The Association for
Iron & Steel Technology (AIST) has partnered with Management Science
Associates Inc. (MSA) to develop the AIST Process BenchmarkerTM (APB).
The APB is an online database that serves as an analytical tool for
tracking various production metrics between coke-, iron- and
steelproducing companies. The mission of AIST is "to advance the
technical development, production, processing and application of iron
and steel," and the APB is one of the primary initiatives to actively
pursue this goal. The system is being developed by the
AIST
Technology Committees to improve the collective performance of the
global industry through the sharing of key performance indicators (KPIs)
among peers, while maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive company
data.
This paper will give the reader some general knowledge of
corporate benchmarking practices, describe the APB system
functionality, and discuss the steps taken to develop the system.
