Business Process Reengineering:Essay Preview: Business Process Reengineering:Report this essayBUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE^BRIAN FITZGERALD AND CIARAN MURPHYExecutive Systems Research Centre, University College, Cork, Ireland.ABSTRACTBusiness Process Reengineering (BPR) advocates the fundamental examination and redesign of business processes, recognising tb-at the legacy of scientific management has been the excessive fragmentation of work practices in organisations today. This is reflected in the hierarchical structuring of organisations around functional departments, with individual aind departmental goals displacing overall organisational goals. This paper discusses the development of a specific methodology for BPR. The practical application of this methodology in an actual BPR project in one organisation is discussed sind some of the findings and lessons learned from the project are presented.
Keywords: Business process reengineering, business process redesign, business reengineering, methodology, manufacturing, electronics industry, case study, action research
RESUME Le Reengineering dentreprise, ou Business Process Reengineering (BPR), est fonde sur un examensystematique et une reconfiguration fondamentale des processus de lentreprise, motives parle constat de la fragmentation excessive des taches dans les entreprises modernes. Cette fragmentation,heritage du Scientific Management, est refietee dans la structure tres hierarchique etdepartementale des entreprises ou, trop souvent, les objectife des departements entrent en confiitavec les objectifs de lentreprise. Cet article presente une methodologie specialeinent aidaptee auReengineering d entreprise et son application a un projet reel de redesign dans une entreprise.Larticle conclut en presentant les legons tirees de cette application.1. INTRODUCTIONInterest in the Business Process Reengineering (BPR) concept is quite recent, emerging in thework of writers such as Davenport and Short (1990), Hammer (1990), Hammer gmd Champy(1993), and Harrington (1991). The concept is currently very topical, however, and is ubiquitousin recent organisational, management and information technology literature. The extent of thewidespread popular interest in the BPR concept can be gauged from the fact that Hammer andChampys recent book on BPR featured at the top of the US best-seller lists. This popularityis also reflected in the fact that many organisations claim to be undertaking BPR projectsand many software vendors are offering products to support BPR. However, spveral studieshave recently appeared in the literature which have critically examined the BPR pihenomenon{e.g. Earl, 1994; Coulson-Thomas, 1994; Strassman, 1993). The progression of a concept fromtheory to sustained practice is dependent on the development of its theoretical baise, and theintroduction of methodological approaches that are capable of being used by practitioners. Thispaper reports on a study in which a specific methodology for BPR wasi developed land appliedin one organisation.2. BPR: BASIC PRINCIPLES AND CONCEPTSWhile BPR is usually portrayed as a new concept, a number of the principles and conceptsunderpinning BPR^ have their antecedents in other disciplines. For example, Strassman (1993)identifies the contribution of the industrial engineering discipline in which methods such asprocess analysis, activity costing and value-added measurement have been around for about 50years. Earl (1994) also discusses the contribution of a number of fields, including the operationsmanagement domain {e.g. Juran, 1964), sociotechnical systems thinking (Leavitt, 1964) andsystems analysis. However, BPR is now coming to the fore in a different business environment.iRecd. 1994; Revd. 1995 ” INFOR vol. 34, no. 1, Feb. 19964 B. FITZGERALD AND C. MURPHY,Certainly, the technological infrastructure is now very different, offering capabilities that werenot feasible in the past. Also, BPR attempts to reorient the axis of the organisation awayfrom the traditional vertical management control of employee up to management, and towardsa horizontal value orientation of vendor to customer (Orr, 1993). The latter orientation is onewhere real value may be added for the enterprise.Definitions of the term business process vary, but most researchers suggest that it comprisesa number of interrelated activities that cut across functional boundaries in the delivery of anoutput (Bevilacqua & Thomhill, 1992; Davenport & Short, 1990; Thomas, 1994). The loosenessof this type of definition has led to significant variations in establishing the number of processesin a business. For example, Thomas (1994) cites the case of one large bank which estimatedthat it had three core processes while another reckoned it had seventeen.In the past, information technology has been applied to help improve business operations.However, the technology has generally been applied as part of process rationalisation, thatis, the primary motivation behind the use of technology is to automate or expedite existing
s, or processes, thatthe organization needs to implement. A set of technical methods by a group of individuals would be taken in its totality. In most cases, however,there isa significant difference between the concepts with the application of BPR techniques to all relevant components of a system. BPR is more useful at a technical level because it is far more precise and requires less effort on the part of the manager involved. Similarly,in a service system is much more involved in making the system more efficient. While most service-related tasks require a minimum of