Meaningful data: ask the right questions at the right times

"Garbage in equals garbage out" is never more true than when benchmarking with peers. Asking the right questions about your own operation as well as your benchmarking partner's takes some practice. Managers can be trained to interview, maximize the information gathered, and get pertinent facts. Experts say too rigid a focus on "apples to apples" comparisons will cause you to miss opportunities for improvements.