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CRITERIA FOR SELECTING PARTNERS
Finding maintenance practices that lead to better performance is
an important objective of customer-driven benchmarking. The
criteria that you use to select partners should be consistent with
this objective.
Initial Agreement on What to Benchmark
As explained earlier, customer-driven benchmarking requires that
a maintenance agency define its purpose and function in terms of
a set of products and services that it provides to its customers
(e.g., a smooth ride); the important attributes of each product or
service (e.g., a smooth pavement surface); and customer-driven
outcome measures (e.g., the International Roughness Index,
Customer Satisfaction Rating) related to each attribute.
There are many demanding steps to go through, and it is likely
that neither you nor most of your partners have been through
this process. In the absence of a mutually agreeable set of
products and services, each agency can agree to the general area
that they want to benchmark, perhaps focusing upon the types of
maintenance assets of mutual interest. The benchmarking
partnership should not admit organizations that cannot agree on
the same general focus as the other partners.
Suppose that the organizations of a benchmarking partnership are
primarily interested in providing higher quality and more
effective signage to customers. An agency that is only interested
in benchmarking its performance in delivering a comfortable ride
to customers would not be a good candidate for the partnership.
Cooperation and Willingness to Share Information
Partners need to demonstrate cooperation and a willingness to
share information. The lead benchmarking organization needs to
be assured that each participant will use agreed-upon measures,
collect accurate data for each benchmarking unit, share the data
with the partners, document existing practices, and share
information on best practices with all the benchmarking partners.
The more open and forthcoming potential partners are in
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Chapter 2: Selecting Benchmarking Partners
preliminary discussions about their degree of commitment and
the quality of existing performance information, the more likely
it is that they will cooperate and share information.
Willingness to Create Common Measures
A community of organizations that uses or has adopted common
customer-driven performance measures represents a major target
of opportunity to develop a set of benchmarking partners.
However, in the early 2000s, it is unlikely that you will find
organizations external to yours that use precisely the same
measures that you use or would like to use.
Customer-driven benchmarking requires common types of data
to create common measures of performance. For example, if one
agency measures sign quality through rigorous retro-reflectivity
measurements and customer surveys and a second agency
measures sign quality through "windshield surveys," you cannot
compare performance.
An essential criteria for selecting a partner is its willingness to work
with others to define common measures of performance and to
develop data collection procedures that will be used by everyone.
Some agencies have defined their own performance measures,
data requirements, and data collection procedures and are not
willing to consider changes that will be necessary for a
particular benchmarking partnership. These agencies are not
suitable members of the partnership.
Commitment to Data and Measurement Quality
Benchmarking does not require "audit quality data," but it will
fail without continually paying adequate attention to data and
measurement quality. Each benchmarking partner needs to be
willing to submit to a benchmarking process that instills faith in all
partners that measurements are accurate and reliable enough to
serve as the basis for identifying best practices and improvement
opportunities. If you think a partner's commitment to
measurement quality is weak, you should seek partners elsewhere.
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Commitment of Time, Effort, and Resources
Successful benchmarking requires a strong commitment of
time, effort, and resources among all participants. Potential
partners that signal a willingness to make this commitment
should be among your top preferences. Keep looking for
partners if discussions with a potential partner suggest it may
have a problem making a serious commitment to
benchmarking. Be alert to any unwillingness of potential
partners to devote staff, equipment, materials, data collection,
databases, or other resources that are essential to successful
benchmarking.
Operating Environment
You may want to find a group of benchmarking partners that
have benchmarking units that operate in similar environments
(e.g., weather, terrain, population density). By doing so, you do
not have to control for different environmental factors when
taking measurements, and it is more likely that it is feasible to
implement a best practice discovered by one of the
benchmarking units.
Suppose that benchmarking partners are going to benchmark the
service "roadways clear of snow." Assume further that the
benchmarking units of those partners operate at totally different
elevation levels (elevations above 5,000 feet and elevations of less
than 600 feet above sea level). These benchmarking units are less
likely to have practices relevant to one another than if they all
operated at the same elevations.
More typically, you will benchmark with partners that function
in a variety of operating conditions, including conditions that are
very different from yours. Benchmarking units in different
operating environments will have adapted to different factors
(hardships) that affect their maintenance operations. Sometimes
the practices that have evolved in sharply different settings are a
source of new ideas that can help your agency improve its
performance.
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Chapter 2: Selecting Benchmarking Partners
Public Sector or Private Sector
If you are a public agency, you may desire to limit your partners
to those in the public sector. One reason to do so is to build a
group of benchmarking partners through government and quasi-
governmental associations such as the American Association of
State Highway and Transportation Officials, the National
Association of County Engineers, the National League of Cities,
the Conference of Mayors, the American Public Works
Association, and the International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike
Association. Public-sector partners are more likely to have
similar cultures and outlook, which may make it easier to
communicate and work together.
On the other hand, public agencies contract out various types of
maintenance operations to private companies. Sometimes public
agencies even contract out all types of maintenance activities
along a route (i.e., an Interstate highway) or even within a certain
jurisdiction.
Although there is no strict rule that the private sector is more
effective or efficient in serving customers, in many cases the
private sector can be more responsive to customer demands.
There is a great deal to learn from the business practices of the
private sector because the revenue, profitability, and survival of
private firms depend on their being attuned to customers and
remaining competitive.
You may also want to consider benchmarking with private firms
that are not in road maintenance--for example, firms that do
landscaping for campuses, buildings, and parks might be a
source of innovative ideas and best practices that you would not
discover without their involvement. As another example, many
firms specializing in facilities maintenance might provide insight
about how to improve the management of rest areas owned and
operated by public agencies.
National or International
A number of states, including Minnesota and Michigan, have
cultivated close relationships with other countries in order to
learn from them. These states clearly perceive the benefits of
learning what organizations in other parts of the world are doing.
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