Innovation or imitation?

Innovation or imitation?

1. Benchmarking: a knowledge-management process to innovate services

   • Silvia Massa DIST – Department of Communication, Computer and System Science, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy, and Stefania Testa DIP – Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
     • Realizado por Vicente Moreno MBIX

2. Benchmarking and innovation

   • Benchmarking
     • Webster’s Dictionary
       • “A mark on a fixed and enduring object (as on an outcropping of rock or a concrete post set into the ground) indicating a particular elevation and used as a reference in topographical surveys and tidal observations. A benchmark is thus a point of reference from which measurements of any sorts may be made”.
     • Camp (1989)
       • “the search for industry best practices that will lead to superior performance”.
     • Lucertini et al. (1995)
       • continuing search, measurement and comparison of products, processes, services, procedures, ways to operate, best practices that other companies have developed to obtain an output and global performances, with the aim of improving the company performance
     • (e.g. Cagliano et al., 1999).
       • In literature several authors focus on the potentiality of benchmarking databases
   • This paper argues that the process of observation and imitation is a very important cognitive process that goes beyond the activity of simply copying someone else’s practices.
   • The result of this learning process is something new, deriving both from the integration of external inputs with internal previous knowledge as well as from bridging knowledge gaps.
   • is generally both expensive
   • Time conuming
   • usually does not have enough resources to start a benchmarking project.
   • , that innovation needs to be managed and planned and cannot be only accidental, emerging
   • Unspoken needs or demands have to be discovered through socialization and externalisation processes, transforming the benchmarking into a tool not only aimed at problem solving but also at problem setting.

3. The research setting

   • This study focuses on the sector of industrial maintenance in Italy.
     • se debe a:
       • It is a business area at the borderline between manufacturing and services that maintains characteristics of both sectors
       • the selection of the mix of maintenance techniques to the selection of methodological tools and hardware equipment, to the development of maintenance information systems.
         • Global services require different competencies that have different impacts on innovation processes (
         • Not all the competencies are necessarily available within the company at the moment they are needed.
       • tacit knowledge has a primary role in innovation processes and its acquisition and transfer are strategic issues for every firm.
       • the problems connected with knowledge and innovation management processes in the presence of dispersed workers take place
       • influence knowledge flows within the firm and may be meaningful sources of innovative input

4. RBP Model

   • Pre-Analysis
     • Identification problems to face y performance dirves
     • Definition performance indicators
     • Data and information gathering from the universe
     • Identification of the benhmarking sample
     • Data and information gathering from the sample
     • Performance indicators preliminary comparson
     • Invention limits and modifiable constrains
   • Analysis
     • Performance standardisation on common metrics and comparison
     • identifaction of performance gaps
     • Case studies of best performers practices
     • identification success drivers
     • Definition of success key factors
     • Communication and sharing of success key factors
     • Fitting between success factors and organisational context
   • Decision making
     • Identification of processes to innovate and goals
     • Definition of innovation goals and projets
     • Identification of competenecies gaps
     • Eventual acquiring of external resources
     • Integration of newly acquired resources and implementation innovation projects

Images and files in the map