THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310331
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 40 lines
As the Atlantic Fleet dispatches its staff to Fortune 500 companies in search of efficiencies, it should remember the rules of etiquette for ``benchmarking,'' said Joseph J.P. Hill, process leader at Hughes Aircraft.
Benchmarking, Hill explained, is the corporate term for finding a certain thing that a company does better than anybody else, then applying it to your business.
Hill spoke to staff members of the Navy's Atlantic Fleet on Wednesday.
When IBM, for instance, had problems with people stealing microchips intended for its 486 computers, it went to casinos. Why? The casinos are so good at tracking their own chips that it's nearly impossible to remove one from a gaming table without being caught.
Hill implied that some companies go on benchmarking excursions to other businesses, spend money traveling, take up time of the business they visit, then never enact what they have learned.
Hill has completed 40 benchmarking projects over the past five years, he said, ranging in cost from $50,000 to $750,000.
Benchmarking projects should be specific, measurable, achievable and realistic, and should have a time frame, he said.
``If by chance the admiral comes by and says, `Let's benchmark world hunger,' you can't do it,'' Hill said.
What can be benchmarked are specific ideas:
Southwest Airlines sent a group to analyze car racing pit crews, looking at their lightning-quick maintenance jobs because the airline loses money when its planes are grounded.
Domino's Pizza spent time in emergency rooms to see how doctors deal with unpredictability.
Xerox sought out L.L. Bean when the copier maker had a difficult time keeping the right number of parts in stock. Bean had a system that accurately predicted the number of items it needed.
Remington benchmarked Max Factor, because Remington's rifle shell casings were losing their luster and Max Factor's lipstick tubes rarely became dull. by CNB