Update on Excellence
Get Involved: AME/APQC
Benchmarking Community of
Practice (CoP)
Find access to benchmarking tools and contacts through networking.
Lea A.P. Tonkin
W
hat has a buzillion eyes
and ears and continually finds something new
to share about benchmarking? It’s
as good a definition as any for the
new AME/APQC Benchmarking
Community of Practice (CoP). And
the nifty thing about being in one is
that you’re gonna learn more about
ways to improve your organization’s performance from folks who
are already making it happen and
who offer their take on ways to get
started in benchmarking. Following are comments and ideas shared
by several participants in the
AME/APQC Benchmarking CoP
meeting held during the recent
AME regional conference in San
Diego, CA. If you’d like to learn more
about benchmarking and the CoP,
contact Susan Chandler of AME
(schandler@ame.org).
“Two of the biggest barriers to
an organization starting their
benchmarking journey to excellence are: 1) finding a group of individuals who are interested in
benchmarking to act as their peers,
and 2) actually starting the process.
Many organizations don’t know
where to start with their benchmarking activities, how to discuss
potential projects within their company, or where to focus their
efforts,” according to Ron Webb,
executive director, membership,
APQC (American Productivity &
Quality Center) and a founding
member
of
the
AME/APQC
Benchmarking CoP. Once they’ve
tackled that barrier and they get
others in their organization ready
In Brief
Benchmarking offers value in strategic, performance, and process applications. You can improve your benchmarking performance — and related
improvements in human capital management, supply chain, and other key
areas of your organization — through the power of community. This article
describes the AME/APQC Benchmarking Community of Practice (CoP) and
how it can benefit participants seeking to launch or improve benchmarking
initiatives.
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Fifth Issue 2008
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Update on Excellence
to benchmark, they don’t have a
built-in network of individuals they
trust to participate in their benchmarking activity.” He offered suggestions for addressing concerns
about getting off to a good start in
benchmarking (see the accompanying box in Figure 1).
Webb continued, “This CoP
hopes to help participants solve these
problems. It is made up of a group of
like-minded peers who agree to
benchmark and will provide members
access to many of the tools they need
to start benchmarking, and the CoP is
working to launch a benchmarking
project within its membership by
using APQC’s Open Standards
Benchmarking Collaborative (OSBC)
benchmarking service. This CoP is
supported by AME and APQC, and
through that relationship, members of
AME will have access, free of charge,
to the OSBC research projects. The
CoP is using the OSBC Manufacturing
project and Survey as a starting point
to help CoP members begin their journey into benchmarking. We’ve provided a resource page for CoP members at www.apqc.org/bmk-cop.”
Webb was among the presenters during a Benchmarking CoP session during the recent AME regional conference in San Diego.
How to Address Concerns About Getting Started
with Benchmarking
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•
•
•
•
•
Understand the audience/market for your benchmarking.
Determine the trade-offs you are willing to accept around time,
relevance, cost, etc.
Get educated on benchmarking. The more you know, the faster
you can execute your plan. Develop the scope of your project,
survey design, and commit to the code of conduct.
Gain buy-in. If benchmarking is important to your organization,
find a champion and also get buy-in from all stakeholders. Your
benchmarking successes can help you to build this network of
support.
Join other groups such as the AME/APQC Benchmarking CoP.
Build a network of likeminded professionals who are relevant
peers. They will answer your surveys and provide information.
Find services that meet your needs. Consider the APQC Open
Standards Benchmarking Collaborative (OSBC) and other
resources. Offer to participate in ongoing benchmarking activities.
Source: Ron Webb, APQC
Figure 1.
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Target Volume 24, Number 5
Power in Community
Benchmarking offers value in
strategic, performance, and process
applications, according to William
“Bill” Sacherek of Boeing, another
member of the benchmarking CoP.
“It crosses process and product life
cycles,” he said. “The power of
community as you participate in
these efforts is worth a lot to you
and your suppliers and customers.
It enables you to have a more
rational conversation.”
Strategic benchmarking, for
example, helps you to identify commonality across an organization.
