by Bob Camp The business improvement topic and quality tool called
benchmarking is becoming widely understood and broadly applied. There
are now applica- firms that tions in almost all segments of the economy
including industrial either produce a product or a service, non-profit
organizations such as healthcare, government and education. The approach
is starting to spread around the globe with initiatives in Europe, Asia
Pacific and South America. This is commendable and reassuring and must
show that there is significant interest in the approach and that it
works. What is missing, however, are books and reference material that
are not solely prepared in the US where benchmarking started. Theses
would include examples of applications relevant to the local area and
industries. They would include references to articles written about
benchmarking appearing in local publications. In this fashion those
interested would have near hand case histories of the use of
benchmarking and therefore become encouraged to use the technique. Zairi
and Leonard have done the benchmarking community a real service by
documenting the European view and application of benchmark- ing to a
wide range of examples. But they have not stopped there. Their text
includes treatment of a number of related facets of benchmarking that
makes this a fairly thorough text.
