Benchmarking: An International Journal

Samantra, Chitrasen ; Datta, Saurav ; Mahapatra, Siba Sankar ; Debata, Bikash Ranjan

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-07-2013-0071

Purpose – Success of software projects depends on identification of project risks and managing the risks in a proactive manner. Risk management requires thorough insights into interrelationship of various risk factors for proposing strategies to minimize failure rate. The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive structural model to interrelate important risk factors affecting the success of software projects. Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, this study reveals how interpretive structural modelling helps the risk managers in identifying and understanding the interrelationship among various risk factors. A total of 23 risk factors (or risk sources) have been identified through an extensive literature review. Findings – Necessary modelling information has been gathered from expert through a structured questionnaire survey. Matrice d’Impacts croises-multipication appliqué an classment analysis has been employed to classify the risk factors into four clusters such as autonomous, dependent, linkage and independent based on their driving and dependence power. Risk factors with strong dependence and weak driving power need urgent attention from managerial perspective. Originality/value – The proposed model is useful for software managers/practitioners to address risk factors associated with complicated projects.

Gawankar, Shradha ; Kamble, Sachin ; Raut, Rakesh

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-06-2013-0068

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale with a high degree of reliability, validity and dimensionality which help to determine appropriate supply chain performance measurement (SCPM). Design/methodology/approach – The data were compiled and collected from 213 operations and supply chain heads from leading retail stores in India. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the proposed measurement scale. Findings – The major contribution of the present study is the development of SCPM constructs as well as a rigorously validated measurement instrument. The confirmation process is according to the typical standards of scale development. Research limitations/implications – This paper strives to contribute to the literature on the SCPM in Indian retail industry. This paper tests the validity of the measurement scales which will enable the managers to determine the appropriate SCPM. Practical implications – In the long run a good set of identified SCPM and their implementation would inevitability enables in deriving meticulous supply chain strategies. Social implications – SCM managers in evaluating their current supply chain performance. This can help the managers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their supply chain. Originality/value – This study proved that the SCPM can be used from different perspectives, all of which are integrated into one exclusive assessment instrument, applied to the SCPM in this case.

Langston, Craig

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-08-2013-0085

Purpose – Project cost is normally a key performance indicator for all projects, and therefore features prominently in benchmarking exercises aimed at identifying best practice. However, projects in different locations first require all costs to be expressed in equivalent units. Failing to do this leads to erroneous and unreliable results. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Applying international construction as the focus for the study, cost data from 23 cities worldwide are compared using a range of methods including currency conversion and purchasing power parity (PPP). Coefficient of variation (CoV) forms the test for identifying the method with the lowest volatility. Findings – It is found that purchasing power is the preferable theoretical base for international cost conversion, and currency conversion (frequently used by practitioners) is not recommended. The citiBLOC PPP method has the lowest CoV across the data set and therefore more closely reflects the Law of One Price that underpins the concept of PPP. Originality/value – This research highlights the importance of a valid cost conversion methodology to properly understand the comparative performance of projects. Its application to benchmarking is demonstrated using the data envelopment analysis method.

Ranjan, Rajeev ; Chatterjee, Prasenjit ; Chakraborty, Shankar

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-09-2014-0088

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose the application of a decision-making tool for performance evaluation of Indian Railway zones. It basically seeks to analyze the effects of various evaluation criteria on the performance of Indian Railways using a combined multi-criteria decision-making approach which employs decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and “VIse Kriterijumska Optimizacija kompromisno Resenje” (VIKOR) methods. Design/methodology/approach – The performance of 16 Indian Railway zones is first evaluated using DEMATEL method which addresses the inter-relationships between different criteria with the aid of a relationship structure. The VIKOR method which is a compromise ranking approach is then adopted to rank those candidate railway zones. Pareto analysis is also carried out to identify the benchmark railway zones for the under/poor performers so as to improve their operational excellence. Findings – A numerical example from Indian Railways is illustrated and solved for better understanding of the integrated decision-making tool in which the relevant information for the considered railway zones with respect to different evaluation criteria are collected from various websites and Indian Railways annual statistical report. Western and North-Eastern zones, respectively, take the first and the last positions in the derived ranking list. The relevance of selecting different performance indices/evaluation criteria is also discussed. Practical implications – The application of this integrated methodology would serve as a systematic approach for measurement of the aggregate operational performance of Indian Railway zones so as to gain valuable academic and practical insights. It is also expected to provide an insightful guidance to the railway administrators in taking valuable strategic decisions in promoting the service of Indian Railways. Originality/value – The integrated DEMATEL-VIKOR method is conceptually simple and easily comprehensible which can consider numerous attributes simultaneously. This paper enables the readers to gain some valuable inputs from a managerial perspective for Indian Railways to formulate strategies for its zones to foster better performance.

