Benchmarking: A tool for the improvement of production management

This paper discusses the utilization of the benchmarking as a tool for the improvement of production management. Industrial companies are faced with the challenge of adopting best practices in their business and production processes. In order to be a world class company it is recommended examine itself comprehensively and learn from the best what are its strengths and weaknesses. To identify where are the opportunities to improve its performance and consequently be more competitive it is necessary to measure the performance of their processes based on some indicators and also compare its performance with other companies. The benchmarking methodology is based in indicators related with different areas of the companies. The benchmarking integrates the picture of practice and performance across the organization. Some results of benchmarking application are presented in order to show how they can be used to improve the management in practice.