Our 2009 Best Practices Conference will be held May 17-20, 2009 at IBM's Yorktown, NY facility.

The Research Facilities Benchmarking Group (RFB), John Parent, Chairman, is a diverse group of facility managers representing primarily research type facilities that have developed a common set of benchmarking definitions. This group has been benchmarking their facility performance for many years.

A task group —  facility managers from the RFB —  has developed the benchmarking topics and definitions. For additional information contact John Parent at Battelle, phone: (302) 366-5340.  This will be the seventh year that Facility Issues has managed the benchmarking process for the group. 

The Steering Committee determined that we will collect benchmarking data and develop a report every other year and conduct a best practices meeting each year.

• 2009 Benchmarking Report and Best Practices Meeting
• 2010 Best Practices Meeting

Still not sure if you are ready to get involved in benchmarking and join this group. We've developed an informative "White Paper" that helps explain that benchmarking is a continuous improvement program. We cover the fundamentals of benchmarking, the benchmarking cycle, and identify cost savings that the RFB Group has achieved. To download a copy CLICK HERE; download time is 1 - 2 minutes.

Benchmarking Objectives ...

Our objectives are:

• To determine the related normalized facility costs, utilities, and services to support a business. The study measures and links costs of the services provided with a subjective evaluation by the customer on the quality of those services.
• To provide a method to measure our effectiveness
• To find strengths and weaknesses
• To create an awareness of best practices
• To challenge business-as-usual methods
• To establish goals for further improvements
• To facilitate discussions on best practices between organizations

The purpose of benchmarking is to provide indicators that lead to discussions between organizations. A partially completed data submittal is usually not a hindrance to starting those discussions. The discussions whether by telephone or in person are what allow you to "borrow" new and innovative ideas that create improvements in your facility.