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BENCHMARKING UPDATE - September 1998
A Global Benchmarking Newsletter - 

In this issue:
  1. Benchmarking Conferences and Seminars
  2. Benchmarking Training Resources
  3. The Benchmarking Exchange General Member News
  4. Benchmarking Surveys, Metrics, Studies and Reports 
  5. Internal Benchmarking Intranets 
  6. How to Contact The Benchmarking Exchange

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BENCHMARKING CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS -

September 16-18:  SPI Council on Benchmarking fall meeting (Cambridge,
MA). The session features knowledge management experts from Ernst and
Young, Harvard, B.U., IBM and others. The meeting will address the role
of benchmarking in planning activities as budgeting systems and balanced
scorecards. For information about the Council or  the meeting, contact
Don Swire at 617-491-9200.

October 5-9: IPSVIII International Productivity Symposium and
Commonwealth Convention on Organisational Excellence. (Pretoria, South
Africa).  It is two international conferences arranged back to back
dealing with productivity improvement, benchmarking, ISO9000,
self-assessment and TQM.  More than 20 international speakers from the
USA, Europe, the East and Africa will deliver papers.  Contact
Benchmarking South Africa -info@bensa.co.za

October 14-15:  Annual European Best Practice Benchmarking Awards Forum
in Cardiff (Wales) - contact The Benchmarking Centre UK - email:
info@benchmarking.co.uk for details.

October 26-28: Best Practices from America's Best Plants (Chicago) -
Industry Week brings you face to face with the world's leading Kaizen
experts and America's Best Plants winners who have successfully put
Kaizen breakthrough strategies into practice.

November: Quality Conference (Beijing) - Co-convened by Global
Interactions, Inc. and the China Association for Science and Technology,
in conjunction with the American Society for Quality, the Association
for Quality and Participation, and the China Quality Control
Association. Visit http://www.goodnet.com/~global/qual1.htm for details.

November 5-6: National Quality Congress (Guatemala), which gets together
hundreds of business and institutional leaders from Central America.
Contact Mr. Eduardo Calderon, BOD Organización para la Cultura de la
Calidad Total, email: caltec@guate.net for details.

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BENCHMARKING TRAINING RESOURCES

The SPI Council on Benchmarking offers "Benchmarking: What, Why, and
How", an introduction to benchmarking, in conjunction with its meetings
or in-house. The course covers the benefits of benchmarking, the areas
where it's applicable, and the mechanics of doing a benchmarking project
with a process improvement team. For more information, contact Don Swire
at 617-491-9200.

Benchmarking South Africa offers various benchmarking training products
from an executive breakfast session, to a detailed "how-to" 3 day
training workshop. These are tried and tested workshop and have received
only the highest reviews from all past participants.  Contact us at:
027-12-341 1470 (T), 027-12-341 2380 (F) or info@bensa.co.za.

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TBE NEWS

Back by popular demand!  Monthly Subscription Plans are now available. 
Visit http://www.benchmarking.org/datenr.htm for details.

TBE growth - There were approximately 300 new companies added within the
past two months.  In addition, in the past month the following
benchmarking and quality associations have purchased licenses for their
members to have access to The Benchmarking Exchange (if you're a member
of these associations, contact them directly to see if you qualify for a
subscription under their Group License):

- The Benchmarking Centre (United Kingdom)
- CIBE Committee ( Club Gestisn de Calidad) benchmarking committee
(Spain)
- Deutsches Benchmarking Zentrum (DBZ) am Institut für Prozeßoptimierung
(Germany)

At last count… TBE has 100,000+ members, 32 Association Group Plans,
across 52 countries.

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BENCHMARKING SURVEYS, METRICS, STUDIES AND REPORTS

German Knowledge Management Study in Europe (Focus on Germany) - is now
available by contacting Peter Heisig at (peter.heisig@ipk.fhg.de / Tel.:
+49 / 30 / 39006-171) who is the responsible project leader. 

UK Benchmarking Index - is now available for license throughout the
world.  At the present time we have data on just under 1000 Small to
Medium Sized companies in the UK. The tool looks at both hard and soft
criteria and helps to identify, in an holistic way, areas for
improvement and where process benchmarking should be applied.  Visit
http://www.businesslink.co.uk/bench.htm for details.

Manufacturing Performance Metrics Database -  Access manufacturing
performance metrics easily and inexpensively! IndustryWeek's
Benchmarking Toolkit is the fastest and most comprehensive approach
available to capture crucial benchmarking data. With it, you can access
a database of performance metrics on 2,800 manufacturing plants, which
was developed with research conducted in conjunction with Price
Waterhouse. Through a special partnership with IndustryWeek, the
Benchmarking Toolkit is now available to TBE members at a 31% discount
off list price. Visit http://www.benchmarking.org/tbe&iwtoolkitm.htm for
details.

Business Process and Self Assessment Databases (THIS IS HOT!) -  A new
website has been launched that provides access to surveys conducted for
the purpose of gathering metrics.  To see a complete list of surveys or
to run a survey of your own, visit http://www.industrymetrics.com for
details.

The following are just some of the surveys available to you at 
http://www.industrymetrics.com  :

- Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE sm) -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/rc2/start.htm
- Key Purchasing Performance Metrics -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/hexcel1/start.htm
- Employee Satisfaction Benchmarking -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/siemens2/start.htm
- Quality (Business) Improvement Council -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/cp1/start.htm
- Organizing for Reengineering Survey -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/tva2/start.htm
- The Key Human Error Issues Impacting Information Security -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/mit1/start.htm
- International Facilities Study -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/tek1/start.htm
- Basic Substation Automation
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/abb1/start.htm
- Warehouse Best Practices
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/lmi1/start.htm
- Total Quality Management -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/transnet2/start.htm
- Customer Product Problem Management -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/xerox1/start.htm
- Internal Auditor Competency and Training -
http://benchdb.com/Surveys/steggerda1/start.htm

There are many other surveys in progress and you're encouraged to
participate in as many as you can.

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BENCHMARKING INTRANETS

Does your organization have difficulty in keeping track of benchmarking
studies, visit requests, tracking inbound and outbound activities, team
member contact info, external contacts, policies, procedures and
guidelines, tools and resources, etc.? Now you can have your own
internal Benchmarking Intranet developed and hosted by TBE for a
fraction of the cost of having to do it in house. TBE has been providing
this service for the past five years and will soon announce the
availability of this service to the general public. Here are just a few
of the organizations who have outsourced their benchmarking management
systems to TBE: American Express, Ameritech, Corning, Fidelity and
Sprint.

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HOW TO CONTACT US

TBE's Homepage: http://www.benchnet.com

Aptos, California - North America, TBEUSA@benchnet.com tel: (1) 408
662-9800 or (1) 831 662 9800, fax: (1) 408 662 9855 or (1) 831 662 9855
or toll-free in North America at (1) 800-662-9800

Stockholm, Sweden - Europe, TBEEUR@benchnet.com tel: (46) 8 722 7045

Pretoria, South Africa - Africas, TBEAFR@benchnet.com tel: (27) 12
341380, fax: (27) 12 441 866

Melbourne, Australia - South Pacific, TBEAUS@benchnet.com tel:(61) (03)
9499 6496, fax: (61) (03) 9499 4320.

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NOTICE

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COPYRIGHT 1998 - The Benchmarking Exchange & Benchmarking Link-Up
Australia.  
(Further distribution granted only if entire contents used and
unaltered).