Third, Benchmarking is Not New. For example, we may realize that our colleague has found a quicker route to work. The majority of us will be keen to learn how this improvement has been achieved, so we ask. We get the maps out and clarify exactly the route taken, and implement the action to achieve the improvement. Until an even better route is identified.
Improvement is a never ending journey.
You may not be able to see the need for improvement by looking internally. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and JD Power and Associates published a survey in 1991 illustrating differences between car plants in Japan, USA and Europe, showing that European plants had significant opportunity for improvement. The Japanese could have been viewed as the best in the world, i.e. world-class. This example illustrates what was achieved but not how. Fortunately the survey also looked at supporting areas such as training time for new workers, absenteeism, defects per vehicle, which provided signposts to the primary areas of consideration.