Phillip Townsend Associates

In-Depth Benchmark Data Analysis Surveys

All of our benchmarking programs provide extensive information on relative performance. However, the results often lead to more specific questions related to how and why these results occur. In these cases Phillip Townsend Associates can work with your organization to provide more in-depth analysis, such as:

Cost Driver Analysis

Often times benchmarking results will show a significant gap between plants on a given metric - e.g., maintenance cost per ton of output. And this can lead to incorrect conclusions about what can and should be done. However it is also possible in many cases to identify factors related to cost that are predictive of spending - cost drivers. These can be used to quantify how much extra spending is incurred in the industry as one or more key factors increase. In maintenance for example things such as replacement cost and numbers of pieces of equipment are significant. In R&D things such as the number of technology platforms and the number of commercial end products supported may help quantify how much extra cost might be expected.

Analysis of business model relationships can be evaluated extensively. Examples of this include examinations of the:

• Relationship of research spending on business margins
• Relationship of margin to low cost versus high revenue strategies

We are able to give you the objective perspectives and assessment that you need to help identify areas for improvement and solutions for continuing business success.