Benchmarking as Performance Indicator

After transforming traditional chemical sites into new industrial parks, the whole German industrial park landscape is, in the meantime, in a phase of restructuring and consolidation. With regard to restructuring, the issues to realise cost saving potentials are further increasing focus on core activities and the sale of non-core areas, the increase in efficiency through further improvement of organisational structures and business processes as well as other possibilities like benchmarking and best practice initiatives.

Therefore, between 2005 and 2008, FESTEL CAPITAL organised an exchange of experiences including a detailed benchmarking in which 8 German chemical parks and chemical-related industrial parks participated. The participants learned from each other using a pragmatic benchmark and best practice approach

Almost all relevant areas of an industrial park were covered. The main focus was on maintenance and in many areas also the operation of selected infrastructures and various services were considered.

• Supply of electric energy and steam
• Supply of water (industrial and drinking water) and gases (compressed air, oxygen, nitrogen)
• Traffic infrastructure (roads and tracks, including street lighting)
• Data and telecommunication networks
• Facility management with special focus on investments and maintenance
• Works fire and security services

Conceptual questions such as operating and maintenance budgets and costs as well as pricing models were discussed. The goal was the evaluation of the operational competitiveness and the identification and characterisation of cost saving potentials. Much time was spent in developing an industrial park specific methodology to process the input data in a well structured way and to allow a comparison of the results. Therefore, more than 50 key performance indicators were defined and calculated.

Workshops were organised to give the participants the chance to share their experiences and best practice examples with peers. The benchmarking made a discussion based on comparable and comprehensible figures possible. In general, only costs (total costs and, separately, influenceable costs) and not prices were considered. An important aspect for all the areas was to take into account the different histories and factors by using appropriate complexity correction factors.