchmarking project support.
• Inviting organizations to join the benchmarking study.
• Data capture & analysis.
• Reporting: the starting point for improvement.
• Codes of conduct.