Wiegmans, Bart ; Dekker, Sander

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-04-2013-0050

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on answering the following research question: “How efficient are deep-sea ports in the Hamburg-Le Havre (HLH) range compared with each other?” Design/methodology/approach – Input-oriented (and output-oriented) Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) results demonstrate that the deep-sea port of Vlissingen is perfectly efficient and also that the port of Amsterdam is quite efficient. These DEA results are underligned by the single-point benchmarking results. Findings – The Dutch deep-sea ports are the most efficient ports in the HLH range. Finally, relatively smaller deep-sea ports (with a market share of about 5 percent, such as Amsterdam, Vlissingen, and Zeebrugge) are relatively more efficient than larger deep-sea container ports (such as Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam). It can be observed that especially in these larger ports, the container sector is (very) important as compared with the smaller ports. Furthermore, Dutch ports are relatively more efficient and receive the lowest subsidies, suggesting efficiency improvement opportunities for the Belgium, German, and French ports. Originality/value – The originality of the paper is in its focus on all deep-sea ports in the HLH range (and not on container ports only) and in the combination of methods (DEA and single-point benchmarking).

Saxena, Punita ; Saxena, Ratnesh R. ; Sehgal, Deepak

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-08-2014-0074

Purpose – Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric technique of computing efficiencies of decision-making units using similar set of inputs to give similar set of outputs. The objective is to pick out inefficient units from a data set of similar units and thus analyse their performance amongst their peer group. Stock markets can be considered to be an economy’s barometer. Thus, evaluation of efficiency effectiveness of the companies operating at stock exchange is a valuable exercise. Further, if the inefficient units can be given a benchmark for improvement, they can increase their market value. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the efficiencies of the Oil, Gas and Power (OGP) sector of India for the companies that form a part of the CNX Energy Index and CNX 500 Index of the National Stock Exchange of India. Design/methodology/approach – A group of 24 units has been included in the study. DEA was applied for ranking the units as per their efficiency levels by computing their technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies (SE). It was observed that only nine units are efficient and the remaining 15 were inefficient. It was observed that ONGC is the most efficient unit and CESC Ltd is the least efficient unit in this group. Also in this group there are ten units that show inefficiency due to their scales of operations. Further, benchmarking for the inefficient units has also been done in terms of inputs/outputs and the targets are suggested. It was observed that some of the Public Sector Companies like NTPC are using more inputs compared to the other units from the same group for achieving the same efficiency. Findings – The present study attempted a limited objective of establishing the technical, pure technical and scale inefficiencies of the companies operating in OGP sector in India and listed on National Stock Exchange with the help of the non-parametric technique of DEA and suggesting how they can strive to improve their performance. It is observed that 37.5 per cent are technically efficient as well as scale efficient, whereas 62.5 per cent are pure technically efficient. There are 42 per cent companies representing approximately half of the output and more than half of the input that have scale inefficiencies characterized by their PTE less than SE. Out of the efficient companies, ONGC appears to be the best whereas Essar Oil has a comparatively lower rank. Out of the inefficient companies, the worst performer is CESC Ltd. However, inspite of being the worst performer, this unit does not have the worst benchmarking targets. The units like Sterlite technologies and KSK energy ventures need to improve their profit by almost 1,000 per cent. These kind of targets are very difficult to attain. Hence these units need to improve their scale of operation. The managers of these units must take up this issue seriously and take measures to improve their productivity. The study also attempted benchmarking where various inefficient units have been suggested targets they need to scale to improve their efficiency. If addressed, they can have micro as well as macro benefits. Research limitations/implications – In the present paper, the analysis is restricted only to the OGP sector of Indian economy. The study can be further extended to various other sectors of Indian economy such as agriculture, telecommunications etc. This would help in the holistic analysis of the economy. The flag bearer efficient units would set up a benchmark for the improvement to the inefficient units that would help improve the developing economy of India. Originality/value – An increase in productivity is the most crucial management objective for any industry. Assessing the performance of companies listed and traded in stock market is imperative for investors and financial managers. Researchers have widely studied the performance evaluation of listed companies. Establishing efficiency of stock markets as a whole as well as of the constituent companies has been subject of wide research, but to the understanding no study has been done on evaluating the efficiencies of the OGP sector of India. In the present study the authors have concentrated on companies, out of the universe of energy companies operating in India, which form part of the CNX Energy Index and CNX 500 Index of the National Stock Exchange of India. The reason is that they represent the Indian energy market pretty well.

