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Association Case Study: Industry Benchmarking Programs

Association Client

Founded over 90 years ago, our client is a trade manufacturing association dedicated to elevating the packaging industry for each member company's benefit to ensure a promising, sustainable future.

Purpose

Our client is committed to growing, promoting, and protecting its industry by providing advocacy and regulatory defense efforts, world-class networking and connections, cutting-edge technology and training, and renowned benchmarking and industry trends. Through its robust Industry Benchmarking Program, we help track and report on members' financial information, wages, safety, and overall equipment effectiveness.

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Initial Situation

Association's Challenges

Identifying a Data Gap: A member raised a critical question at a committee meeting: How are members tracking the cost of quality for the products they make? The committee recognized that their current metrics did not include this quantitative figure and needed a solution to address this gap.

Approach and Strategy

Our Strategic Plan

To tackle this issue, we conducted an analysis of existing reports and created a task force to examine the Cost of Quality.

Formation of the Task Force

    • Volunteers were sought, and a group of four members, including an experienced benchmarking professional, was formed.
    • The task force aimed to create a useful report without demanding excessive time and effort from members.

Defining Collectable Metrics

      • TMG staff presented relevant materials, including Jack Campanella's "Principles of Quality Costs," to establish shared definitions.
      • Through discussions, the task force focused on metrics that members could track easily, leading to a decision to measure External Costs of Quality.

Key Metrics Identified

    • Reject Rate: Customers returning products.
    • Defect Rate: Number of problematic products among those returned.
    • Customer Complaints: Number of complaints divided by total orders.
    • Claim Dollars: Claim dollars divided by total sales dollars/net claim for returned dollars.

Pilot Testing

Pilot Program

The task force piloted the External Cost of Quality report to test its effectiveness.

Data Collection

Task force members shared their data, and staff compiled it into a report.

Olympic-Style Scoring

An Olympic-style scoring method was used to address outliers.

The results

Key Findings

The pilot revealed that collecting data every six months could yield actionable insights.

Further clarification was needed for members not involved in the task force regarding the numbers they should submit.

Legal counsel confirmed that sharing quality metrics posed no antitrust threat, as it is viewed as a pro-competitive activity.

Long-term Impact

Report Launch

The External Cost of Quality report was launched at a full in-person committee meeting.

Early adopters from the committee were key in promoting the new report.

Future Plans

Marketing Plan

The new report was announced during a general session at a semi-annual meeting.

A comprehensive marketing plan was developed, including newsletter and email outreach.

A link to the data collection form was prominently featured on our client’s benchmarking site for easy access.

Conclusion

Our in-house benchmarking team is trained to listen to members' needs and address their demand for more data. Through strategic planning, collaborative efforts, and effective marketing, TMG helped our client successfully implement an External Cost of Quality report. This new benchmarking tool provides valuable insights into quality costs, fostering industry-wide improvements and reinforcing our client’s commitment to its members.

Our expertise in managing data and building communities enables us to create tailored solutions that address the specific needs of our clients. By leveraging our in-house capabilities, we ensure that associations can effectively track and improve key performance metrics, driving growth and success in their industry.

Testimonials

The Markens Group has provided outstanding service to our association and its Board of Directors for nearly a decade. We’re not a large association, but TMG treats us like we are. They are supportive, knowledgeable, and truly engaged with our activities. They have even received standing ovations at conferences for their overall support.

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Laura Wright
Board Chair, Flexographic Pre-Press Platemakers Association (FPPA)

TMG has spearheaded our industry’s representation on national initiatives and organizing annual meetings that are both entertaining and educational. Even better, the entire TMG staff has been ‘on point’ whenever we have a need.

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Darryl Carlson
President, Royal Paper Box Co. 
Board Member, Paperboard Packaging Council