BMT Methodology

We have developed a methodology to use benchmarking as a management tool. An instruction manual plus a number of annexes shall guide companies and consultants assisting companies how to implement benchmarking on site as a tool to systematically improve the companies' energy performance with the aim of increasing energy efficiency and respectively decreasing energy intensity of their key energy consuming processes and activities.

The whole methodology is structured into several elements. Basically the present methodology focus on process benchmarking, which is the monitoring and targeting of key parameters of key processes and their comparison with best practice values, which should stimulate and give the direction including realistic potentials for improvements.

Benchmarking is a powerful management tool, because it overcomes paradigm blindness which is the mode of thinking, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it." Benchmarking opens the mind to new methods, ideas and tools to improve effectiveness. It helps cracking resistance to change by demonstrating other methods of solving problems than the one currently employed, and demonstrating that they work, because they are being used by others.

'BMT' is the acronym of 'Benchmarking, Monitoring, and Targeting'. It is a tool, which has been developed to monitor the performance of key processes in a company by means of measuring the key parameters of production processes and the comparison of the collected data with internal and/or external benchmarks. In a second step the observed gaps between the actual performance and the benchmarks are used to formulate targets to close the performance gaps by proper options of improvements. By repeating this procedure in form of revolving measuring, comparing, targeting and improving a continuous BMT system is established.

Benchmarking is not a one-dimensional undertaking and benchmarks are not the bottleneck. There exist huge numbers of benchmarks already; internally in form of norm performance descriptions of the installed processes, such us equipment supplier manuals or textbooks; externally in form of best practices in the concerned industrial sectors and processes. Thus the reference points (benchmarks) for comparison are available.

The real challenge is to establish a reliable set of data and indicators, which forms a baseline to describe the current performance of processes for comparisons with benchmarks. To use benchmarking the knowledge about the current situation and its development over time is thus inevitable necessary. Benchmarking can only work, if not only mathematical calculations and abstract models, but real data from serious measuring and monitoring are used.

The bigger part of benchmarking is thus to know the own performance.