Performance indicators and benchmarking in manufacturing planning and control systems

The recent, much publicised, interest in Benchmarking and Performance Measurement has not resulted in many of the anticipated benefits. Much of the benchmarking carried out in manufacturing organisations relates to top level issues. For benchmarking to be of real value, the best practices associated with lower levels of an organisation, which contribute to its overall performance, also need to be considered. It is particularly important to take account of manufacturing planning and control systems which interface with almost all of the activities carried out by a manufacturing organisation. This paper describes the findings of detailed fieldwork undertaken to investigate the use of benchmarking and performance indicators in manufacturing planning and control systems. It is concluded that a considerable amount of research work is needed to develop a detailed understanding of the relationships between performance measures, the contributing variables and the associated best practices.