Gap Analysis and performance gap study

A gap analysis is a current evaluation of the performance of an organization in any area of the business relatively to a certain benchmark set by customer expectations or an industry based benchmark. Gap analysis can also be carried out in operations relatively to world class leaders in different areas of operational excellence, lead times, lean manufacturing, technology, customer service, plant performance and OEE.

Gap analysis can identify areas where the business is performing below the standards expected by customers or management that could be compromising the competitiveness of the organization within the marketplace. These areas of under performance may not be readily visible to management. It is important to regularly involve customers and other external stakeholders to the business in performing a gap analysis as they all see the business from different angles and interact with the organization in different ways. Operational consultants are regularly involved in performing gap analysis within operations as they are exposed to different industries and are able to quickly gauge the state of a business’ operations versus an industry benchmark. Lean consultants can also be useful in benchmarking against different lean manufacturing principles and areas of business and operations efficiency.