Supply Chain Management Strategies and Applications: A Benchmarking Study in Plastic Profile Industry

Benchmarking is the process of determining the performance of an enterprise in comparison to its competitors having a better position in the market and deciding how "these competitors" reached this performance level and finally using obtained information to establish a foundation for the goals of the enterprise. Benchmarking has an old origin if it is considered as sampling, comparing, copying and applying processes but as a management tool it has been executed in USA since 1990\´s. It is a much more new research field in Turkey. The absolute benchmarking approach is a continuous process because of the rapid changes in market. New entrepreneurs in the market develop the business process, create new technologies and improve operations. Goal of the enterprises performing benchmarking is to be the best in the market. For achieving this goal they have to follow the path of continuous development. Once reached this goal, they should focus on developing new processes in order to protect the obtained level. Thus, benchmarking becomes a continuous struggle to improve enterprise performance. In this study, the supply chain management strategies and applications of two plastic profile manufacturer firms, which are two of the six greatest in the Turkish market, are benchmarked based on a questionnaire