Benchmarking : from theory to practice =

The article analysis the following issues: 1. benchmarking concept analysis. Benchmarking is a process for comparing an organization’s methods, processes, procedures, products, and services against those of organizations that consistently distinguish themselves in the same categories of performance. Benchmarking may be used to stimulate an objective review of critical processes, practices and systems, to develop criteria and identify potentially better ways of operating, to lend more credibility to audit recommendations. Benchmarking can be usefully divided into three categories: 1) high-level comparisons, 2) performance benchmarking, 3) process benchmarking. 2. Benchmarking methodology. The benchmarking methodology contains the four basic steps: planning, analysis, integration, and action. Planning is an important starting point for benchmarking. This phase is aimed at identifying the purpose, drivers and desired outputs of the benchmarking process: identify subject to be benchmarked and determine the objectives of the benchmarking exercise, identify potential partners, determine the data collection method and collect data, seek approval, commitment and support of . senior managers, produce a work plan to determine the time-schedule, tasks, and team. The analysis identifies the performance gap between benchmarked organizations, norms or standards compared, Integration consists of communication of the results of the analysis and establishment of the revised goals/targets. The action consists of developing action plans, implementation of plans and monitoring of the results of implementation, re - assessment of the benchmark. [...].