Benchmarking is the general name given to a range of techniques which involve comparisons between two examples of the same process so as to provide opportunities for learning. Benchmarking can, for example, be used to compare how different companies manage the product development processes; where one is faster than the other there are learning opportunities in trying to understand how they achieve this. The approach has been widely used — for example in the field of quality management where it is used to drive the development of improvements in business performance, in software development and in developing continuous improvement systems.
One of the best-known examples of benchmarking as a learning resource are the activities within the International Motor Vehicle Programme, which has systematically collected and exchanged information on nearly all car assembly plants in the world. It can show how different plants are more or less effective on a range of measures — and in doing so it focuses the attention of other plant managers on how this is being achieved. It has acted as a powerful catalyst for learning in that industry and the model of benchmarking has been extended to other domains such as aerospace manufacturing and construction.
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