Operational Excellence - Project Course

At the beginning of a benchmark exercise the scope and the measurable objectives per business area ought to be defined. A look at leading competitors and comparable businesses will help to obtain a feeling of what could be used as a Best Practice. Throughout this phase intense discussions with stakeholders and opinion leaders from within the corporation proved to be very useful. This increases the level of acceptance and the project process will run smoother. 

In terms of Key Performance Indicator a set of rather few but meaningful KPI should be selected. Access to external data normally is quite limited. However, by applying some logic and by engaging external data bases some qualified estimates can be made.

As soon as the kind of KPI has been defined and internal/external numbers have been allocated, targets per KPI will be set. By experience this process of discussions amongst stakeholders can turn out to be quite tedious and controversial.

Ideally, targets and measures should be defined for all business functions. First of all, this improves the total economic output and secondly, it will be perceived as a fair approach and therefore increases the acceptance of a benchmark within the company.

Measures should be defined in all areas of the "4 P's and 5 services": product marketing, promotions, pricing, place (distribution), people (qualification); delivery service (logistics), after sales service, order processing, sales force. The efforts should be directed towards an improvement of customer satisfaction as well as higher efficiency via leaner processes - or even the elimination of customer services that are not perceived as valuable.

All measures should be defined as precisely as possible. They should consist of a qualitative and of a quantitative description, carry a target deadline and name the person in charge.

A regularly taking place controlling of the achievements per measures and business areas is indispensable. After all, a benchmark exercise is not a one-time project, but a continuous process. Overall, it reflects the willingness of an organization to constantly measure itself with others in order to improve its performance.