AQM-II

ASSIGNMENT I

BENCHMARKING AND CASE STUDY ON Health and

Safety

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY-

MR. SUMIT KUMAR Bhojraj Gokhe
ASST. PROFESSOR BFT/18/L15
NIFT BHUBANESWAR
What is 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.
That might mean tweaking a product’s features to more closely match a competitor’s
offering, or changing the scope of services you offer, or installing a new customer
relationship management (CRM) system to enable more personalized communications with
customers.
There are two basic kinds of improvement opportunities: continuous and dramatic.
Continuous improvement is incremental, involving only small adjustments to reap sizeable
advances. Dramatic improvement can only come about through reengineering the whole
internal work process.

Steps involved in Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a simple, but detailed, five-step process:
 Choose a product, service, or internal department to benchmark
 Determine which best-in-class companies you should benchmark against – which
organizations you’ll compare your business to
 Gather information on their internal performance, or metrics
 Compare the data from both organizations to identify gaps in your company’s
performance
Adopt the processes and policies in place within the best-in-class performers

Types of benchmarking:
1. External benchmarking:
It is a process of comparing the organizational methods and performance with the other peers
of the same industry.
2. Internal benchmarking:
It is a process of comparing the various methods and performance internally within the
organization. In this internal benchmarking, the internal performances of various departments
across the varied locations in the organization are compared.
3. Competitive benchmarking:
In competitive benchmarking, your performance is compared with direct competitors. Data
collection is considered tough here but one can gain more inner ideas about the competitor’s
performance and its reasons.
4. Industry benchmarking:
In this type of benchmarking, the comparison is made with the leaders in the field. In this
category, data collection can be considered tough and tedious but you should know that
you’re comparing with the leaders and pioneers in the business.

Other types of derived benchmarking-

The following are the few types of benchmarking derived from the base of internal and
external benchmarking.
1. Process benchmarking:
It is a type of benchmarking; the employee of the organization would demonstrate how other
top-performing organizations would perform the same task.
Process benchmarking is done by collecting information about other company’s strategies
through research, visiting the sites, through workshops conducted by other companies.
Process benchmarking gives a clear comparison of the other organization’s ideas and their
market strategies with them.
2. Strategic benchmarking:
Before commencing a new idea, members of the organization would analyze their new
strategy in terms of a long time.
In this strategic benchmarking process, they would compare the winning strategies of the
companies in the marketplace. Strategic benchmarking has always enabled choosing a high
performing strategy.
3. Product benchmarking:
Product benchmarking is based on the reverse engineering concept.
Here any organization would purchase the competitors’ product and break down into pieces
to know its various features and performance ability.
By this, they would improve their product’s performance by analyzing the basic working of
the others product in the market.

4. Corporate benchmarking:
Corporate benchmarking is not about comparing the working or performance of the product
but a comparison of various divisions of the organization and basic studies to improve the
organization’s working model.
For example, in corporate benchmarking, they would compare other organization’s marketing
division, finance, research team, and testing squad etc to improve the overall efficiency of the
organization.
5. Global benchmarking:
Global benchmarking is an extension of strategic benchmarking where the comparison of the
strategies takes place globally.
For example, Microsoft operating in the USA would compare its accounts division with
Mazda of Japan and found that they have employed 500 employees to do a 5 people job.
6. Collaborative benchmarking:
Collaborative benchmarking is something that happens within the organization. Where the
Information technology team would collaborate with the IT support center to Information
technology division.
Various other team collaborations would also happen by discussing the various team
strategies. This type of benchmarking is very common among all industries.
7. SWOT:
SWOT analysis, this type of benchmarking is something which gathers information about the
companies’ strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats to help the management do it
better.
8. Best practices:
Organizations usually study and do research on the successful organization’s winning
practices.
By doing this type of benchmarking, they would get a clear picture of their practices and
there is more scope of improvement.
9. Functional:
There are many businesses that look forward to get associated with different business sectors
or the same functionality so that new and innovative ways can be found out to enhance
similar work functions or processes.
Improvements and innovations can be brought about in business by following this method.
10. Financial benchmarking:
This type compares the financial analysis and makes a comparison with the results so that the
complete productivity and competitiveness can be achieved.

11. First in class benchmarking:

In this type, the leading organization or concern which best carries out its function is studied.
12. Energy benchmarking:
This is another category that takes into account analysis, collection and related energy
performance data of various activities with the main intention to compare and analyse the
performance of various entities.
Benefits of benchmarking

Lowering Labour Costs

One advantage of benchmarking may be lower labor costs. For example, a small
manufacturing company may study how a top competitor uses robots for several basic plant
functions. These robots may help the competitor save a significant amount of money on labor
costs. Company managers may obtain information on these robotics systems through the
competitor's website or online articles. They may also identify the company that sold the
competitor the robots. Subsequently, the company using benchmarking may call the robot
manufacturer to help set up its own system.

