Unit 10 Achieving Perfection

Task 7 Speaking

B: Hi Peter. What were the results from the benchmarking study?

A: We got great results. In fact, we're better than our competition.

B: That's great news. But how can you be sure?

A: I compared production numbers. We're a smaller company so naturally produce smaller amounts overall.

B: I see. But why is that better?

A: Because we're way more efficient. We spend about a quarter of our budget on production. But the bigger competitors spend almost twice that.

B: I see. They produce more overall, but our methods save more money than theirs.

A: Exactly. In fact, the quality management standards on our production line could be applied elsewhere.

B: How so?

A: I noticed it while checking the internal benchmarks. As efficient as our production line is, our marketing department needs work.

B: So what are you suggesting?

A: We take the production best practices and apply them to the marketing department.

Task 8 Writing.

Anthea, We have recently completed our benchmarking study and the results are very encouraging. We are way more efficient than our larger competitors. We can see this because we only spend about 25% of our budget on production compared to almost 50% by our competitors. So even though they produce more overall, our methods save more money than theirs. The report also considered some internal benchmarks. Although our production line is very efficient the marketing department is not so good. The report suggests that we can improve the company further by taking the production best practices and applying them to the marketing department. Martin