Benchmarking. Two articles, authored by Haftl (2007), concentrated on the mixture of metrics needed to optimize overall performance. Some of these metrics included completion rates, scrap and rework, machine uptime, machine cycle time and first pass percentages. “According to the 2006 American Machinist Benchmarking survey, leading machine shops in the United States are producing, on average, more than four times the number of units produced by other non-benchmarked shops. Also worth noting is that they also reduced the cost of scrap and rework more than four times.” (Haft, 2007, p.28). Th Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War and watch the 1987 film e benchmark shops showed greater improvement than other machine shops. “The benchmark shops cut scrap and rework costs to 4.6 percent of sales in 2006 from 6.6 percent three years ago, and all other shops went to 7.8 percent of their sales in 2006 from 9.3 percent three years ago” (Haftl, 2007, p.28). The successful reduction of scrap and rework costs by the benchmark shops were contributed to several factors. First, training was provided to employees and leadership seminars were held. Secondly, these shops practiced lean manufacturing and lastly, they had specific programs which directly addressed scrap and rework. Whirlpool, one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of household appliances, had used benchmarking as a means of finding out h Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War and watch the 1987 film ow they rated in comparison to their competitors. They benchmarked their primary competitor, General Electric. As a result, they discovered what improvements they could make that could be managed at a low investment. The improvement processes were especially useful and applied in existing strengt Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War and watch the 1987 film hs of the company. They rolled out a new sales and operating plan based on customer requirements (Trebilcock, 2004). Quality. An overall theme contained in all of the articles reviewed was that of quality. In Staff’s review (2008), hecontended that regardless of a company’s size, quality was critical in maintaining a competitive advantage and retaining customers. The Quality Leadership 100 is a list of the top 100 manufacturers who demonstrated exce Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War and watch the 1987 film llence in operations. The results were based on criteria such as scrap and rework as a percentage of sales, warranty costs, rejecte>