Improving Product Quality

Companies may also use benchmarking to improve product quality. Engineers sometimes
purchase leading competitors' products. They may then take them apart, study them and
determine how the competitors' products outlast or outperform others in the industry.
Chemical engineers may study food or cleaning products in a similar manner. They can then
compare various elements contained in competitive products to their own product line.
Subsequently, improvements can be made to product quality.

Increasing Sales and Profits

A company that uses benchmarking to improve its functions, operations, products and
services may enjoy increases in sales and profits. Customers are likely to notice these
improvements. The benchmarking company may also promote is improvements through
company brochures, its sales reps, magazine and television ads. These efforts are likely to
increase sales, especially among core customers. Companies that operate more efficiently due
to benchmarking can drastically lower their expenses. These savings can be lead to greater
profits.

Benchmarking Across Departments

Some organizations use internal benchmarking to improve performance in different
departments. Department managers may study and emulate the best practices of one
particular department. These changes may spark improvements among all departments.
Internal benchmarking has its limitations, however. The company's top department may not
be functioning as efficiently as others in the industry. This means the other departments were
not truly benchmarking against the best departments out there.

CASE STUDY: Health and Safety

Health and safety benchmarking is a planned process by which an organization compares its
health and safety processes and performance with others to learn how to:
 reduce accidents and ill-health;
 improve compliance with health and safety law; and/or
 cut compliance costs
Benchmarking is more about continuously learning from others rather than competing,
learning more about your organization’s strengths and weaknesses in the process, and then
acting on the lessons learned. This is what leads to real improvement. Managing health and
safety should be just as important to organizations as managing other areas like production,
finance or customer care.

Advantages of Benchmarking health and safety: -

 improve your reputation - this is increasingly important in getting and keeping

contracts;
 avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ - learn from others’ experience and pick up on others’
good ideas by comparing and contrasting how things are done;
 develop relationships with your customers and suppliers, including contractors;
 find out where you stand - you may think you’re better than average, or even the best,
but are you really?
 save money and help keep your competitive edge. Savings can come, for example,
from reduced insurance premiums, increased productivity and reduced staff turnover;
 improve overall management of health and safety and reduce risks to people’s health
and safety.
Health and safety benchmarking is a five-step cycle aimed at ensuring continuous
improvement which are as follows:
 Deciding what to benchmark
 Analyzing where you are
 Selecting partners
 Working with your partner
 Acting on the lessons learned

Case study
A small engineering firm was concerned about its health and safety performance but wasn’t
really sure where it was going wrong and what to do about it. The firm worked with its trade
association who helped it identify priorities and put it in contact with other members who
could help. The firm learned from other members how it could improve its health and safety
management in key areas.
An NHS Trust had decided it needed to improve its health and safety management and
thought benchmarking would be a good way of doing this. Managers and safety
representatives arranged for a baseline survey to measure where they were. HSE and other
guidance gave them an idea of where they should be. They decided to concentrate on using
this guidance initially. After some improvements, another survey was carried out which
showed some achievements, but other areas where more work was needed. Managers decided
they would look for benchmarking partners to help them with these more difficult areas.
Big and small firms can together make good partners. One small firm impressed its main
customer - a big multinational - with its clever but simple way of removing stains from its
finished product. The small firm shared its method with its customer, and in return the big
firm included the smaller firm’s workers in a health and safety training exercise. This co-
operation helped the small firm when its contract came to be renewed. This shows how good
relationships can develop to everyone’s benefit.
A firm had identified its partner on the basis of its much better health and safety performance
data. However, it wasn’t until on-site meetings were held that the firm realized that its partner
worked out its figures in a different way, and the partner’s performance was really no
different. Luckily the visit wasn’t wasted and there were still lessons for both to learn. But
better planning would have helped!
After a benchmarking visit to a leading organization (involving a director,
managers, safety representatives and a health and safety adviser), there was a lot of
enthusiasm in the team to take new ideas forward. It was recognized that a phased action plan
would be the best way forward, making sure all relevant people were ‘on board’. As a result
of improvements made, the firm has become a ‘benchmark’ in its own right and has enhanced
its reputation. It is still on the lookout for good new ideas to keep improving.
REFERENCES-
 https://smallbusiness.chron.com/
 https://www.oshatrain.org/
 https://www.polfed.org/WestMids/media/1986/health-and-safety-
benchmarking.pdf
 https://www.cardinus.com/insights/health-and-safety/benchmarking-health-safety/