Zippy Cola is a multinational soft drink manufacturer. The Australian plant, located at Deveton in Victoria is currently attempting to improve its performance through benchmarking activities. The best-performing plant in the Zippy Cola group is located in Seattle in the USA. The general manager of the Doveton plant has approved a bench-marking visit to the Seattle plant by a team of employees. The bench marking team consists of the manufacturing manager, two manufacturing team leaders, a member of a third manufacturing team and the plants human resources manager. The functions that the benchmarking team has identified for study include employment contracts, the operation of self-managed teams in manufacturing and the processes that have resulted in high safety performance and short cycle times at the Seattle plant.
Required:
1. What type of benchmarking is the Doveton plant planning to undertake?
2. Explain the advantages and limitations of this form of benchmarking.
3. What are the advantages of forming a multidisciplinary benchmarking team similar to the one used b the Doveton plant?