The application of graphical techniques in evaluating benchmarking partners

Benchmarking is the search for best practices that will lead to superior performance in some business activity. Benchmarking can provide organisations with various benefits in process improvement, culture and, in actual financial terms, benchmarking can provide tremendous leverage. The generic process of benchmarking consists of four main steps, namely: plan, collect, analyse and adapt. A major part of the “plan” step is the benchmarking partner selection phase. This is arguably one of the most crucial factors for success. It involves analysing various attributes ranging from technical issues to cultural aspects. Clearly, this complicates the decision process for practitioners, but if this step is not accomplished properly, the organisation is unlikely to achieve effective results from its benchmarking initiative. In order to improve the chances of successful partner selection for benchmarking, multi‐attribute decision‐making tools are recommended. Explains how to use graphical techniques in order to evaluate the best practice among the potential candidates for benchmarking.