“But mom, all the other kids are doing it!” We’ve all heard and probably quoted that line at one time or another. And just as inevitably, we have all faced one of the two most likely retorts, “I don’t care what other kids are doing, they’re not mine,” or my personal favorite, “If all the other kids jumped off a bridge, would you?” To which, in the days when my wit overshadowed my judgment, I usually answered, “Well, that depends on how high the bridge is, whether there’s water under it, how deep the water is ….” I’m not sure how I survived my childhood.
Either way, the answer was clear — what other children did never justified duplicating their actions. In all likelihood, it was the weakest argument one could proffer to a supervising adult when seeking permission for some as yet never before allowed behavior or activity. So given this almost universal youthful experience, why then does the exact opposite logic apply to most applications of benchmarking in the adult arenas of distribution and logistics?