APPAREL QUALITY MANAGEMENT-II

ASSIGNMENT 1
BENCHMARKING AND CASE STUDY:
XEROX

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Mr. Sumit Kumar Anany Raj
Asst. Professor BFT/17/1071
NIFT Bhubaneswar
BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking is a process of measuring the performance of a company’s products, services,
or processes against those of another business considered to be the best in the industry, aka
“best in class.” The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for
improvement. By studying companies with superior performance, breaking down what makes
such superior performance possible, and then comparing those processes to how your business
operates, you can implement changes that will yield significant improvements.

STEP-BY-STEP BENCHMARKING

1. Choose a product, service, or internal department to benchmark.

2. Determine which best-in-class companies you should benchmark against – which

organizations you’ll compare your business to.

3. Gather information on their internal performance, or metrics.

4. Compare the data from both organizations to identify gaps in your company’s
performance.

5. Adopt the processes and policies in place within the best-in-class performers.
TYPES OF BENCHMARKING

1. Internal benchmarking is a comparison of a business process to a similar process

inside the organization.
2. Competitive benchmarking is a direct competitor-to-competitor comparison of a
product, service, process, or method.
3. Functional benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices within the
same or similar functions outside the immediate industry.
4. Generic benchmarking broadly conceptualizes unrelated business processes or
functions that can be practiced in the same or similar ways regardless of the industry.

INTERNAL BENCHMARKING

Internal benchmarking is a comparison of a business process to a similar process inside the

organization to acquire the best internal. business practices. At the federal level, two
Department of Transportation sites might prepare their budget submissions for Congressional
approval. In the private sector, a retail food store chain selects its most profitable store as a
benchmark for the others.

BENEFITS

 most cost efficient

 relatively easy
 low cost
 fast
 good practice/training with benchmarking process
 information sharing
 easy to transfer lessons learned
 common language
 gain a deeper understanding of your own process
 makes a great starting point for future benchmarking studies

CHALLENGES

 fosters mediocrity
 limits options for growth
  low performance improvement
 can create atmosphere of competitiveness
 not much of a stretch
 internal bias
 may not yield best-in-class comparisons

COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING

Competitive benchmarking is a direct competitor-to-competitor comparison of a product,

service, process, or method. This form of benchmarking provides an opportunity to know
yourself and your competition better; combine forces against another common competitor. An
example of competitive benchmarking within the Department of Defense, might include
contrasting Army and Air Force supply systems for Joint initiatives. Within the private sector,
two or more American car companies might benchmark for mutual benefit against common
international competitor; or, rival chemical companies benchmark for environmental
compliance.

BENEFITS

 comparing like processes

 know your competition better
 possible partnership
 useful for planning and setting goals
 similar regulatory issues

CHALLENGES

 difficult legal issues

 relatively low performance improvement
 threatening
 limited by trade secrets
 may provide misleading information
 may not get best-in-class comparisons
 competitors could capitalize on your weaknesses
FUNCTIONAL BENCHMARKING

Functional benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices (e.g., the picking

process for assembling customer orders, maintaining inventory controls of spare computer
parts, logistics to move operational forces, etc.) within the same or similar functions outside
the immediate industry. Functional benchmarking might identify practices that are superior in
your functional areas in whatever industry they may exist. Functional benchmarking would be
accomplished at the federal level by comparing the IRS collections process against those of
American Express. Comparing copper mining techniques to coal mining techniques is an
example in the private sector.

BENEFITS

 provides industry trend information

 quantitative comparisons
 better improvement rate; about 35

CHALLENGES

 diverse corporate cultures

 great need for specificity
 not invented here. syndrome
 common functions can be difficult to find
 takes more time than internal or percent
 must be able to visualize how to adapt the best practices

GENERIC BENCHMARKING

Generic benchmarking broadly conceptualizes unrelated business processes or functions that

can be practiced in the same or similar ways regardless of the industry. Generic means without
a brand. It is a pure form of benchmarking. The focus is on being innovative and gaining insight
into excellent work processes rather than on the business practices of a particular organization
or industry.
BENEFITS

 high payoff; about 35 percent

 non-competitive/nonthreatening
 broad, new perspective
 innovative
 high potential for discovery
 examines multiple industries
 can compare to world

CHALLENGES

 difficult concept
 can be difficult to identify best-in- class
 takes a long time to plan
 known world-class companies are inundated with requests
 quantum changes can bring high risk, escalate fear
 class organizations in your process

ADVANTAGES OF BENCHMARKING
1. It helps improve process effectiveness
2. Helps in cost reduction
3. It provides focus in planning operations
4. The sharing of information may create opportunities for innovations
5. It assesses the firms existing position and provides a basis for establishing standards of
performance
6. Cross comparison is more likely to expose different ways of doing things
7. It provides evidence for additional resources
8. Is practitioner led, so gives a sense of ownership
9. Facilitates multi-disciplinary team building and networking
10. Provides an avenue for change in clinical practices.
 CASE STUDY ON BENCHMARKING (XEROX
CORPORATION)

The company invented the photocopier in 1959 and maintained a virtual monopoly for many
years thereafter. “Xerox” became a generic name for all photocopiers. By 1981, however, the
companies market shrunk to 35% as IBM and Kodak developed high-end machines and Canon,
Richo and Savin dominated the low-end segment of market.

The company instituted the quality improvement plan, which resulted in tremendous progress
and survival of the organization. This quality improvement plan was later known to the world
as Benchmarking Program. Xerox’s approach focused on key processes, rather than simply on
finished products, and highlighted distinctive elements of those processes that accounted for
product superiority.

Xerox’s benchmarking strategy recognized that many processes are not unique to a single
industry and that comparisons need not be confined strictly to one’s competitors. Xerox and
other bench markers now believe that breakthrough advances are more likely to occur by
adapting lessons learned from leaders operating in entirely different industries.

Xerox benchmarked companies both, in and outside the industry. The particular example is
L.L.Bean, catalog seller of outside equipment for improving distribution system based on the
same. The benchmarking process resulted in: Quality problems cut by two-thirds,
manufacturing costs cut in half, development task cut by two-thirds, direct labour cut by 50%
and corporate staff cut by 35% while increase in volume.
It should be noted that all these improvements were not direct result of benchmarking rather it
became the cause climate for change and continuous improvement followed as a natural result.
REFERENCES
1. www.totalqualitymanagement.wordpress.com
2. www.tqmgroups.blogspot.com/p/benchmarking.html
3. https://www.xerox.com/index/enin.html