High-Performance Benchmarking of Manufacturing Processes with object-based Modeling
Helping decision makers to configure their benchmarking studies tailored to their strategic entrepreneurial questions and to guide them to achieve a higher benchmarking performance level.
Companies are continuously striving for higher performance to secure their competitive advantage. This can often be enforced by looking beyond their own perimeters. But complex and strategic questions require tools to support corporate decision processes in their early stages.
The developed tool does operationalize value-added manufacturing processes for benchmarking evaluations. The method can then be applied for benchmarking evaluations of value-added processes in the manufacturing industry.
High-performance benchmarking
The performance level of benchmarking is defined by the degree of independence from industry sectors, products, locations and even processes. Consequently, high-performance benchmarking leads us to identify superior production processes and to studying their underlying success factors.
The potential of process benchmarking has been enhanced and operationalized as a tool.
For identifying superior processes in the manufacturing environment, they first have to be made comparable. The key requirement is operationalization through standardization which is realized by means of standardized process elements.
The Framework
Focused on the manufacturing process, a framework for applying high-performance benchmarking has been developed, which will support decision makers in terms of production footprint and site location studies.
The framework enables the user to increase its benchmarking performance level. In the model, the performance level of benchmarking is defined by the degree of independence from industry sectors, products, locations and even processes. Consequently, high-performance benchmarking leads to identify superior production processes and to study their underlying success factors.
Therefore, a full-scale generic structure of objects was built, which can be selectively used to model various value-added processes that are going to be benchmarked.
The higher the degree of independence in terms of locations, industry sectors, and products, the more powerful thus a higher performance of benchmarking is achieved
Object-based modeling
Therefore, an object-oriented database structure has been developed for the business areas such as product development, manufacturing, and assembly. Showing that an object class-oriented modeling approach can be applied to manufacturing processes.
The modular analysis kit of different benchmarking databases for business areas such as manufacturing, assembly, and product development controls complexity and ensures scalability. Particularly, this tool can be used
for location and factory footprint analysis, contributing to the set of instruments for benchmarking processes.
A web-based collaboration platform would accelerate the database growth. Hence, the benchmarking methodology should generally be tested in the light of new technological, internet-based developments. Data collection and data analysis represent development opportunities for benchmarking engineering.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Holger Kohl
Fraunhofer IPK, Germany
E-Mail: holger.kohl(at)ipk.fraunhofer.de
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