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CAF Benchmarking-JMD

The CAF Benchmarking Methodology

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CAF Benchmarking-JMD

CONTENTS

WHY BENCHMARKING ?

  1. Foreword
  2. What is benchmarking ?
  3. Self-assessment with the CAF and afterwards ?
  4. Actions plan and priorities

HOW BENCHMARK ?

  1. Form the benchmarking team
  2. Develop the project plan
  3. Identify potential partners
  4. Develop the screening questionnaire
  5. Manage the site visit
  6. Analyse benchmarking results

IMPROVE

  1. Develop improvement plans
  2. Implement the Improvement Plan
  3. Hold a project review
  4. Apply the CAF again

WHY BENCHMARKING ?

1. Foreword

1.1. Aim(s)

  • To realize a guidelines in order to assist organisations which are planning to conduct a benchmarking exercise using the Common Assessment framework
  • The CAF Benchmarking Methodology

A CAF benchmarking methodology must relect a TQM approach where the results are expressed in relation to four key stakeholders areas:

  • The people in the organisation
  • The customers
  • The community in which the organisation operates
  • The overall performance of the organisation

Results in those areas give a comprehensive view of what an organisation is achieving, and provide performance data and metrics.

However, in order to deliver maximum results, it is also necessary to consider how the organisation is managed; this is reflected in the enablers of the CAF model, which describe how it approaches topics such as objectives setting, people capabilities, leadership, resources management, process, etc.

The interaction between what is achieved and how it is achieved, typical of a TQM approach as CAF must be also reflected in a CAF benchmarking methodology. Indeed, it involves:

Knowing want you want to improve: apply the CAF and detect your areas of improvement. Design the project around the key business issues. (PLAN)

Identifying the leaders in those areas: find the best practicesand collect data (COLLECT)

Learning from the leaders

  • What they are achieving (diagnostic benchmarking)
  • How they are achieving it (process benchmarking)

Compare performance and identify areas for improvement (ANALYSE)

 Incorporate the learning into your own process: implement best practices and monitor the project(ADAPT).

2. What is benchmarking ?

Among many definitions :

« The process of continuously comparing and measuring against other organisations anywhere in the world to gain information on philosophies, policies, practices, and measures which will help our organisation take action to improve its performance. »

3. Self-assessment with the CAF and afterwards ?

  • In our perspective, the requirement before to begin a benchmarking exercise is to have realized a self-assessment exercise with the CAF.
  • The organisation has identified its areas of improvement.
  • The organisation choose for a continuous Quality approach

4. Actions plan and priorities

  • Following the identification of the areas of improvement, the top-management elaborate an action plan
  • The top management gives priorities into the action plan
  • The top management explores the different ways to realize the improvements : internal benchmarking, task-force, external consultant and external benchmarking (non exhaustive list)
  • The top management choose for an external benchmarking
  • (Add the advantages and disadvantages of the different ways)

HOW BENCHMARK ?

5. Form the benchmarking team

Team selection criteria to include :

  • Team player
  • Motivation
  • Time
  • Knowledge of process, organisation and culture
  • Credibility/Respect
  • Innovation
  • Communication skills

Consult the self-assessment team. May be a part of them of all of them would continue on a benchmarking project.

Keep clear in mind the link between you improvement plan (area of improvement) and the CAF criteria concerned.

6. Develop the project plan

  • Develop timeline according to 4 phase methodology (plan, collect, analyse, adapt)
  • Identify milestones (meetings, selection of Benchmarking partners, completion of questionnaires, completion of report,…)
  • Identify roles and responsabilities for each task
  • Use project plan as on-going communication vehicle

7. Identify potential partners

  • Consult your national database or the European database on the EIPA website
  • Identify one or more organisations with similar missions as yours
  • Consult their strenghtness in terms of CAF criteria
  • Verify if their strenghtness correspond to your areas of improvement
  • Contact the organisation(s) to propose a benchmarking exercise

8. Develop the screening questionnaire

  • Use a prepared and tested questionnaire to ensure that the benchmarking exchange is a rational, structured, data-gathering exercise
  • Base the questionnaire on the analysis of the subject process involved in your area of improvement
  • Test in-house before providing it to the partner(s)
  • Provide it to the partners before a site-visit so that they have yhe opportunity to comment, to add extra questions of their own and to gather the required data prior to the visit

( Consult in attachment our model to build this questionnaire)

9. Manage the site visit

  • Co-ordinate in detail with host organisation the site-visit agenda
  • Identify areas of interst/processes about which you need to learn more
  • Decide on your objectives and what specific things you want to learn during the visit
  • Hold a preparation meeting with the team
  • Draft questions to have ready, but plan to be flexible
  • Provide areas of interest and anticipated questions in advance to the host organisation
  • Seek permission from the partner to bring cameras and recording equipment
  • Develop communication plan to effectively leverage new knowledge upon return.

IMPROVE

10. Analyse benchmarking results

  • Hold a post visit debrief as soon as possible to compare notes
  • Hold review sessions to analyse : lessons learnt from the visit, evaluation of the benchmarking partner, are they achieving better results ? Why are they better ? By how much ? What best practices are being used ? How can we adopt/incorporate their best pratices ?

Determine performance gap between your process and your benchmarking partner, using results of the screening questionnaire

Use all data (qualitative and quantitative) and assess strengths and weakness :

  • Positive gap : you are better than your partner
  • No gap : operations are on a par
  • Negative gap : your partner is better

Understand bothe the size of the gap and the reasons for it :

  • Process methods
  • Business and personnel pratices
  • Operational location and organisation structures
  • System and technology
  • Culture and/or people issues

11. Develop improvement plans

  • Integrate goals into organisational strategy
  • Obtain support of key stakeholders : process owner, management, customer, suppliers
  • Anticipate possible barrires to implementation
  • Develop implementation teams
  • Obtain authoraisation for funding implementation

12. Implement the Improvement Plan

Manage implementation as another project :

  • Identify each action
  • Assign owner to each action
  • Establish scedule and milestone
  • Establish measurements
  • Identify required resources

Conduct pilot test first

  • Prove the changes achieved the desired results
  • Prove the implementation plan is solid
  • The perform full scale implementation

13. Hold a project review

  • Match presentation to audience
  • Develop a story line : summarise basic findings, present gaps between current situations and best practices, …
  • Summarize in a final report
  • Cconduct a lessons learnt analysis : what worked ? what didn’t work ? what improvements can be made to the benchmarking approach for next time

14. Apply the CAF again

  • Following the importance of your improvement, the project has probably taken one year of more. It’s time now to apply the CAF again and check your progress in all the criteria.
  • Normally, your progress must appear in the CAF criteria concerned by your benchmarking exercise but it’s also possible to have lower score in other criteria than the first time. It’s due to the increase of your maturity level : you are now demanding ! Perhaps is it time for a new benchmarking exercise.