Brockhaus, Sebastian ; Fawcett, Stan ; Kersten, Wolfgang ; Knemeyer, Michael

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-09-2014-0093

Purpose – Regulatory pressure, consumer awareness, and the quest for competitive advantage place sustainable products in today’s decision-making spotlight. The purpose of this paper is to explore supply chain dynamics as they relate to sustainable product programs and to empirically develop a framework to align efforts across the supply chain to bring sustainable products to market. Design/methodology/approach – Grounded in systems design, stakeholder theory, and the theory of planned behavior, the authors conduct an inductive empirical study of 28 European and US companies. Findings – The authors make three contributions. First, the authors identify six dimensions of product sustainability, which map to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s sustainability scope model. Second, the authors model relational dynamics using systems diagrams to provide a framework that: first, communicates a common understanding of product sustainability; and second, facilitates tradeoff analysis. Third, the authors elaborate behaviors needed to reduce ambiguity and compliance costs. Practical implications – Managers can use the framework to assess product sustainability and evaluate tradeoffs across product dimensions and supply chain participants. Using this insight, managers can design sustainable product programs that engage supply chain participants. Social implications – By identifying dimensions, defining costs, and uncovering tradeoffs, managers can more effectively implement sustainable product programs. Originality/value – The framework provides a much needed source of clarity to mitigate role ambiguity, reduce compliance costs, and promote collaborative behavior in bringing sustainable products to market.

Chitnis, Asmita ; Vaidya, Omkarprasad S

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-09-2013-0093

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a tie-breaking procedure for computing performance efficiencies to improve benchmarking and performance evaluation process in a business situation. Design/methodology/approach – The authors propose a unified approach based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), to overcome the difficulty of unique ranking in the prevalent benchmarking and performance evaluation processes such as DEA, Super efficiency DEA model, etc., under constant return to scale (CRS) assumption. This model is called as efficiency ranking method using DEA and TOPSIS (ERM-DT). In order to check the consistency of the approach, various input-output combinations (to calculate the efficiencies) have been illustrated. Further, the authors present a case of an Indian Bank to illustrate an application of the proposed approach. Findings – The proposed approach, ERM-DT enables assign a unique rank to decision making units and provides a tie breaking procedure. Results obtained using the proposed approach are statistically compared with those obtained from the CRS DEA approach and super efficiency DEA approach using Friedman’s test. Practical implications – The proposed model provides an efficiency ranking method based on a score obtained by considering the minimum distance from the best value and maximum distance from the worst value. The proposed methodology is capable of handling negative data and undesirable output variables. This approach is unit invariant and makes the calculations simple. The authors present an application to compute the efficiency of various branches of an Indian bank. The authors hope the proposed method can enhance the decision-making ability of the management in complex situations. Originality/value – The authors propose an integrated DEA and TOPSIS framework for better benchmarking and performance evaluation. This approach provides a tie-breaking procedure for the efficiencies computed using CRS DEA approach. Ranks are assigned based on score obtained by considering the distance from the worst and the best solution. The proposed approach can be used with non-positive data points and undesirable output variables.

Jasti, Naga Vamsi Krishna ; Kodali, Rambabu

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-11-2013-0101

Purpose – Lean manufacturing (LM) principles are one of the alternatives to improve manufacturing productivity, quality and customer satisfaction in Indian manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to find the implementation status of LM principles across Indian manufacturing organizations through the empirical survey methodology. Design/methodology/approach – The survey questionnaire was developed based upon literature review conducted on LM and also considered experts suggestion in the field of LM. The survey questionnaire was sent to 753 manufacturing organization located in India. The respondent organization details have gathered from the list of Confederation of Indian Industries directory for the year 2011.The selected respondents were production managers, quality managers, sales managers, maintenance managers, CEOs of the organization. The empirical survey collected 180 filled survey questionnaires from Indian manufacturing industries. Findings – The study clearly identified that many manufacturing organizations were in initial transition stage and concentrating mostly in-plant operations instead of collaboration in all levels of business with suppliers and customers. The present study found that drivers for implementation of LM were customer satisfaction and organizational continuous improvement program. The present study also found that barriers to implement LM principles were employee resistance, implementing few elements of LM principles instead of the complete package of LM framework, budget constraints and lack of understanding of LM principles to shop floor managers. Finally the study concluded that Indian manufacturing organizations have to conduct continuous learning programmed to improve understanding of LM principles as well as to maintain their motivation level in apex point. The study also suggested that a systematic LM framework is needs to Indian manufacturing organizations, which will act as clear cut guiding torch to the organization managers to implement LM principles across organization. Research limitations/implications – The sample size of the present study was moderate number than previous studies. However the study only concentrated on manufacturing organizations across India. The results of the present study cannot generalize across all the sectors of Indian organizations. Originality/value – The concept of LM was very popular among developed and developing countries in the world. Many research studies were performed across world to find the status of LM implementation in their countries. Very few research studies reported the status of LM implementation in Indian manufacturing industries and those studies also with limited focus of the status of LM implementation. Hence the study presented details status of LM principles implementation in Indian manufacturing industries.

