BENCHMARKING TOOL FOR QUALITY CONTROL AND CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

In the framework of the control and management of quality and continuous improvement, organizations use different techniques in order to improve their competitiveness in terms of their conditions. Benchmarking is a tool that can help us to achieve these objectives. It consists of the voluntary and active cooperation of several organizations to create, emulate and implement best practices. Mainly, its implementation is pursued in the integrated and participatory policy of the continuous quality improvement. In this study, the features and possibilities of an application of Benchmarking is analyzed in various sectors: industrial, hospitals, administration, etc., in order to refute some criticisms concerning the subject, identify potential benefits and also limitations and critical success factors.