Benchmarking Best Practices in Maintenance Management
This concise and easy to use book provides a framework for managing maintenance with options that allow decision makers to select the most successful ways to manage their businesses.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Benchmarking Best Practices in Maintenance Management
Chapter 12: Benchmarking Best Practices in Maintenance Management
When benchmarking, it is best to determine early in the process what you are trying to accomplish. Are you really trying to improve or are you just trying to find some number to reach? If you are truly trying to benchmark, then self-assessment is an important prerequisite.
Finding Benchmarking Partners
One of the most difficult challenges when benchmarking is finding legitimate partners. Although a variety of articles and Internet sites might suggest potential partners, it is important to find a legitimate benchmarking partner, one who has documented best practices in a particular process of maintenance management. The benchmarking partner should have had the desired process under control for a period of time and should also show sustainable results over the same time.
Once you identify the benchmarking partner, you must determine what you have to share with the partner. For you to have an interchange of ideas, you must have a best practice that you can share. This practice does not necessarily need to be superior, but it should be something of interest to the partner. Otherwise, the benchmarking exercise is a one-way learning experience and partners can quickly sour on the experience.
During the benchmarking process, key data about best practices will be identified; this data should only be shared among those participating in the study. Sharing the data with someone outside of the benchmarking study is both unwise and unethical, and can turn many companies away from benchmarking.
Variables in Benchmarking
Achieving accurate comparisons requires both data and...
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