A Computational Geometry Approach for Benchmarking

Srinivas Talluri and Joseph Sarkis

International Journal of Operations and Production Management, , Vol. 21, Nos.1/2, pp. 210-222, 2000.

Benchmarking involves the identification of best practices for improvement. It assists firms in reengineering their processes in order to achieve higher productivity. Although several methods have been proposed for benchmarking purposes, research in the development of analytical benchmarking tools is limited. This paper proposes an effective benchmarking technique based on computational geometry models. We develop and illustrate benchmarking for 2 and 3-dimensional cases, which involve up to three performance measures, and subsequently address the procedure for the n-dimensional case. The results identify the improvements necessary across various dimensions of business processes in order to achieve higher efficiency. We also develop mathematical programming models that optimally allocate resources in order to attain these improvements.


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