How Does One Conduct a Benchmarking Study?
The initial step is to decide exactly what to benchmark. Though there should already be some general idea of what is to be done, the topic initially presented may have been a broad one, within which several more specific projects could be fitted. For example: the initial proposal may have been to shorten the cycle time of the disbursements business process. However, there are a number of steps within this process, such as ordering and receiving goods, forwarding the paperwork to accounting, matching accounts payable documentation, and issuing payment. The project team may select only one of these sub-processes for a more detailed review. Once the specific sub-process has been selected, the project team can collect information about the performance level of whatever is targeted. This information is needed in order to compare it with the results gained from a review of outside entities or other departments or divisions of the same company. For example, a review of a process might require
