With growing demands for increased operational efficiency and process improvement in organizations of all sizes, more and more companies are turning to benchmarking as a means of setting goals and measuring performance against the products, services and practices of other organizations that are recognized as leaders. The Benchmarking Book is an indispensable guide to process improvement through benchmarking, providing managers, practitioners and consultants with all the information needed to carry out effective benchmarking studies. Covering everything from essential theory to important considerations such as project management and legal issues, The Benchmarking Book is the ideal step-by-step guide to assessing and improving your company’s processes and performance through benchmarking.

This book provides the reader with inside knowledge about the application and workability of the concept of benchmarking in different industrial contexts. It takes a practical approach, including case studies in benchmarking applications from a cross-section of industry and commerce, and promotes state-of-the-art thinking and innovation through the use of benchmarking. It is the key text for senior managers, project teams, trainers and consultants in benchmarking and quality management. Effective Benchmarking features include: 20 case studies from nine different sectors; evidence that benchmarking can help achieve competitive advantage; numerous tips and useful information.

"In this book, Peter Bogetoft - THE expert on the theory and practice of benchmarking - provides an in–depth yet very accessible and readable explanation of the best way to do benchmarking, starting from the ground up." Rick Antle William S. Beinecke Professor of Accounting, Yale School of Management CFO, Compensation Valuation, Inc. "I highly recommend this well-written and comprehensive book on measuring and managing performance. Dr. Bogetoft summarizes the fundamental mathematical concepts in an elegant, intuitive, and understandable way." Jon A. Chilingerian Professor, Brandeis University and INSEAD "Bogetoft gives in his book Performance Benchmarking an excellent introduction to the methodological basis of benchmarking." Christian Parbøl Director, DONG Energy "This book is the primer on benchmarking for performance management." Albert Birck Business Performance Manager, Maersk Oil "This excellent book provides a non technical introduction for performance management." Misja Mikkers, Director, Dutch Health Care Authority "With this very well written and comprehensive introduction to the many facets of benchmarking in hand, organizations have no excuse for not applying the best and cost effective benchmarking methods in their performance assessments." Stig P. Christensen Senior R&D Director, COWI

Packed with dramatic case studies, this step-by-step guide shows managers how to adopt the seminal benchmarking techniques revolutionizing quality at companies like Federal Express, AT&T, and other industry leaders. Features timesaving tips, evaluation charts, graphs, ethics, and antitrust guidelines. 50 illus.

Written by Dr. Robert Camp, universally regarded as the founding father of the benchmark process, this bestseller is quite simply the definitive reference on the topic. Camp guides readers through the historic ten-step benchmarking process that he developed while at Xerox. This process is credited with reviving that company when it was floundering in 1979. Camp presents other examples of the process, including its dramatic application to L.L. Bean. He uses these examples to show managers how to relate benchmarking to their own circumstances and then provides them with expert strategy and tips so that they can efficiently and easily launch their own quest for best performance.

Develops a specific benchmarking methodology relevant to international tourism destinations. This book evaluates different approaches to benchmarking, and their application within tourism destinations. The book considers organization benchmarking - performance evaluation of a particular organization and its departments - and destination benchmarking, which involves all elements such as transport services, airport services, accommodation, leisure and sport, hospitality and local attitudes.

Use this in-depth guide to correctly design benchmarks, measure key performance metrics of .NET applications, and analyze results. This book presents dozens of case studies to help you understand complicated benchmarking topics. You will avoid common pitfalls, control the accuracy of your measurements, and improve performance of your software. Author Andrey Akinshin has maintained BenchmarkDotNet (the most popular .NET library for benchmarking) for five years and covers common mistakes that developers usually make in their benchmarks. This book includes not only .NET-specific content but also essential knowledge about performance measurements which can be applied to any language or platform (common benchmarking methodology, statistics, and low-level features of modern hardware). What You'll LearnBe aware of the best practices for writing benchmarks and performance testsAvoid the common benchmarking pitfalls Know the hardware and software factors that affect application performanceAnalyze performance measurements Who This Book Is For .NET developers concerned with the performance of their applications

The no-cost way to improve your organization on a daily basis Most nonprofits are already benchmarking informally. This unique book defines a formal way to benchmark. You'll learn how to prepare your organization, measure performance, and implement best practices as well as learning the five key steps of benchmarking, the arguments against benchmarking--and why you should disregard them, how benchmarking differs from evaluation and assessment, how to form a benchmarking team, how to create a "success equation" that helps you measure your organization's performance, how to make sure to measure what matters, how to choose your benchmarking partners--and what you can learn from the "wrong" partner, and how to overcome staff resistance to benchmarking. Practical tools help you benchmark what matters Real-world examples illustrate benchmarking in action. Exercises and worksheets guide you through processes such as drafting a benchmarking plan; identifying and analyzing the things in your organization that need improvement; prioritizing which processes to focus on; identifying your CTQ (critical to quality) outcomes; and more. The way to survive as a nonprofit in today's market is to thrive. With so many organizations seeking the same dollars, only the best will endure. Benchmarking ensures that your organization is always operating at peak performance. It's something you can't afford not to do--especially since you can do it for free!

This book serves as both a textbook and handbook on the benchmarking of systems and components used as building blocks of modern information and communication technology applications. It provides theoretical and practical foundations as well as an in-depth exploration of modern benchmarks and benchmark development. The book is divided into two parts: foundations and applications. The first part introduces the foundations of benchmarking as a discipline, covering the three fundamental elements of each benchmarking approach: metrics, workloads, and measurement methodology. The second part focuses on different application areas, presenting contributions in specific fields of benchmark development. These contributions address the unique challenges that arise in the conception and development of benchmarks for specific systems or subsystems, and demonstrate how the foundations and concepts in the first part of the book are being used in existing benchmarks. Further, the book presents a number of concrete applications and case studies based on input from leading benchmark developers from consortia such as the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) and the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). Providing both practical and theoretical foundations, as well as a detailed discussion of modern benchmarks and their development, the book is intended as a handbook for professionals and researchers working in areas related to benchmarking. It offers an up-to-date point of reference for existing work as well as latest results, research challenges, and future research directions. It also can be used as a textbook for graduate and postgraduate students studying any of the many subjects related to benchmarking. While readers are assumed to be familiar with the principles and practices of computer science, as well as software and systems engineering, no specific expertise in any subfield of these disciplines is required.

Written for managers, this powerful guide produced by the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), outlines the fundamentals for planning, organizing, and introducing benchmarking into the workplace. Filled with information gleaned from surveys of 87 International Benchmarking Clearinghouse members, it provides unique insight, enabling organizations to better plan their own benchmarking efforts. Within eight appendices, there is a wide spectrum of additional useful knowledge, including definitions of legal and moral behavior in the context of benchmarking, and a comparison of the numerous steps involved in its implementation. The text also includes an extensive bibliography of benchmarking and total quality management literature.