scope:

Purpose of the guideline

Benchmarking is a planning and management instrument for continuous improvement of the competitive situation. This guideline is intended as an orientation aid for dealing with benchmarking.

Through the comparison of internal and external circumstances in benchmarking, weak points are analysed in a systematic and structured manner with the aim of the permanent elimination of these weak points.

In order to achieve this, performance deficiencies in comparison to the highest international standards are quantified and their causes analysed. By learning from "best practices" as well as "best-in-class companies or areas", analogies for problems and solutions are formed in order to examine, substantiate and implement measures to eliminate one's own performance deficiencies. The benchmarking procedure is carried out in a number of phases (see Section 6).