Business Process Reegineering?

Introduction

This paper summarizes the process known as business process reengineering (BPR). It considers the conditions that are favorable and detrimental to the success of a BPR and then provides a detailed description of each phase within the process. It explores who is affected within an organization by a BPR and how best to measure its success. It concludes with a summary assessment of the process.

What is Business Process Reegineering?

Business Process Reengineering is an approach that managers employ to organize and control the processes within their business (Harmon, 2007, p.xxxvii). Hammer and Champy famously described this as “the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service and speed” (1995, p.35). Organizations that undertake BPR efforts seek audacious goals such as the dramatic reduction of costs in non-core processes, reaching best-in-class levels of performance within core processes, and the establishment of entirely new levels of best-in-class performance within their industry (Mohanty & Deshmukh, 2000, p.97). For these reasons, advocates of BPR believe it to be the main way in which organizations become more efficient and modernize (Carter, 2005, ¶1).

Who does a BPR plan affect?

Perhaps obviously, a BPR plan affects those individuals and organizations who are immediately impacted by the changes that are introduced during such a process. Because BPR involves a systemic approach to improving the performance of an organization, all participants providing inputs and outputs are including in the analysis phase. This focus upon overall systemic performance means that all...

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... to the changing demands of their competitive environment.

Works Cited

Carter, P. (2005). Business Process Reengineering: An Introductory Guide. Retrieved on February 12, 2009, from http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/business-process-reengineering.html

Greenberg, L. (1996, July 18). Business Process Reengineering: Constantly Adapting to Change. Retrieved on February 13, 2009, from http://earthrenewal.org/bpr.htm

Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the Corporation-A Manifesto for Business Revolution. Harper Collins: New York.

Harmon, P. (2007). Business Process Change: A Guide for Business Managers and BPM and Six Sigma Professionals (2 ed.). Burlington: Morgan Kaufman Publishers

Mohanty, R. P. and Deshmukh, S.G. (2000). Reengineering of a supply chain management system: a case study. Production Planning & Control. Vol. 11, No.1, pp.90-104.