Benchmarking In Organizations: Evaluation, Implementation, And Mitigation Of Risks Essay.

Using an organisation of your choice, evaluate the reasons why the organisation would be interested in the ‘benchmarking’ process. In addition, discuss the steps that this organisation could undertake in order to implement benchmarking practices, including the difficulties it may face doing this. Finally, recommend ways to mitigate the risks and difficulties that the organisation may face.

There are various organizations functioning in the modern world and every organization has their unique way of operating their business activity. The organizations evaluate their actions from time to time and create a benchmark in order to compare their wok and understand where they lie. It is usually seen that the firms who are facing downfall with respect to any of their operational activities take the help of the benchmarking process in order to enhance their activities. The management of benchmarking plays an important role in the markets (Benavides-Velasco, et al., 2014, pp. 77-87). In order to sustain in the competitive world, it becomes relevant to establish a benchmarking process to monitor the level of the goods and services manufactured. The quality of products is managed through benchmarking as it concentrates on the right things at the right time (Fu, et al., 2015, pp. 123-139).

Coca-Cola Company was initiated in the year 1886 that has now become the world’s leading company, largest marketer, manufacturer and distributor, of non-alcoholic drinks, syrups, and beverages that manufactures around 400 plus brands (Oakland, 2013). This system of total quality management enables Coca-Cola Company to address the growth and development in the company by creating a program related to the integrate quality management that has the calibre to hold all the functions that are standardized by the prediction and distribution of the company’s products (Evans, 2013).

In this study, the research also takes place on the concepts of benchmarking (Dale, 2015). In this report, an in depth ideas and theories will be discussed on the process of benchmarking and also the use of benchmarking for the company Coca-Cola. The position benchmarking is developed to bring improvements as well as to establish strategic planning in the company (Sallis, 2014).

The process of benchmarking is a part of total quality management in which the company like Coca-Cola Company decides to set standards to produce the goods and services. It helps the company to make comparison and also to improve the processes and activities take place (Oakland, 2013). Benchmarking is a technique that is very effective as it helps to identify the competitions that are doing well in the market. There are four types of benchmarking used by Coca-Cola Company that are internal, competitive, functional and generic, which are explained below:

• Internal

Internal benchmarking refers to the process that Coca-Cola undertakes to look within their business and look to discover the appropriate practise for completing a specific task. The goal in this case is to discover the best method that is available to complete the work with the use of minimum resources.

 It is the process used by Coca-Cola that refers to a continuous method of comparing the operations of the company and the performance measures with respect to the best performing competitor in the market. It is therefore, a method that is used to evaluate the performance of the firm with respect to a standard performance (Fu, et al., 2015).

Coca-Cola compares their operational activities with identical operations that lies within the same function just outside the immediate industry. Therefore it refers to the benchmarking that conceptualizes the business processes with the same function that is operational in some other industry.

Benchmarking Application

Generic method is used by Coca-Cola in order to evaluate their process and performance with respect to firms that hail from different industries (Wilson, 2017). It is used to enhance the performance and the activities and to establish new standards that can be followed by the firm.

 The applicability of these benchmarking depends on the situation of according to which they are applied. The process of benchmarking is one of the best practices of total quality management as it is subjective by producing superior results, high quality, innovative and support changes, best for the satisfaction of the customers, and also helps in leading an exceptional performance. The leaders of Coca-Cola Company develop a specify way to apply the practices of benchmarking and it is related to the implementation and planning of benchmarking. It encourages the company to work better and to earn competitive advantages (Sridharan, 2015)

Re-engineering is a cross-functional relationship between total quality management and business process reengineering. The quality experts of Coca-Cola Company tend to focus on the gradual improvements and changes in the process of production. The purpose of re-engineering is to redesign the process of production. In the process of re-engineering, the changes take place is in the process of production and not in the other elements(Goetsch, 2014). These changes are technical in nature and one by the engineering and research and development department of the company. These changes are responsible in bringing new and updated technology in the company. The projection of the production depends on the methods suggested by the technical team, which use to change under the process of reengineering (Evans, 2013).

As discussed above, benchmarking is a tool and object that helps the companies to bring improvement in the quality of the goods and services produced by it. It is one of the most positive tools used by Coca-Cola Company to set standards according to the most reputed brands and compare the production from their products in this way, the system and process of benchmarking takes place in every organization. It is a process that is very humble in nature as it helps the companies to accept the truth that other company and their products and services are better that produced by them (Talib, 2013). The process of benchmarking is one of the best practices of total quality management as it is subjective by producing superior results, high quality, innovative and support changes, best for the satisfaction of the customers, and also helps in leading an exceptional performance.

The leaders of Coca-Cola Company develop a specify way to apply the practices of benchmarking and it is related to the implementation and planning of benchmarking. It encourages the company to work better and to earn competitive advantages.

A company matches the production done by them by the other company’s goods and services in a very wise process. It is measured through “best in class”. The set standards must be of top quality because it has a huge impact in the process of benchmarking. The meaning of benchmarking is predefined position that is used as a reference point for taking measurement against anything (Mitra, 2016).

