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To develop a new benchmarking process for continuous improvement against the market leader, and report a case study in the postal industry by employing the proposed benchmarking process.

A double AHP methodology is developed in this paper to divide benchmarking process into two main parts: performance evaluation and continuous improvement. Both qualitative and quantitative factors have been taken into consideration. The first phase aims at evaluation of the performance of the benchmarked company and its competitors. The second phase aims at finding the best practice from a list of improvement alternatives based on the first phase.

The proposed framework can evaluate the performance of the case company against its competitors. It can also help the company to select the best improvement alternative for implementation in order to enhance its performance on the weakest measures.

The proposed benchmarking process in this paper can help the case company to identify its weaknesses and then select the best improvement alternative in order to improve its performance against the market leader. Although the postal industry is used to demonstrate the proposed framework, it can be applied to other industries with a little modification.

This study aims to examine the relationship between top‐performing US furniture manufacturers and industry's best manufacturing practices.

In the past studies, best manufacturing practices were mostly determined using qualitative methods. In this paper, a quantitative evaluating method to determine best manufacturing practices was designed by taking into consideration qualitative criterions. A sample of 122 manufacturing practices was observed in six US furniture companies, two of them considered world‐class performers and the other four considered average. A logistic regression was used to examine the relationship between best manufacturing practices and top‐performing companies.

Statistical analyses showed a positive relationship between top‐performing companies and use of best manufacturing practices by these companies. A database of best manufacturing practices was created and shared with the participant companies.

One limitation of this study is that the causal relationship between performance and best practices was not considered. Future studies could employ statistical methods such as structural equation model to better understand this causality. Other methods could possibly be developed to audit and classify manufacturing practices.

It is believed that the database of best manufacturing practices will help average or below‐average performing companies to identify and adopt best manufacturing practices. It will also help top‐performing companies in the cycle of continuous improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a quick maturity test to assist a company's development of a supply chain operations strategy. Maturity tests and models have been developed within several areas, but there is a lack of maturity tests targeting supply chain operations.

A literature review on maturity models is carried out in order to build the structure of the test, while a literature review on best practices in supply chain management is the basis for the test content.

The proposed maturity test is an audit scheme built on best practice statements within seven key strategic decision areas – strategy, control, processes, materials, resources, information and organisation. The test is designed with simplicity as a key feature and takes only one hour to complete. The test results are the input to strategic decisions regarding use of best practices in supply chain operations.

Supply chain managers ask for a simple and quick tool that can be used as an eye‐opener and a compass early in the development process of the supply chain operations strategy. The proposed test has a proven potential to point out directions for supply chain improvement areas.

There is a need for a quick assessment tool for mapping the maturity of a company's supply chain operations. The proposed test is a potential answer to this need.

Technology assessment is a difficult task at the Mission Control Center (MCC). The difficulty is inherent in the unavailability of structured information and exacerbated by the lack of a systematic assessment process. New technology deployment to the MCC requires testing and certification in three labs: Quest 1, 2, and 3. The Mission Control Center Systems (MCCS) architecture team, a multidisciplinary group of MCC experts and scientists is chartered to redefine the next generation of MCCS by developing a systematic process to assess and certify new technologies. Quest 123 is a benchmarking tool that was successfully implemented at the Johnson Space Center to assess and certify new technology initiatives for each lab before final deployment to the MCC. Quest 123 integrates the analytic hierarchy process with an additive multi‐criteria decision‐making model into a dynamic benchmarking framework.

The purpose of this paper is to use survey data collected from 453 respondents, from over 40 countries, to determine the current levels of use of benchmarking as an improvement technique. It identifies where and how benchmarking is implemented within organisations and compares the popularity of benchmarking against other improvement tools. Finally, it provides an evidence based opinion on whether benchmarking is a fad or an established management technique.

An on‐line questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire was translated into five languages and promoted by the Global Benchmarking Network, a network of benchmarking competency centres, representing 21 countries. The data were then analysed using SPSS statistical software.

