2008 Machine Shop Benchmark Survey Analysis

American Machinist conducted its third annual survey of machine shops to gather information our readers need to accurately gauge their competitive positions in the industry, and to help them make plans to systematically improve their operations and become more efficient.

We have identified the critical indicators and best practices that lead to improved productivity and profitability and, with the responses to questions about those indicators and best practices, we are able to identify a set of shops whose performance puts them in the lead of all the shops surveyed.

That group of shops is our benchmark set, and represents the top 20 percent of shops that responded to the survey.

The results for the Benchmark shops are composites, so they do not represent a single shop’s performance, but the combined performance from all the best shops. We believe these performance results and the practices that lead to them provide targets that all shops can strive to reach, and they provide performance measurements that all shops can use to compare themselves and to check their current competitive positions. You also can use these benchmarks to monitor your progress in reaching higher degrees of efficiency.

To analyze the survey data, we summarized the data for all shops and compared that data to the information for the benchmark shops.

For example, on an overall basis, 76.7 percent of the shops that responded to our survey said they are independent, and 23.3 percent are part of a larger company. For the benchmark shops this year, 70.5 percent are independent, and 29.7 percent are part of a larger company.