Even Starbucks has to Benchmark

Considering it’s benches are always full of hipsters sipping their half-caf low-fat moccachinos, you might think that Starbucks would have no need for benchmarking, as many of its benches already have permanent rear-shaped impressions from long-time customers. But that’s not the case at all.

In this great case study in DC Velocity, we find out that, as of 2008, costs had risen faster than sales for three years running (since you can’t grow fast in a market that’s already near the saturation point), there were no metrics to measure service performance and, once measurement criteria were instituted, less than half of all store orders in the United States and Canada were delivered on time.

However, once the company started benchmarking and focussed on revamping the supply chain to improve its performance, in a mere two years, Starbucks was able to increase on-time performance to almost 90% and results are still improving. So if you want to improve your supply chain, it starts with a good benchmark.

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