Our mission is to advocate and facilitate benchmarking and the transfer of best practices to improve KSC's quality and productivity.
WHAT IS BENCHMARKING?
Benchmarking is a disciplined approach for comparing and measuring our processes against best in class organizations (in any industry), identifying the "best practices" that enable superior performance, and adapting those best practices within our own organization to achieve "breakthrough" performance improvements.
POTENTIAL EXTERNAL PARTNERS
- OTHER NASA CENTERS
- OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES
- COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY
SERVICES
- BENCHMARKING CODE OF CONDUCT
- WEB SITE
- COORDINATION/FACILITATING STUDIES
- REFERENCE MATERIALS
- TEAM ADVISING/CONSULTING
- PARTNERING SERVICES
- AWARENESS/TRAINING/EDUCATION
- KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT/TRANSFER
KSC BENCHMARKING CLEARINGHOUSE
The Kennedy Benchmarking Clearinghouse (KBC) was charted by Kennedy Space Center (KSC) senior managers in January 1994, it is a collaborative effort of NASA and major contractor organizations at Kennedy Space Center. The KBC provides a variety of services to KSC and promotes the use of benchmarking
Driven by NASA and its KSC contractors' commitment to process improvement and re-engineering in response to the challenges of the current fiscal environment, a pioneering benchmarking consortium was chartered. The KBC is designed to facilitate effective benchmarking, optimize efficiencies, and leverage quality improvements across the Center.
The KBC developed an original consortium approach to benchmarking which integrates the best features of proven benchmarking models (e.g., Camp, Spendolini, Watson, and Balm). After defining the architecture of the Clearinghouse function, the team conducted a "pathfinder" benchmarking study of the government property management process. Within two months from the publication of the study findings, three organizations reported a combined cost avoidance of over $41,000; a fourth organization reported a 57% reduction in cycle time for processing Property Loss, Damaged or Destroyed (PLDD) reports; and a fifth organization reduced the number of PLDD's processed by 84%. Continued informal benchmarking among process owners also was a synergistic benefit of the consortium benchmarking study.
This cost-effective alternative to conventional benchmarking approaches has provided a foundation for continued benchmarking at KSC through the development of common terminology, tools, and techniques. In addition to enhancing benchmarking skills among members, the Clearinghouse is strengthening a KSC culture that values continual improvement and teamwork to achieve excellence. The KBC team continues to provide benchmarking services to customers at KSC.