Benchmarking for Quality Management & Technology

Davis, Paul

doi: 10.1108/14635779810245099pmid: N/A

This article provides an overview of the current state of play of benchmarking in local government in the UK. It traces a trajectory of development for local authorities that diverges from that of the corporate private sector, in terms of the importance of external political drivers. A number of key constraints are identified that are together blocking the further development of benchmarking in the sector. These include a lack of awareness of potential scope; problems in securing needed skills; satisficing and low aspiration levels reducing the potential gain from benchmarking; and a marked lack of formal evaluation. Notwithstanding recent growth, a legitimate degree of scepticism remains in many local authorities as to the public value to be derived from benchmarking.

Corbett, Lawrence M.

doi: 10.1108/14635779810245134pmid: N/A

This paper reports on the levels of performance and improvement rates in a number of manufacturing performance indicators being achieved by typical manufacturers around the world and then discusses how well Australian and New Zealand companies are doing in the light of the competition. That competition being a sample of companies which is perhaps more typical than some of the exemplars who are so widely quoted in the popular management literature. The findings are based on the results from the 1996 Global Manufacturing Futures Survey. The results are presented in two ways ‐ by country or region and by industry. Australian and New Zealand manufacturers still have room for improvement in a number of areas, particularly quality, inventory and delivery performance. For the industry comparisons, what is striking is the range between best and worst.

Gilmour, Peter

doi: 10.1108/14635779810245143pmid: N/A

Over the last decade or so a number of significant research studies have focused on the characteristics of an excellent supply chain. These studies have shifted the emphasis from operational to strategic considerations. The practice of supply chain management has also broadened to include both operational and strategic concerns. A framework was developed to evaluate both the operational and strategic effectiveness of the supply chain which was tested with ten consumer goods and automobile manufacturers. It was found that consumer goods companies had significant room to improve their logistics operations. But none had a logistics strategy to guide the change. Automotive companies, on the other hand, had more sophisticated logistics operations and had plans to improve further over the next two years. The framework described in this paper provides a useful benchmark set for focusing change projects to improve both operational and strategic capabilities of the corporate supply chain.

Thiagarajan, T.; Zairi, M.

doi: 10.1108/14635779810245152pmid: N/A

This paper discusses an empirical analysis of total qulaity management (TQM) critical factors using an adaptation of a questionnaire used previously in the USA. Since the context of this analysis was the Malaysian approach to TQM implementation, the measuring scale was designed so that it can not only capture the degree of perception and understanding of each critical factor, but also measure the order of criticality of each factor. A total of 22 critical factors in all were found to predominate and these were classified in three separate tiers, thus giving them a structure. The findings were very compatible with those highlighted in the literature and also covered by similar studies. An index of comparative criticality was developed, leading to the proposal of a self‐assessment tool which can be used for a variety of purposes such as self‐assessment for developing an improvement plan and also for benchmarking the degree of implementation of each critical factor against the index produced as a standard.

Burgess, T.F.; Gules, H.K.; Gupta, J.N.D.; Tekin, M.

doi: 10.1108/14635779810244478pmid: N/A

The topic of competitive priorities has attracted many of those interested in manufacturing strategy and stimulated a number of surveys in manufacturing industry. Much of this empirical work concentrates on large companies in industrialised economies while asserting the general applicability of findings. In contrast the survey reported here was conducted in a newly industrialising country, Turkey, focusing on small to medium‐sized manufacturing enterprises. Key personnel in 41 companies were questioned about the priorities of cost, quality, flexibility and, in particular, time. Process innovations, since these enable improvements in competitive priorities, were also examined. General similarities were evident between the Turkish, other European, and US situations. However, certain elements of quality and time were not ranked as highly in Turkey and the adoption levels of process innovations were lower. In contrast to US data, connections between competitiveness and time‐related performance measures were not apparent. Conclusions were drawn that Turkish manufacturing industry was generally at an earlier, quality‐dependent, stage in developing competitiveness and that time‐based competition was not yet evident.