-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Growing Industry
In this issue of PCB007 Magazine, we talk with leading economic experts, advocacy specialists in Washington, D.C., and PCB company leadership to get a well-rounded picture of what’s happening in the industry today. Don’t miss it.
The Sustainability Issue
Sustainability is one of the most widely used terms in business today, especially for electronics and manufacturing but what does it mean to you? We explore the environmental, business, and economic impacts.
The Fabricator’s Guide to IPC APEX EXPO
This issue previews many of the important events taking place at this year's show and highlights some changes and opportunities. So, buckle up. We are counting down to IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Happy’s Essential Skills: Benchmarking
August 3, 2016 | Happy HoldenEstimated reading time: 5 minutes
Editor's Note: Happy's columns will be published every Wednesday for the next two months.
Benchmarking is a process that measures how a company is performing against those industry leaders. It is used to better understand how outstanding companies perform, and then helps your company develop plans to improve or adapt specific best practices. Benchmarking is used to measure performance using a specific indicator (cost per unit of measure, productivity per unit of measure, cycle time of x per unit of measure or defects per unit of measure) resulting in a metric of performance that is then compared to others. A subset of benchmarking is the activity of ‘teardown.’ Many universities, as a few companies do this for profit. The most known is Portelligent[1]. David Carey, president of Portelligent. The Austin, Texas company produces teardown reports and related industry research on wireless, mobile and personal electronics and writes teardown articles for EETimes magazine. An example is seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Teardown benchmarking performed by Portelligent[1].
At HP, benchmarking was a very serious activity. All product lines conducted benchmarking on competitors’ products. For instruments, this was a lot easier than for a complex computer system. But in all cases, the detailed process was the same:
- Document all benchmarking activities by narrated video, high resolution camera, X-ray and microscopes
- Benchmark advertised performance using industry standards. Discover the maximum or minimum performance metrics
- Benchmark physical parameters: size, energy usage, heat produced, etc.
- Benchmark electrical parameters: power supply, number of PCBs, special electrical devices, etc.
- Benchmark the product disassembly and calculate the D&B DFM/A metrics
- Benchmark each PCB assembly: solder type, conformal coatings, heat sinks, number of parts, different part types, ICT
- Benchmark each printed circuit board: size, layers, design rules, wiring efficiency, special features-distributed capacitance
- Benchmark custom integrated circuits from each PCB, including silicon type, number of gates, design rules, etc.
- Collect all the benchmarking metrics, photos, videos and analysis into a multi-volume report from each HP organization
HP was very humble about benchmarking. It was always looking for better ideas, or exceptional performance and putting to work what it learned. Most of the time, HP exceeded other competitors’ performance, but it wanted to know how close the competitors were coming.
Benchmarking Process
The management use of the term is related to both of these, and a working definition is “the search for industry best practices that lead to superior performance.” Benchmarking is a process that aims to change operations in a structured way to achieve superior performance, based on an understanding of a company’s performance and how it compares with the best in the world. The basic philosophical steps of benchmarking, which are fundamental to success, are:
Know your operation—you need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the internal operation, keeping in mind that competitors will in turn be analyzing your operation, and that if you don’t know your own strengths and weaknesses you will not be able to defend yourself. You need to know your strong points, to be able to promote them in the market place, and to identify areas that require strengthening.
Know the industry leaders or competitors—this helps you both to compare yourself with industry best practices and also to differentiate you from the competition.
Incorporate the best—learn from the companies who are leaders in your industry or who are particularly good in functions that are important to your operation. For example, you should compare your distribution operation with the best available mail order or service company.
Gain superiority—install the best of the best practices found, capitalize on your existing strengths and bring your weaknesses up to strength.
Benchmarking is the formalized and disciplined application of these basic steps to improving operations, as described in Figure 2. Table 1 shows some of the key reasons for benchmarking. The contrasting approaches ‘with benchmarking’ and ‘without benchmarking’ are detailed.
Figure 2: Benchmarking process steps.
Table 1: Some of the key reasons for benchmarking and the contrasting approaches with and without a benchmarking view.
Page 1 of 2
Suggested Items
Indium Corporation Expert to Present on Pb-Free Solder for Die-Attach in Discrete Power Applications
04/30/2024 | Indium CorporationIndium Corporation Product Manager – Semiconductor Dean Payne will present at the Advanced Packaging for Power Electronics conference, hosted by IMAPS, held May 8-9 in Woburn, Massachusetts, USA.
Taiyo Circuit Automation Installs New DP3500 into Fuba Printed Circuits, Tunisia
04/25/2024 | Taiyo Circuit AutomationTaiyo Circuit Automation is proud to be partnered with Fuba Printed Circuits, Tunisia part of the OneTech Group of companies, a leading printed circuit board manufacturer based out of Bizerte, Tunisia, on their first installation of Taiyo Circuit Automation DP3500 coater.
Vicor Power Orders Hentec Industries/RPS Automation Pulsar Solderability Testing System
04/24/2024 | Hentec Industries/RPS AutomationHentec Industries/RPS Automation, a leading manufacturer of selective soldering, lead tinning and solderability test equipment, is pleased to announce that Vicor Power has finalized the purchase of a Pulsar solderability testing system.
AIM Solder’s Dillon Zhu to Present on Ultraminiature Soldering at SMTA China East
04/22/2024 | AIMAIM Solder, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for the electronics industry, is pleased to announce that Dillon Zhu will present on the topic: Ultraminiature Soldering: Techniques, Technologies, and Standards at SMTA China East. This event is being held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center from April 24-25.
AIM to Highlight NC259FPA Ultrafine No Clean Solder Paste at SMTA Wisconsin Expo & Tech Forum
04/18/2024 | AIMAIM Solder, a leading global manufacturer of solder assembly materials for the electronics industry, is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming SMTA Wisconsin Expo & Tech Forum taking place on May 7 at the Four Points by Sheraton | Milwaukee Airport, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.