Sinha, Neena ; Garg, Ajay K. ; Dhingra, Sanjay ; Dhall, Neelam

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-12-2014-0112

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Organisational Culture (OC) on total quality management (TQM) implementation in Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the auto component sector. Specifically; it attempts to propose a model linking OC and TQM for this sector. Design/methodology/approach – Survey method was used for data collection by targeting the whole population of 482 Indian auto component SMEs drawn from Auto Component Manufacturers Association members’ database. Out of 482, 150 completely filled questionnaires were taken for data analysis. Proposed relationships among identified dimensions of OC and TQM interventions have been validated through parameter estimation statistics and goodness-of-fit statistics using path analysis technique of structural equation modelling using AMOS 18.0. Findings – Based on the results, a culture influenced TQM model has been developed. The model demonstrates a linkage between cultural dimensions and TQM interventions, thereby suggesting that OC characterised by “openness”, “confrontation”, “trust”, “authenticity”, “proaction”, “autonomy”, “collaboration” and “experimentation” has a significant and positive impact on TQM implementation. Practical implications – The study presents many practical implications, specifically for quality managers in Indian auto component SMEs. The study has developed a culture influenced TQM model which identifies dimensions of OC that promote TQM implementation. The study also identifies various interventions of TQM in their order of significance, which can be used by SMEs in mapping the critical links between OC and TQM through this model. Thus, findings of the present study will help SMEs in this sector to move up the value chain and sustain their global competitiveness. Originality/value – The study provides a culture influenced TQM model which would assist managers in quality implementation in Indian auto component SMEs.

Sweis, Rateb J ; Mahmoud Saleh, Firas Izzat ; Dahiyat, Samer Eid ; Sweis, Nadia J ; Saleh, Rawan Ali ; Diab, Hannah

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-02-2015-0013

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to aggregate significant part of debates in the field of International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) toward performance improvement by benchmarking of the Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, and to propose TQM-Benchmarking model as a seed for future research in the context of INGOs. Design/methodology/approach – TQM practices for INGOs were first identified based on critical synthesis of the literature for both, existing for-profit TQM literature and the INGOs field-specific quality and accountability frameworks, initiatives, and practices (Jordan introduced as an example) followed by solicitation of the opinions of experts and colleagues through personal interviews and focus group discussions to define the proposed TQM-Benchmarking model. Findings – TQM-Benchmarking model of six practices vital to INGOs performance are proposed by this review including leadership and management commitment, beneficiaries focus and participation, partnership management for sustainability, human resource (HR) focus, process management and learning and continuous improvement, and use of quality information. Originality/value – While TQM practices succeed in improving performance of for-profit organizations, this review proposed TQM-Benchmarking model with field-specific practical pillars of performance improvement in the INGOs.

Leithold, Nick ; Woschke, Tino ; Haase, Heiko ; Kratzer, Jan

2016 Benchmarking: An International Journal

doi: 10.1108/BIJ-05-2015-0054

Purpose – This study analyses new product development (NPD) processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to find successful innovation processes of SMEs on the one hand, and to reveal starting points to further improve these processes on the other. Design/methodology/approach – Data were gathered from 49 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with German firms. From the total of 49 cases, the authors identified three manufacturing SMEs with high-performing innovation processes, whose NPD processes the authors took as best practice examples. The authors then used the design structure matrix to map these three NPD processes, and optimised the sequence by applying an optimisation algorithm. Findings – The authors determined which activities could be done sequentially, in parallel, or overlapping. The authors also scrutinised the position of dynamic milestones and demonstrated that the best-performing SMEs had flexible NPD processes, which allowed for an accelerated innovation process. Research limitations/implications – Due to the qualitative design of the investigation, the research presented was not specifically designed to draw statistical generalisations. For this reason, the results may not be applicable to all SMEs. Practical implications – The authors recommend that SMEs uncouple activities as much as possible. In this regard, the findings revealed that that especially technical and economic activities may be conducted in parallel due to their low dependence. Originality/value – The paper offers an SME-specific NPD process to optimise the innovation performance. Moreover, the findings deliver new knowledge on how the best-performing SMEs innovate.