An innovative and applicable benchmarking framework; appropriate for (SME) manufacturing businesses

Nowadays, benchmarking is one of the most popular business improvement methods, identified as the pioneer of assessment techniques. Benchmarking is a comprehensive solution which is utilized in diverse areas of expertise to compare parameters such as cost and benefit, financial and marketing criteria, production plan, layout, production cycle time, Business performance, product availability and opportunities, dependability, quality management, supply chain performance, productivity and efficiency of implemented processes and methods and etc, internally or with other companies which have been widely accepted as an industry standard of best practice. Various benchmarking frameworks have been suggested by benchmarking Scientists. These frameworks differ in content, Solution philosophy, length and priority of framework steps. Key common concepts are summarized as 1) Identify core topics (goals, objectives and KPI), 2) Internal and external data collection, 3) Analyze ( to discover gaps and determine best practices) and 4) Design and implementation of suitable processes to achieve competitive excellence. Having inapplicable steps, ambiguous points, lack of coordination between major factors and most importantly diversity of businesses characteristics in manufacturing industry, this article attempts to identify key elements of an applicable benchmarking framework to provide a baseline to evaluate SME manufacturing business classes. Case Study method is applied as the research methodology of this article to study the current benchmarking frameworks. Based on the current popular benchmarking diagrams and online benchmarking frameworks, eleven critical steps are suggested and an applicable benchmarking framework was designed. Validity, applicability and reliability of suggested framework was appraised and evaluated by 20 benchmarking experts. In conclusion, survey studies indicate that this framework is an appropriate benchmarking tool for the (SME) manufacturing businesses to start excellence journey.