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9609 · 9.2.2

Benchmarking — practice questions

Practice and worked examples for 9609 Benchmarking. Short previews only — attempt the full question in MarkScheme against the official scheme.

Worked example 1

Hospital chain: Branch A average wait 45 min, Branch B 20 min, national best practice 15 min. How should HQ use benchmarking?

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Internal benchmark: Branch B is internal best — study scheduling, staffing ratios, triage process.

External gap: All branches above 15 min national best — external benchmark sets target.

Actions: Standardise B's practices, staff training, IT booking system rollout.

Review: Monthly KPI dashboard — benchmarking is continuous, not one-off report.

Caution: Patient mix may differ — adjust for case complexity before punishing Branch A unfairly.

Worked example 2

Presto Pizza wants to benchmark its delivery driver productivity. Its branch A completes 840 deliveries in a week using 210 total driver hours. A trade journal reports the industry leader achieves 5.0 deliveries per driver hour. Calculate Presto Pizza's performance gap and state its significance.

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  1. Identify KPI & Formula: The Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is 'Deliveries per Driver Hour'. Formula: Total Deliveries / Total Hours Worked
  2. Calculate Presto Pizza's Current Productivity: 840deliveries/210hours=4.0deliveriesperhour840 deliveries / 210 hours = 4.0 deliveries per hour
  3. Identify the Benchmark: The industry leader's performance is 5.0 deliveries per hour.
  4. Calculate the Performance Gap: Gap = Benchmark Performance - Current Performance 5.0−4.0=1.0deliveryperhour5.0 - 4.0 = 1.0 delivery per hour This means Presto's drivers are, on average, making one fewer delivery every hour compared to the leader.
  5. Calculate Percentage Gap: Formula: (Gap / Benchmark Performance) * 100 (1.0/5.0)∗100=20%(1.0 / 5.0) * 100 = 20\%
  6. Significance: Presto Pizza's delivery productivity is 20% lower than the industry leader. This is a significant gap that likely impacts costs (more driver hours needed for the same number of deliveries) and customer satisfaction (potentially slower delivery times). Management should now investigate the reasons for the leader's higher productivity (e.g., better routing software, order batching, driver incentives) to identify best practices to adopt.
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