Introduction

Abstract

Frederick Taylor’s work (Taylor 1919) on the application of the scientific method of business had encouraged comparison of work processes. During World War II, it became a common business practice for companies to check with other companies to determine standards for pay, work loads, safety and other business hygiene factors. A major boost to benchmarking was through Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award (Camp 1989) in which the need for benchmarking was a requirement in the application criteria. In the 1994 criteria, the word benchmarking was used over 200 times (Camp 1989). Directly or indirectly benchmarking affected about 5% of the scoring for the award. Many applications for Baldrige award were rejected because they showed little evidence of benchmarking. The message of rejection to a certain extent prompted companies to go in for benchmarking. Besides, the benefit of benchmarking in making the companies competitive and in turning the unprofitable into efficient and profitable ones also prompted them to introduce benchmarking in their business processes.