The analysis suggests that benchmarking (informal and formal) is used by a majority of organisations although best practice benchmarking is only used by a core minority. Benchmarking effectiveness compares favourably with effectiveness of other improvement tools and a majority of respondents intend to continue using benchmarking in the future.

The responses from some of the countries that participated were small in number. This study also relied on a single respondent from each organisation. Inter‐country comparisons were not carried out.

Benchmarking will continue to be used to support the improvement of operations. For organisations that currently use benchmarking the paper provides some insights into how to obtain the full benefits from benchmarking. For those that do not use benchmarking the paper highlights how other organisations are using benchmarking to obtain operational benefits.

The paper presents a multinational survey of benchmarking. Carried out a quarter century after the start of benchmarking's growth, it helps to establish if benchmarking is an established improvement tool or a management fad. It also positions benchmarking relative to other improvement tools and is the most complete study on benchmarking adoption to date.

The importance of benchmarking in the achievement of better results in the purchasing function and in overall business performance has been widely asserted in literature. However, few studies have addressed the implementation of benchmarking in the supply function and its impact on purchasing and business performance. Data was collected from 306 companies and structural equations modeling was used to develop valid and reliable instruments for benchmarking, purchasing performance and business performance. The results showed a significant positive impact of benchmarking on purchasing performance and an indirect positive effect on business performance. Implications of the findings for purchasing managers are also discussed.

The aim of the study is to propose a classification system for best practices (BPs). The system is intended for organizations that are interested in indexing, storing and retrieving large quantities of BPs.

An extensive literature survey to identify relevant articles by searching e-resource databases, including international journals and conferences related to the use of BP was conducted. A content analysis was conducted on selected articles to identify how BPs can be indexed.

The authors are concerned with identifying what BP frameworks exist in literature and how BPs can be classified based on the features of these BP frameworks. Subsequently, they reviewed the identified frameworks within the literature and built a BP classification system. This classification system consists of a number of features, referred to as variables, where each variable is associated with a set of possible values.

The proposed BP classification system is intended to provide a guideline for recognizing general characteristics for all BPs in any domain or organization to aid stakeholders in classifying BPs.

Northern Vietnam is a mountainous area where most farmers' livelihoods depend on maize production. Beside training in farming techniques, since 2013 extension courses on market access have been gradually delivered to maize farmers to help them save production costs and increase earnings.

By applying robust regression and Tobit models to estimate technical efficiency (TE), the difference-in-difference (DID) technique is used in this study to determine the change in the TE of 1,035 farmers in the period 2013–2015 in Northern Vietnam.

The DID estimator indicated the initial success of extension courses by showing a faster increase in the TE of the receivers compared to that of non-receivers. However, co-operation in production and marketing by maize farmers and access to micro-credit resulted in an insignificant impact on the TE of maize farmers in 2015. These low impact results highlighted the inefficiency of the extension and micro-credit programmes and that raised the concern of policymakers. The distance to local market signifies the determination of farmers on their crops affected by how close their location to their input/output marketplaces.

The Land Policy of the government should take into careful consideration measures to exploit all potential production and to mitigate poverty as well as foster the development of the region.

The expansion of extension courses on access to market has been recognised as an effective method to increase farmer's efficiency.

This paper aims to go some way towards addressing the dearth of research into performance measurement systems and metrics of supply chains by critically reviewing the contemporary literature and suggesting possible avenues for future research.

The article provides a taxonomy of performance measures followed by a critical evaluation of measurement systems designed to evaluate the performance of supply chains.

The paper argues that despite considerable advances in the literature in recent years, a number of important problems have not yet received adequate attention, including: the factors influencing the successful implementation of performance measurement systems for supply chains; the forces shaping their evolution over time; and, the problem of their ongoing maintenance.

The paper provides a taxonomy of measures and outlines specific implications for future research.