Benchmarking
Contents:
• A brief definition of
benchmarking
• Its application in the
commercial world
• How the technique can be
applied to the public sector
• The main stages in a
bench-marking project
• Finally, we’ll invite you to
design a simple benchmarking exercise for your
own library.
What is “benchmarking”?
Some basic definitions:
Benchmark: a reference standard against which other things can be
compared.
Benchmarking: the continuous process of identifying, understanding
and adapting practices from other organisations to improve the
performance of your own organisation
.
The process involves continuously assessing the quality of goods or
services against standards of best-practice, often as part of a
commitment to total quality management (TQM).
Like many other quality tools, bench-marking was devised by Japanese
industrialists in the 1950’s to identify and copy “best practice” in
western manufacturing.
Commercial uses of benchmarking
Commercial bodies use bench-marking to compare standards of
performance at various levels:
• Internal: comparing how different departments within the same body
(e.g. finance and marketing) perform.
• External: comparing performance with other organisations, either
those catering for the same market, or fulfilling similar functions in a
different market. It may however be very hard to get performance
figures from competitors.
• Global: may involve comparison with organisations with completely
different functions, but again the object remains the identification
and assessment of best practice.
Such activities are essentially about gaining a competitive edge, in
terms of cost-cutting, value for money, supply chains and building up
market share.
Examples of bench-marking in
the public sector:
• Since the 1980’s, bench-marking has become more common in the
public sector, with the rise of:
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Competitive tendering
Emphasis on measuring performance
Downward pressure on funding
Management models moving closer to the commercial sector
More focus on customer satisfaction (I.e. outputs, rather than
processes).
• Public services, like libraries and leisure centres, can use benchmarking to explore the quality of services they offer. Performance
indicators chosen must be from the viewpoint of their customers.
• Some advocate bench-marking as an aid to controlling cost while
preserving quality in the provision of public services, by establishing
closer links between resources and outputs.
Quality in libraries
• For many librarians and information professional
techniques that emphasise profit and performance are
quite alien and against the grain of traditions of public
service.
• Quality improvement programmes were often seen as
paper exercises, which librarians had to complete to
show willingness to change, although in practice they
often made little difference.
• In the last decade however, with public libraries
operating in the era of the Citizens’ Charter and Charter
Marks, and academic libraries obliged to justify their
funding, both have had little option but to engage more
fully in quality control programmes.
Level of bench-marks
Benchmarks can be set to differing levels, such as:
• Level 1: provide a “library.” This could be anything which reaches
the dictionary definition (maybe just a collection of books with some
public access)
• Level 2: provide an appropriate library: this suggests at least some
thought about the function of the library e.g. a healthcare library
should include key journals and access to Medline
• Level 3: provide a quality library that will meet the users’ needs: this
may mean tailoring provision to preferences like opening hours,
training in using Medline, stocking of the journals that most users
wish to consult.
Steps in bench-marking
• Some guides suggest twelve, fifteen or even more
“stages” in a full bench-marking exercise.
• These may include detailed planning phases and topic
selection
• For the purposes of this exercise, a more basic model
with four key stages will suffice.
Steps in bench-marking
1. Planning for bench-marking.
2. Set targets of the quality of various services
3. Measuring: audit or bench-mark the quality of that
service using a check-list (this may include an costbenefit analysis)
4. Action plan: compare the bench-marks with the targets
and produce an action plan to bridge deficits.
Step 1: Planning for Benchmarking
•You may choose to have a panel rather than an individual, to
introduce an element of objectivity. The panel should have sufficient
gravity to command respect, but not so many members that it becomes
unwieldy.
•You should consult with all the main parties involved, including those
who will undergo bench-marking and the customers of the service.
•You should define the topics for bench-marking and processes to be
used. This may involve clarifying who your customers are and which
outputs you wish to bench-mark.
Step 2: Set targets of the quality of
various services
You can set targets to assess quality across many areas:
• Design and quality of facilities
• Staffing (levels, expertise)
• Health and safety (probably more an organisation-wide rather than a
departmental issue, but may include issues like cleanliness)
• Accessibility (opening hours, disabled access)
• Use of services
• Marketing
You begin with standards in key processes the organisation performs,
and which are critical success factors in running it effectively.
Targets may be derived from comparisons with other organisations or
accepted standards for “best practice” from the wider literature.
Step 3: Measuring
• This involves data collection and analysis, culminating in
comparison with external standards or “best-practice.”
• Some data can be gleaned from routine statistics already
gathered as part of daily activity (e.g. book issue and
return). Some data may need specific prospective
collection (e.g. a survey of customer satisfaction with
specific services).
• In some cases, especially if there is a research
component, it may involve a site visit or interviews with
stakeholders.
Step 4: Action plan
• This involves addressing gaps between “best practice”
(what the organisation should be doing) and current
practice (what it is doing).
• An early (and crucial step) may be dissemination of the
conclusions to all who will be involved in the action plan.
• It may lead to an iterative process of repeated review to
see if the action plan is working at closing that gap.
Problems along the way…
Unfortunately, benchmarking exercises do not
always run smoothly. Forewarned is forearmed
and problems for which you might want to plan
ahead include:
• Lack of support at senior management level
• Uncertainty about which processes to prioritise
for bench-marking.
• Justifying the cost (in terms of money and staff
time) that the exercise will consume.
….and some other issues
• Bench-marking often involves teamwork and developing a
consensus about what the organisation can do and what it
should do
• Because the process may involve disclosure of quite sensitive
details of performance, you may need to establish ground
rules about confidentiality.
• Bench-marking will have costs in terms of staff and time, but
well planned bench-marking exercises can show a good
return on investment in terms of improvements in both
efficiency and economy.
• To be successful you may need to make sure you have
escaped from a “blame culture” i.e. your organisation’s
response to mistakes is:
What lessons can we learn from next time?
NOT:
Whose fault was it?
What we have covered
• Simple definitions of
bench-marking
• Some applications to
both commercial and
public sectors
• The main stages in a
bench-marking
exercise.
Further reading:
• Bendell, T. (1997) Benchmarking for competitive
advantage. 2nd rev ed. London: Pitman.
• Balm, G. (1992) Bench-marking: a practitioner’s guide
for becoming and staying the best of the best.
Schaumburg (Illinois): QPMA Press.
• Brockman, J. (Ed) (1997) Quality Management and
Bench-marking in the Information Sector. London:
Bowker Saur.
• Brophy, P. (2006) Measuring library performance:
principles and techniques. London: Facet Publishing.
Points to ponder:
• Is “customer satisfaction” the ultimate criteria of
success, even if you work in an area without
competitors?
• What are the relative merits of bench-marking
yourself against organisations delivering the
same services as yours and those working in
other areas?
• What are the best ways to share benchmarking
plans and the outcomes across your
organisation?
That’s all folks!