PROBE Development
Development of the PROBE suite of Best Practice Benchmarking tools
The first PROBE tool was developed for the influential 'Made in Europe' research on world-class manufacturing, led by Professor Chris Voss of London Business School, and Professor Phil Hanson, who was then leading the development of IBM's industrial management consultancy practice; with contributions from researchers at universities across Europe. The research drew upon leading edge theory about manufacturing capability, and the practical experiences of leading businesses deploying 'best practice' and achieving 'best in class' performance, in order to build the ground-breaking Practice-Performance Model.
"When we first started thinking about PROBE the ideas that were uppermost in our minds were lean thinking, market driven quality and balanced scorecard. It was a combination of the best approaches of East and West. It is a great encouragement to see how durable these approaches have been and how well they translate across sectors"
Phil Hanson, co-author of PROBE, Principal Industrial Fellow at the University of Cambridge's Institute for Manufacturing
The 'Made in' studies developed performance indices which represent a balanced scorecard of the results achieved by a manufacturing facility. They also constructed practice indices which confront the challenge of benchmarking the somewhat intangible qualities of the processes and practices which are themselves the causes and enablers of business performance. These crucial indices were developed through a careful blend of qualitative and quantitative research techniques, combining the strengths of theory and intuition with the acid test of rigorous statistical analysis. The outputs of these initial 'PROBE' studies included:
- Powerful evidence that best practices are indeed capable of delivering strong business performance
- Insights into the challenges facing businesses whose poor practices hamper their ability to perform; those whose improving practices are not matched by the expected performance achievements; and those whose 'face value' strong performance is rendered vulnerable by fragile underpinning practices
- The creation of a unique, powerful diagnostic capability - the PROBE methodology and analytical model
The foundations of the PROBE suite were strengthened by the authoritative 'International Service Study', which adapted the 'Made In' studies' approach, incorporating leading-edge principles of service excellence to conduct an Anglo-American benchmark comparison of service practice and performance. This study was led by Professor Voss along with Professors Aleda Roth and Richard Chase (then respectively of the Universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Southern California). Again, performance and practice indices were developed, capable of diagnosing the drivers of outstanding service performance, and the extent to which they are present and effective in individual organisations/organisational units. The International Service Study replicated a key finding of 'Made in Europe', again demonstrating the strength of the relationship between the deployment of best practice and the delivery of strong business performance. It also deepened the insights available through the PROBE methodology, and extended the reach of PROBE's diagnostic capability to include a broader spectrum of organisations and a more holistic coverage of their activities.
PROBE's diagnostic analysis examines the strength or fragility of individual practices and component aspects of performance, pinpointing strengths to consolidate and improvement opportunities to explore. These 'ground floor' details are synthesised to present a more strategic perspective by benchmarking carefully constructed practice and performance indices, and ultimately to position the organisation on world-class scales of overall practice and overall performance. The overall effect is an holistic and insightful assessment of the organisation's performance and of what is driving that performance, achieved through an involving and developmental facilitated process. The proven effectiveness of this process, and its time- and cost-efficiency, set PROBE clearly apart from alternative diagnostic tools and methodologies.
The ongoing development of the PROBE suite continues to deploy the learning and the principles derived from the seminal studies from which it evolved, and to continually test and refine them in new contexts and against the latest developments in organisational theory and practice. The best practice principles at the core of PROBE are universal and timeless, drawing upon the concepts of Lean Thinking, Total Quality Management and Continuous Improvement and the Service Value Chain; and PROBE has evolved and adapted to developments in fields such as people management and development, organisational learning, information technology and e-business, social and environmental responsibility and sustainable business.
There are many different perspectives on the 'Journey to Excellence'. Clear evidence of the PROBE tools' ongoing effectiveness and broad applicability lies in their resonance and compatibility with the principles embedded in definitive frameworks such as the Baldrige criteria and the EFQM Excellence Model, and in contemporary implementation methodologies such as Lean Thinking, Six Sigma and Best Value. Further, convincing evidence is provided by outstandingly high levels of client satisfaction — for those prepared to invest the effort, the PROBE process is a goldmine of opportunities to learn, to better understand organisational performance and its drivers and, of course, to improve.
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