Discussion II - Reply II

Discussion Thread: Process Improvement: Benchmarking

 

 

 

 

Key Concept: Benchmarking

           

            Businesses use benchmarking as a method to assess their performance against that of other companies or organizations. Benchmarking might involve comparing an organization's operations, services, products, procedures, or a mix of these against its competitors. The ability to do benchmarking with unrelated organizations, such as comparing commission rates between a car manufacturer and a retailer, is a crucial benefit. Because benchmarking was mentioned just briefly in the reading yet is widely utilized in businesses and organizations, I decided to use this concept to discuss. The goal was to read in-depth articles regarding the procedures and uses of benchmarking across various industries.

 

Comparison

           

            The reading lists each stage taken throughout the benchmarking process, which compares a business to others (David, 2021). Preparing for the benchmarking research is the initial phase, which can entail securing management support and gathering information on issue areas within the company. The second phase entails gathering information on other organizations from published data or in-house original research. The final step entails comparing the host company's data to those of its rivals in order to identify improvements or management suggestions.

            These fundamental procedures were covered in the materials I read, along with best practices that increase the likelihood of discovering pertinent data. In one piece, it was highlighted how benchmarking strategic project managers might assist quantify expectations in a workplace where quarterly profits don't necessarily have a big influence (Sutia, 2020). The researchers were able to maximize the utilization of human resources in the business by using benchmarking to create better jobs that did not all have the same responsibilities.

            Once established, benchmarking can be a repeatable, quantifiable procedure. In order to assess each country's capacity to comply with international health regulations, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a scaling list. The article uses numerous categories, each graded from one to five, to assess each country's level of medical preparedness. The method employed by WHO demonstrates how benchmarking can develop a repeatable procedure and produce a measurable comparison (O.S. Albahri, 2020).

 

Article Summary

           

            Direct purchases from manufacturers are not permitted in the US car sector. Instead, customers can acquire vehicles from dealerships connected to but not owned by manufacturing firms. Due to the partnership between car dealerships and manufacturers, it is essential for both parties to have an accurate system for identifying the characteristics of a successful car dealership that can sell plenty of new vehicles (Behzadan & Munir, 2019). Comparing auto dealerships can be challenging because location, certain salespeople, or vehicle brands can significantly affect the results of macro process comparisons. When comparing similar dealerships, the researchers removed superfluous data using a new model-based clustering benchmarking technique.

            Numerous data factors, such as employee metrics, location, brand, and management incentives, are present in the new model, which includes hundreds of dealerships. After accounting for anomalous data, the research team overlaid dealership profitability to identify the characteristics that successful dealerships had in common. The team was able to forecast underperforming businesses when using the model on new dealerships. For the best business practices, the method can also be utilized to suggest new dealership locations and dealership upgrades.

 

Biblical Integration

 

            Benchmarking and comparison between one another help make each other better through implicit friendly competition. The same sentiment is echoed in Proverbs (27:17), which reads “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another” (Open Bible, n.d.). This concept helps improve all parties involved as they continuously try to assess and outdo the other.

 

Application

           

            Benchmarking was initially used to compare businesses exclusively to others that had similar products or business models. Benchmarking can now be used in novel and creative ways because of developments in computer technology and data collection; the only restriction is the research team's creativity (Banbury, 2021). Additionally, significant data storage capabilities allow businesses to maintain sizable information banks for conducting fresh comparisons, reducing the need for data collecting. The information that benchmarking gives will be crucial as more businesses attempt to reach the global market and as each one tries to increase its profit margin. Effective managers must be aware of the potential benefits of benchmarking in order to maximize business performance.

 

References

Banbury, C. R. (2021, January).  Benchmarking TinyML Systems: Challenges & Direction. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.04821.pdf

TinyML hardware, which has recently made advances in ultra-low-power machine learning, holds the promise of enabling a completely new class of intelligent applications. However, the absence of a generally regarded baseline for these systems restricts further advancement. Benchmarking is essential for a field to mature since it enables systematic comparison, evaluation, and improvement of the performance of systems. In this position paper, researchers outline the current state of TinyML and talk about the difficulties and best course of action for creating an accurate and practical hardware benchmark for TinyML workloads. They also talk about their selection process and give four standards. The pooled opinions of the more than 30 organizations that make up the TinyMLPerf working group are reflected in their points of view.

Behzadan, V., & Munir, A. (2019). Adversarial Reinforcement Learning Framework for Benchmarking Collision Avoidance Mechanisms in Autonomous Vehicles.  IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine, 13(2).

The group of researchers implements data-driven benchmarking analytics for specific auto dealerships that take geography, demographics, and surroundings into account. The new approach consolidates dealerships depending on store performance using model-based clustering. In order to increase dealership sales while still maintaining manufacturing criteria, the model seeks to identify stores outside of the clustered model. The team developed the new benchmarking technique and then used it in real-world vehicle dealerships of significant American manufacturers. The data-driven benchmarking method may identify dealerships that are underperforming. Using this technique, the research team can make recommendations that are specific to the environment, demographics, and location of the store.

David, E. (2021). Global Wheat Head Detection 2021: An Improved Dataset for Benchmarking Wheat Head Detection Methods.  Science Partner Journals, 2021.

The research team examines the capacity of various project management office roles to carry out strategic planning in significant public organizations engaged in societal development. The study team recruited project participants from a wide range of organizations using a qualitative survey as a data-gathering method. Multiple regression was used to analyze this data, and the results showed that implementing a project management office enhanced the likelihood that the firm would succeed in attaining its strategic objectives. The study's goal was to ascertain how well the project management office jobs contributed to the achievement of business objectives, and it discovered that every position increased the likelihood of success. The amount of people assigned to each function did, however, show a diminishing return in the study, although further study is required to pinpoint when this diminishing return begins.

 

O.S. Albahri. (2020, October).  Journal of Infection and Public Health, 13(10), 1381-1396.

To assess the capabilities of different countries to regulate health, researchers established a benchmarking process. To ascertain how prepared governments can be to support a range of health problems, it uses various distinct criteria. The group uses the benchmarking tool to numerically divide countries in order to improve aid distribution and create backup plans in case of a global medical emergency. After gathering the required data and making the necessary assumptions, the benchmarking tool was created to be used by any analytics team. It subcategorizes each of the categories into a few capacity levels. It also offers suggestions for enhancing a country's strengths in each area.

 

Open Bible. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.openbible.info/topics/competition

Sutia, S. (2020). Benefit of Benchmarking Methods in A Several industries: A systematic Literature Review.  Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(8), 508-518.

 The research group examines computer calculation techniques used in to assess if they can be applied to datasets used for business benchmarking. The group creates a set of guidelines and uses them while conducting open-source benchmarking studies. Their research examines if their method yields the same comparison and best course as conventionally used benchmarking studies in a number of company industries. The group then created a computer software based on their methods, optimizing it for business benchmarking. The researchers used tons of benchmarking techniques, and with enough data, they may all run simultaneously and produce useful results.