W5 - Basics of BPR(1)

Source / Reference:
1) "Reengineering revisited" by Thomas H. Davenport, L Prusak and H. James Wilson, 2003


Subject:
In Lect 5 - Basics of BPR(1)
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Response:
In lecture 5, basic concepts about business process reengineering were given. This blog post aims at concluding the key points of the lecture and showing the reflection on the topic and the reviewed journals.

Basic concepts of BPR:


Business Process Reengineering is the fundamental re-thinking and radical re-design of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. 

- Michael Hammer & James Champy, 1993

 

There are three components in BPR.

B for Business:

- an outside-in perspective

- defines a process through the eyes of the customer of that process

P for Process:

- focus on essential processes that deliver outcomes

R for Reengineering:

- search for quantum improvements

- make use of IT to improve

- maximize value-adding content

Reflection:

In my opinion, BPR is a process to improve the current situation and processes. But why do we need BPR? It's to increase the efficiency of a process or improve the customer satisfaction and thus increase the profits. As mentioned in the lecture, a firm should defines a business process through the eyes of the customer of that process, that is, to start form the organizational edges. This is definitely right because the end user of a process is always customers. Thinking in their view can help to increase customer satisfaction and fulfill their requirements in the way they want.

Besides, BPR is a continuous process. A firm should follow the cycle to identify any space for improvement. BPR definitely takes time but it is worthwhile as it can help a firm to become more efficient and profitable.

People always say that IT is the key enabler of BPR, I agree that IT is an enabler but it is not the only one. People is also an enabler of BPR, they are the one who identify the change and implement the change. Without proper implementation by human, it is hard to achieve BPR.

Summary and reflection on reviewed journal:

This paper starts with discussing different definitions for the term "Reengineering" and followed by a description about the development of BPR. Then shortcomings and benefits about BPR are given. The paper ends by giving key factors and suggestions about successful BPR.

The paper also talks about why BPR fails, here are some points.
1) Focus too much on process and not enough on practice, and didn't involve the people who did the work.
2) Turn too much of their initiative over to outside firms.
3) Take too much change at once.
4) Fail to acknowledge how difficult, time-consuming and expensive is to reengineer.

Based on the above three factors, I do agree with point 1 that to successfully implement BPR, a firm should involve the people who actually do the work through the whole process including design but not implementation only. There is a common mistake that firms always make is that the reengineering plan or strategy is designed by top management instead of those workers who actually do the work. However, top managers are always not the one who know most the process, they may know how it may work but do not really know how it actually work.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, BPR is not a single process. Instead, it should be continuous and takes lots of time. Change is painful and difficult to implement but it is essential as the whole environment is also changing. For a firm to become successful, it is important to improve time to time and apply appropriate BPR in a correct way to adapt to the environment.