ROADMAP TO CURRENT BENCHMARKING LITERATURE

Benchmarking has received extensive coverage in recent publications, but the topic has often described conflicting objectives and differing recommendations for individual applications. To reduce the task of reviewing benchmarking literature for benchmarking opportunities or academic research, this article provides a summary matrix approach to current benchmarking topics. Included in this review are summaries of available textbooks, and journal and periodical articles. Benchmarking has provided the incentive for U.S. industrial organizations to look at their on-going operations with a critical eye toward continuous process improvement. However, as shown in the summary matrix, specific analytical tools to address this objective have been generally overlooked in the benchmarking literature.