BENCHMARKING - APPLICATIONS BY 3RD-PARTY WAREHOUSING FIRMS

Firms must measure performance against some external standard to effec tively assess their performance. These ''benchmarked'' comparisons all ow management to identify best practices and compare their firm's perf ormance to leading edge performers. The purpose of this paper is to re port the results of an exploratory study of benchmarking practices foc used on one type of logistics service firm: warehousing firms. Externa l logistical service providers have become extremely popular in recent years in large part due to resource constraints and the desire for ef ficiency improvements. Therefore, the researchers sought to determine 1) what is the extent of benchmarking involvement among warehousing fi rms: 2) the specific areas in which benchmarking is commonly used by t hese firms; and 3) whether differences exist between warehousing firms that conduct benchmarking and those that do not.