TOPMARK is a free benchmarking service for processing mills and topmakers around the world. Participation is very simple, with mills providing AWTA Ltd with greasy wool test information on their batches as well as their own processing test data.

AWTA Ltd will collate the data from all participating mills and determine ‘benchmarks’ for all the major processing results. These benchmarks will allow one mill to confidentially compare its performance against the average of all the other mills participating in this program. It is planned that regular reports will be provided to mills detailing their performance against key characteristics such as Hauteur, Romaine, Top & Noil Yield, and Core/Comb Fibre Diameter.

Background

Customers of Australian wool are in the unsurpassed position of being able to fully specify Yield, Vegetable Matter, Fibre Diameter and Staple Length and Staple Strength measurements on their greasy wool purchases. Having this information allows topmakers to predict the processing results for each batch, using the well known TEAM formulae.

AWTA Ltd recently undertook a major industrial processing trial to update the TEAM formulae. Called TEAM-3, 34 mills from 12 different countries participated in a trial that not only allowed new general formulae to be developed, but also enabled each mill to confidentially benchmark its performance against the other participating mills.

Such was the mill enthusiasm generated by this benchmarking information that AWTA Ltd has created a new, free service available to mills called TOPMARK – Global Benchmarking for Topmakers.

What are the benefits of Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is the collection of performance information that allows comparisons to be made between organisations. It is typically designed to answer the question: “What are the most important performance yardsticks and where do we rank, compared with others in our industry?” It is generally recognised that, when used appropriately, benchmarking is one of the most effective tools for bringing about improvements in performance.

Some of the typical benefits are as follows:

• Allows a wide range of performance indicators to be studied.
• Protects confidentiality of all partners.
• Allows comparisons with competitors to be made and allows identifi cation of best practice.
• Allows performance shortfalls to be clearly seen and assists in identifying priorities for improvement.
• Encourages participants to seek fresh approaches to bring about improvements in performance.