Importance of Benchmarking in Coca-Cola Company

There are many reasons due to which a company like Coca-Cola Company evaluate the reasons and causes due to which the benchmarking become very important. The purpose of the processes of benchmarking is not only to compare the sales of the company but also to analyse the production and also to bring improvements in the same(Gharakhani, 2013). It helps in not only in measuring the figures but also in the measurement of performances which is one of an important element of the comparison. It compares the processes used by the company in the production of products, which is the central element of the comparison. It helps the Coca-Cola Company to look forward to the companies who are producing and perform better than them. It also guides that how a company can achieve the benchmark targets set by the business organisations (Klee, 2014).

In this study, the understanding on the nature and purpose of benchmarking is described and how it is influenced by the management culture of organisations. Benchmarking is an approach that is related to the consumer and their satisfaction. This can be achieved through the delivery of best quality of products at the most reasonable and lowest price and thorugh proper supervision. It is the strategy of Coca-Cola Company to sustain in this competitive environment (Sin, 2016). The main motive of this aspect is to prevent the defects by working in a way of zero defects. It is the fact that the benchmarking is very methodological due to the reason that is believes in continuous improvements and based on the information gathered.

The process of benchmarking is very much influenced by the organization. If we talk about Coca-Cola Company which is a global company (Talib, 2013). Due to this it is very much important for this company requires to maintain a good benchmarking approach..

Here are various types of steps that this organisation Coca-Cola Company had carried-out in order to apply benchmarking practices, including the difficulties faced by the company doing this (Zhang, 2014).

It refers to the process in which the company wants to set standards. It will help in sorting out the activities that are benchmarked (Pimentel, 2014).

It refers to the select the company according to which the company wants to benchmark the activities. It can be any company like competitor, multinational, global, etc. but itmust be reputed company (Low, 2014).

The next step is to collect data and information of the company that is benchmarked.

 The next step is to judge and identify the gaps and the loop holes between the benchmarked company and you won company.

There is a need to determine the future trends and styles of the company.

There is a requirement to revise the new goals and standards set by the company and to establish way through which they can be achieved (Oakland, 2014).

There must be a plan for the implementation of the new goals and objectives.

The next step is to implement the framed plans and also to check the impact of the new plans on the working of the company.

It is essential to change the benchmark settings from time to time in order to improve the quality of the product according to the changing taste and preferences of the consumer. They even recalibrate the benchmark to maintain their competitive edge by competing with their competitors and making essentials inclusions according the strategic plan of the rivals(Hazen, 2014).

 The implementation of benchmarking depends upon the environment of the organization. It is seen that benchmarking procedure should be undertaken by looking at the environment. If the organization does not have a proper organizational structure, them the process of benchmarking cannot be implemented properly.

The other limitation of benchmarking involves the organizational size and the employee skills. It is seen that the perspective of the partners and the entrepreneurs limit the implementation of benchmarking. Even if a partner is interested to introduce benchmarking the other partners may not be in trusted in doing so.  The skills of the employees even have an impact on benchmarking as if the employee does not have proper training, they may not understand its significance and this may limit the introduction of benchmarking.

Finally, recommend ways to mitigate the risks and difficulties that the organisation may face. As based on the research and findings from this report, it seems that Coca-Cola Company has an efficient, productive and effective quality management system. However, there are few recommendations that can be made on the company that are both for long a well as short term. The Coca-Cola Company has high standards that allow them to have optimum utilization of their resources but many times, there is waste of resources due to the benchmarked quality. This may not be a big issue but is increase the cost of production of the products. This may also lead in the slow supply of the scarce resources which slow down the process of production.

Many times, the company has faced many criticism related to the health and safety. They were also related to the packaging and obligations on the process of production. Due to such incidents, the reputation of the company falls and the social image get affected. Therefore, there is a requirement of continuous improvements in the management of quality to have significant growth and development of the company and its brand image. The company should also look forward to the recycle methods and recycle packaging of the products. This could also help Coca-Cola Company to remove the carbon footprints form the environment. The use of different products may help in up gradation of the quality and cost of the production. These are some points that are required to be considered by Coca-Cola Company which may not help financially but may help in boosting the social image of the company.

Conclusion

The research conducted on Coca-Cola Company suggest that this company is one of the quality management of this company is one of the most effective and efficient. In coca cola Company, the management system of productive quality works in a systematic manner. The company has a global presence due to which there are strict management of the quality of products. They try to deliver best and high quality products to their customers in order to remain at the leading position. Coca-Cola Company is a multinational organization due to which the company has to maintain high standards that can meet the needs and demands of consumers worldwide. The study shows that the process the management of quality enables the Coca-Cola Company to calculate all the areas of production in a successful way. The effectiveness of this management system allows the company in creation of values for the consumers and their demands. Without the applicability of this system at right place, it becomes tougher for the Coca-Cola Company to have competitive advantage form the competitors. The brand image of the company is one of the important aspects and second is the quality of products produced by them. These factors help the company in maintenance of the quality, designing, development, of new and existing products.

However, the company faced few problems related to the environmental and social factors. Nonetheless, the present system of quality management is effective enough to manage the global scale of production and delivery of the goods. There are various transformations and changes for which this system has gone through. Due to which, Coca-Cola Company has the most prominent and effective total quality management system. It has very rare causes for the defection and high probability of success. It is just because of the transformations that improved the ways by which the quality of the products.

References

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