A Survey on the Barriers of Benchmarking Implementation in Malaysia Oil Palm Industry

Malaysia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil. Nevertheless, Malaysia may soon lose its position if there are lacks of initiatives to sustain it. Benchmarking can be used to stimulate process improvement by determining best practices across oil palm organizations through understanding critical success factors which enabled higher performance in leading organizations. The main objective of this paper is to identify benchmarking barriers that hinder or disrupt the benchmarking implementation in oil palm industry. To achieve these objectives, 700 sets of questionnaire were distributed among oil palm planters and millers in Malaysia. The survey results had indicated that the three main obstacles faced in implementing benchmarking in oil palm industry are: lack of understanding of benchmarking knowledge, lack of clarity with regard to specific areas to be benchmarked and management culture. In the authors’ opinion this survey findings would be useful and considerable interest to all level of benchmarking practitioners in the oil palm industry.

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