The gas is always greener

• Published in: American Gas Vol. 76; no. 11; p. 32
• Main Author: Stoddard, Brooke
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Arlington American Gas Association 01.12.1994
• Subjects: Benchmarks; Best practice; Cathodic protection; Consortia; Corrosion; Cost control; Natural gas industry; Natural gas utilities; Questionnaires; Trends; United States > US
• ISSN: 1043-0652

American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) defines benchmarking as the process of identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices and processes from organizations anywhere in the world to help an organization improve its performance. Benchmarking is merely a refinement of a practice that has been going on for years, and one that American industry has taken to heart. James Schetter of TECC Group Inc. divides benchmarking into 2 categories: 1. metrics and 2. practices. His research, publishing, and consulting firm specializes in the metrics area, using publicly reported data from some 100 gas utilities to rank them in 35 different categories. From this, a firm can narrow the original list to identify companies that it wants to learn from and then proceed to the practices area of benchmarking - finding out how the top-rated companies do so well. Additional details concerning benchmarking in the natural gas industry, as well as the A.G.A.-sponsored Best Practices program are discussed.