Objective
Modular Benchmarking Concept for small and medium Enterprises Benchmarking offers up-to-now missing management targets. At the moment, it is mainly done in big enterprises. SMEs hardly participate in benchmarking because of numerous hurds. This has the following reasons: Common reference number systems, nowadays often used for benchmarking in big enterprises, arouse from a tayloristic point of view. This point of view does not suit the measuring of benchmarks for business processes and processes close to the production and does not correspond in any way with modern management philosophies like e.g. the Total Quality Management. The requested comparability for companies in benchmarking can only be guaranteed by a strict following of the process approach. Business processes in production close fields can easily be compared if these are defined and measuring quantities for creating benchmarks are available. At the moment, world wide there are none or only incomplete process definitions existing for the SMEs so important fields of maintenance, design, internal logistics, order completion as well as Total Quality Management (IQ96). World wide there aren`t any measurable quantities for these processes. SMEs can only use benchmarking when a Europe-wide standard is created. Only a Europe-wide standard can provide reference and comparing quantities which prevent that companies compare "apples with pears". Up to now, this danger could only be avoided by long discussions with the benchmarking partner. Traditionally lean SMEs do not have the personal resources for such proceedings [Welt96]. Within this research project completely new methods for benchmarking shall be developed to avoid the above described problems: identification of business processes in production close fields and measurable quantities to assess the modules quality, internal logistics, design, maintenance and order completion; development of analyse tools to find and calculate benchmarking reference numbers; documentation of a Europe-wide standard for equal measuring conditions and -methods; drastical reduction of the work expenses for benchmarking; building of a Europe-wide benchmarking contact connection to enable SMEs from all European regions a branche-crossing benchmarking following the standard of the "Modular Benchmarking Concept".
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CRS - Cooperative research contractsCoordinator
73525 Schwäbisch Gmünd
Germany