Functional benchmarking is a comparison to similar or identical practices (e.g., the picking process for assembling customer orders, maintaining inventory controls of spare computer parts, logistics to move operational forces, etc.) within the same or similar functions outside the immediate industry. Functional benchmarking might identify practices that are superior in your functional areas in whatever industry they may exist. Functional benchmarking would be accomplished at the federal level by comparing the IRS collections process against those of American Express. Comparing copper mining techniques to coal mining techniques is an example in the private sector.
Benefits
- Provides industry trend information
- Quantitative comparisons
- Better improvement rate
Challenges
- Diverse corporate cultures
- Great need for specificity
- Not invented here. syndrome
- Common functions can be difficult to find
- Takes more time than internal or percent
- Must be able to visualize how to adapt the best practices
Source: USN Benchmarking Handbook
LO 1, AC 1.3