Sacherek described such benchmarking initiatives as “very powerful practices” that can start with an
individual or work group. Then
shared commonalities can be recognized and information about
process improvements can be more
effectively shared. He suggested
that by reaching out to other functions and groups within an organization, and showing them how
shared information can provide
specific benefits, you’ll gain more
converts to benchmarking efforts.
Human Capital
One of the applications for
benchmarking studies is in human
capital management (HCM). “The
goal of human resource management is to help an organization to
meet strategic goals by attracting and
maintaining employees and also to
manage them effectively,” said Bill
Baker of Speed To Excellence, AME’s
vice president of affiliations, and a
member of the benchmarking CoP
founding board.
He noted that
benchmarking practitioners can
effectively use available resources to
find ways for creating a better “fit”
between employees and organizational goals. For example, resources
can be tapped on skills management,
Update on Excellence
training and development, personnel
cost planning, performance appraisal, and other areas. “Everyone says,
‘People are our most important
asset,’ but no one knows how to treat
them that way,” said Baker. “The CoP
shares best practices to do this.”
Basics of Benchmarking
Basic tenets of benchmarking
were shared by Glenn Marshall of
Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding
Newport News, also a member of the
benchmarking
CoP.
Suggested
guidelines for benchmarking are
shown in Figure 2. Marshall and others in the CoP counseled that you’ll
get better benchmarking results —
and process improvements, in turn
— by being selective, clear, and consistent in your process improvement
and benchmarking efforts.
Pick one or two key measures
of process improvement. Cut out the
unnecessary, Marshall said. Look at
reports you receive on a regular
basis, invite colleagues and peers to
evaluate them, note the customer of
the report or data, and invite the customer into the discussion to determine how useful the information is
to them. Make sure that you do not
have contradictory measurements,
and review them regularly.
Define your measures, including your current state, and goals. If
you get a request from senior management to improve results by
some percentage, clarify and
restate the goals with them.
Challenge the goals and measures
early in the game to get the most
benefit from your improvement and
benchmarking activities.
If you lack a formal benchmarking process, and you aren’t
sure how to get started benchmarking a selected issue, there are various solutions. Get on the phone
and start asking people in your
organization, in trade associations,
and other groups (like the
Benchmarking CoP); do general
Internet searches on the topic; and
align yourself with organizations
that offer benchmarking communi-
AME/APQC Benchmarking CoP Basic Guidelines
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•
•
•
•
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Use a standard, documented, and flexible benchmarking
process
Mentor new members
Use the APQC Benchmarking Code of Conduct
(http://www.apqc.org/PDF/code_of_conduct.pdf)
Always provide a win-win experience
Share knowledge aggressively
Assist members in need to the best possible extent
Meet face-to-face or virtually on a set schedule with selected
agenda items.
ties. When you are searching for
contacts and information, keep in
mind your organization’s culture.
Focus on learning about actually
achievable improvements.
Supply Chain Benchmarking
Mark Palla of Raytheon, a
member of the benchmarking CoP,
offered ideas for benchmarking in
the supply chain arena. Consider
assessments/audits, annual goals,
metrics, people, leadership team/
steering committee topics. Learn
more about benchmarking through
networking, Google searches, internal sources, standard metrics, universities, and professional organizations. Cross-functional and kaizen/
lean/continuous improvement initiatives will yield “lessons learned”
for benchmarking.
More to Come
“What I see in the AME/APQC
Benchmarking CoP is that it’s going
to help us get what we want a lot
quicker. It offers contacts we need
about where to go for information
about making improvements,” said
Jim Anderson, continuous improvement specialist for Parker Hannifin’s
Aerospace group in Irvine, CA and a
participant in the San Diego benchmarking session. “When you’re
working on lean improvements, you
are looking for ways to network
about metrics and other areas. I’m
planning to continue participating in
the group.”
Lea A.P. Tonkin, Target Magazine
senior editor, lives in Woodstock, IL.
© 2008 AME® For information on reprints, contact:
AME Association for Manufacturing Excellence
www.ame.org
Figure 2.
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