At the present moment benchmarking is a vogue word in administrative sphere. In Ukraine it is regarded cautiously and with mistrust, bewaring that benchmarking can be ‘a commercial scouting.’ And this is when farmers in progressive pig breeding countries pay quite a sum of money to use this instrument.

What is benchmarking?

This is a method of production efficiency control, based on comparison study of business operation with other representatives of the branch. It lies in the estimation of private and branch efficiency, identification and examination of branch leaders and implementation of the best achievements into own operation.

The principal aim of benchmarking is to find the successful business, whose situation is better than yours. This method is focused on competitors, especially comparative study of your and their production results and characteristic. Although the benchmarking does not stop on this, it needs to find the answer on the question ‘How to reach the same result, the colleagues have?’ The identification of factors that are the reason of the lag from leaders helps to work out the scenario for narrowing the gap.

1. What is the origin of benchmarking method? What are its kinds?
2. Why is it so popular in progressive pig breeding countries? How does this method work in particular in Denmark and USA?
3. Who does realize the survey?
4. How real and profitable is it to implement the benchmarking in Ukraine?

You can find answers for these and other questions in the full version of the article in the magazine «Profitable Pig Production», № 1 (31) 2016.