Collaborative benchmarking, transparency and performance

Unfamiliar relatives in the service sector

Purpose

This paper presents an approach by which potential benchmarking partners in the service sector can be matched together more efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to decide which organisations are appropriate partners based on their distinctive characteristics and problems with service management.

Design/methodology/approach

In the research presented in this paper, cluster analysis and other statistical analyses were applied to data from a survey of managers in service organisations with the aim of identifying groups of services related to each other in their distinctive characteristics and the problems they face.

Findings

The research found that it is possible to identify hidden “relationships” that allow superficially different services to be grouped together. The identified relationships are based on similarities in the problems which the companies face and their distinctive characteristics. Operating in a different area of activity increases the chance that a service provider will be willing to enter into a partnership and greater potential innovation value from best practice. Cluster analysis was used to identify three groups of services in the research sample which could be benchmarking partners for each other.

Research limitations/implications

The research studied only a selective group of nine services in different areas of activity. A statistical survey of 388 organisations in one country verified the methodology in terms of statistical significance and the potential for successful identification and adoption of best practice within a group of related services created using the proposed procedure has also been confirmed. The real value of the approach can only be determined by its repeated use to establish benchmarking partnerships and the success of such partnerships, which can be defined as the adoption of innovative best practice.

Practical implications

The approach described in this paper could make it easier to develop non-competitive benchmarking in the service sector and increase the probability of success in identifying and transferring best practices between organisations in benchmarking partnerships established using it.

Originality/value

One of the first steps in collaborative benchmarking is to establish a partnership with a similar non-competing organisation. The procedure for this step is still not adequately defined. This paper contributes to the theoretical foundations and practical applications of research by setting out an original method for identifying suitable partners in non-competing sectors of the service industries. This will improve the prospects for successful partnership and greater innovativeness in best practice.

Benchmarking and improving mass transit systems in the United States based on best-in class practices

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find ways to develop more efficient mass transit systems across the USA and, thus, make the best use of state/federal/municipal government funds and taxpayers’ monies. This paper conducts benchmarking studies. In doing so, this paper identifies the best-in class mass transit practices that every regional mass transit system can emulate.

Design/methodology/approach

The continuous underutilization of a mass transit system can increase public scrutiny concerning the increased investment in mass transit services. To defuse such scrutiny, this paper analyzes the past (in year 2011) performances of 515 mass transit agencies in the USA using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Also, to identify which factors influences those performances, the authors paired DEA scores for transit efficiency at the state level against a set of independent variables using a special form of regression analysis called Tobit regression.

Findings

The authors found that the greater population density of the service area, the greater number of riders can be served in a short amount of distance and time. Also, the authors discovered that the transportation mode of mass transit services could affect mass transit efficiency. On the other hand, the authors found no evidence indicating that the public ownership or private operation of transit systems could make any differences in the transit efficiency.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the few that assessed the performance of mass transit systems in comparison to their peers using a large-scale data and identify the leading causes of mass transit inefficiency. Thus, this paper helps transit authorities in handling juggling acts of protecting the conflicting interests of government policy makers against the general public and, then, make sensible future investment decisions.

Benchmarking the efficiencies of Indonesia’s municipal water utilities using Stackelberg data envelopment analysis

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present a yardstick efficiency comparison of 269 Indonesian municipal water utilities (MWUs) and measures the impact of exogenous environmental variables on efficiency scores.

Design/methodology/approach

– Two-stage Stackelberg leader-follower data envelopment analysis (DEA) and artificial neural networks (ANN) were employed.

Findings

– Given that serviceability was treated as the leader and profitability as the follower, the first and second stage DEA scores were 55 and 32 percent (0 percent = totally inefficient, 100 percent = perfectly efficient), respectively. This indicates sizeable opportunities for improvement, with 39 percent of the total sample facing serious problems in both first- and second-stage efficiencies. When profitability instead leads serviceability, this results in more decreased efficiency. The size of the population served was the most important exogenous environmental variable affecting DEA efficiency scores in both the first and second stages.

Research limitations/implications

– The present study was limited by the overly restrictive assumption that all MWUs operate at a constant-return-to-scale.

Practical implications

– These research findings will enable better management of the MWUs in question, allowing their current level of performance to be objectively compared with that of their peers, both in terms of scale and area of operation. These findings will also help the government prioritize assistance measures for MWUs that are suffering from acute performance gaps, and to devise a strategic national plan to revitalize Indonesia’s water sector.

Originality/value

– This paper enriches the body of knowledge by filling in knowledge gaps relating to benchmarking in Indonesia’s water industry, as well as in the application of ensemble two-stage DEA and ANN, which are still rare in the literature.

Benchmarking of TQM: the case of Hikma Pharmaceuticals company

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of internal benchmarking through the evaluation of quality management in two quality departments (Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)) in a pharmaceutical company by utilizing total quality index (TQI).

Design/methodology/approach

– In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose a structured questionnaire was used to assess the gap between the ideal and current status of the quality management system. The mean differences between the current and ideal states for the eight critical factors were compared for the two departments using t-test.

Findings

– There is difference in the actual and ideal scores on three out of eight critical factors between the QA and QC departments.

Practical implications

– The internal benchmarking process which was applied in this case study can be applied in other pharmaceutical companies in order to improve the status of the quality management system and achieve competitive advantage.

Originality/value

– Benchmarking of total quality management (TQM) can improve the performance of organizations. The benchmarking tool used in this study TQI is an information technology-supported tool that helps managers assess a TQM program by enabling the cost-effective measurement of key organizational processes. TQI measures the ideal and actual quality management along eight critical factors synthesized by Saraph et al. (1989).