Kaiser Permanente Benchmarking

Great Post Tyler! I enjoyed reading your post on the healthcare industry, specifically Kaiser Permanente utilizing benchmarking tools throughout their operations. I can see how benchmarking would be a great tool for this healthcare organization. According to Blocher, Stout, Juras, & Cokins, (2013) benchmarking helps a firm identify the critical success factors, by a quantitative analysis of other firms or businesses and implements a qualitative analysis to improve their own performance. In referencing the recent article by Böhme et al., (2013) the qualitative data on the difficulty of obtaining correct benchmarking data. Is perfect example according to Blocher et al., (2013) that total quality management (TQM) is also a best practice which
Kaiser Permanente implement to ensure that benchmarking is one of the perfect solutions for a firm. Melanie Hicks (2010) agrees by saying, “There are other management techniques that assist in the success of a contemporary business environment” (p.2). Also, I believe for a pharmaceutical firm in healthcare such as Kaiser Permanente that “target costing” is a “desired basis to learn more on the competitive price so that the firm’s product will earn a desired profit.” (p.12). Lastly, Life-cycling costing is a great reference as it includes research and development as a valuable means to a better focus to product design.

Great Post!