Business Process Redesign or Reengineering
Business Process Redesign (BPR) or Reengineering is "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" (Hammer and Champy, Reengineering). Since the BPR idea has surfaced it has been under constant ridicule by the popular press.
They say it takes far too long, creates management headaches, fails 70% of the time, and it's only for big companies with big checkbooks (Hydrel...). However,
I feel that with the right plan, the right people, and total commitment from those involved, BPR or Reengineering can work for any company.
The Hydrel Experience
A good example of this is Hydrel, a manufacturer of in-ground and underwater lighting equipment. They were about to begin selling their products in the international market, and were afraid their current systems could handle the rapid increase in volume. So the company president, Craig Jennings, hired the D. Appleton Company (DACOM) to help reengineer the company's plans to handle its growth rate. After DACOM reviewed Hydrel's functional areas and the desires of the top-level management, they concluded that the order management and inventory control process had to be redesigned to meet the demands.
Then they comprised three teams: process, quality, and information. But before the three teams could work separately, they had to go through a process to determine if the team members were on the right team, and if they could work together. So each of the three teams reviewed employee personalities using the
Pearson Personality Inventory (Hydrel...). After using the PPI system they found that all the teams were compatible, and began working on the job at hand.
The process team attacked the reengineering of the "Manage Customer
Order" process which included all contact with prospects, customers, and sales agents the moment a question came up. Then they invited customers and suppliers to air their own issues and ideas about their company. All of them had something to say about the company and were impressed with the reengineering effort. The Hydrel process team concluded its redesign work with a de...
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...harts, all projects cost/benefit analyses, and the implementation of strategies. The benefits of this process were significant: 16,000 ideas, 1005 projects, 1,100 positions to be terminated, and $43M in reduced expenses (Betting...).
So now that a new plan is in place TCB has taken the appropriate steps to keep them in working order. The 1,005 recommendations have been assigned to teams within the line of business. Formal project plans for each team are developed and gathered weekly and are loaded into a database for tracking by other interdependencies (Betting...) This database is also available the employees to access if they want to check on an idea or if they want to suggest an idea. This database is also a great way for managers and employees to keep intouch on all aspects of the business, both big and small.
Although this process didn't run as smooth the Hydrel experience it still proves that reengineering or BPR can work for a company. Also I think the
TCB experience proved that, there are different ways to go about reengineering a company but the bottom line is, with total commitment it can work for all
companies.
Several possible legal issues are evident in the scenario. In this scenario, the name Hallowed would receive protection as a trademark since it is a word that distinguishes the product from others. A trademark is understood as a design, symbol, phrase or word or a mix of these that distinguishes and identifies the source of the goods of one firm from those of other firms. A trade dress basically refers to the visual impression which is created by the totality of every element utilized in packaging or presenting a service or good for sale. In essence, it gives the product an identifiable and distinct look (Jameson 212). The name Hallowed cannot be a trade dress since it is not a visual expression, but rather a name.
My team consists of four other people besides myself, Lauren Chojnaki, Alexa-Louise Patnode, and Jacobe Loewen, and Ryan Tyriver. Together, we are tasked with the mission to complete a stakeholder analysis regarding a specific organization and their structure. For this project to be completed successfully, it is important that all team members are able to cooperate with one another and are able to use their different strengths to create the best end product.
In this way, the group also meaningfully distinguished the responder team from any other employee, as mentioned by Latham (2012), and also that this is more likely to happen in smaller groups. Only hazardous responders could even go near a spill until the identity of the substance was made known, and then only responders had the training to properly clean up the spill. Compared to the rest of the organization, the responder team was relatively small, which also fits with proposed team concepts. Additionally, identifying with the team helped to motivate me to be safe and cautious when dealing with known or unknown substances. I also think it helped all team members to be collaborative in their efforts and share responsibilities equally among the
teams were formed to review all areas of an organization to include the planning, leadership
The team members compete for their position as they try to establish themselves in relation to other team members and the leader, who may receive challenges from team members.
Team building events should not be thinning the herd or pitting individuals in a team against each other. Team building should not be a clandestine program on the part of senior management to select up-and-coming leaders. Once participants in a team feel there are ulterior motives to the team event they can revert to a survival of the fittest mode; a competition within a team and then appears the "I" in team. For example, if a team is assembled under the auspices that the exercise is to build cohesiveness, respect and to define/clarify goals, there should not be any hint of any underlying motives. Specifically, if management is wanting to evaluate inherent management skills of candidates for future promotions, the team building exercise is
...ked together. It was easier once we knew how everyone else’s work ethics and how they usually went about trying to solve problems and tackling assignments. The only thing that really changed about the way our group worked was we started taking initiative and grabbing parts of the project to finish. Overall, this project has been a huge learning experience for all of us.
I would create a positive environment where the employees would feel comfortable to solicit their ideas. I would encourage the employees to express their ideas. I would give constructive feedback to them when they share their
To complete tasks with a positive attitude and for there to be a level of competition, however keeping in mind to focus on the task at hand. The members who are open to experience can lead to being an effective team. For a team to have team oriented members, which have better performances, I would likely be glad to choose those who can work well in a team. Two heads are better than one, but are ten better than five? I can easily decide whether there are too many members in my team or not to have a successful outcome. This is where I can seek to a smaller team and bringing out their full potential instead of focusing on a lot more members and making sure the task is accomplished. As for the structure of the team, my decision will most definitely be based on methods to include the efforts of each member within a certain team. Team member roles, norms, and task structure will all help to identify their strengths. I will assign member roles to those who I feel have special skills and abilities to provide with the best results to complete specific tasks . Norms within a team are there to regulate and ultimately provide guidance to what they can and cannot do. The task structure will assist in determining how the team will function and how
This is where the team comes together and get to know each other and feel each team member out and work on finding each member’s strengths and weaknesses. During forming, the team will begin working on establishing trust and getting over their fear of conflict. Lencioni recommends that the team members spend some time talking about their personal lives to help establish trust. He also suggests taking the Myer-Briggs personality profiles to help facilitate learning each member’s strengths and weaknesses (2002). According to Prytherch, et.al. (2012), when individuals are brought together into a team, it can take a long time for that group to bond cohesively and reach the stage where it is working well. Trust and confidence between team members also takes time. To hasten the process, the new team should first undergo a team-building activity. The goal of team building activities is to promote greater interaction and cohesiveness among employees (Schnall
Similar to understanding the context of the team, to effectively manage and understand the composition of the team it is important for the team and its members to answer the following questions: “(1) to what extent do individual team members have the technical skills required to complete the task?; (2) to what extent do they have the interpersonal and communication skills required to coordinate their work with others?; (3) to what extent are individual team members committed to the team and motivated to complete the task?; and (4) is the team the right size to successfully complete the task?” (Dyer & Dyer,
Hellriegel, Slocum, & Woodman (1986) state that team building is used to improve the effectiveness of work groups by focusing on any of the following four purposes: setting goals and priorities, deciding on means an methods, examining the way in which the group works, and exploring the quality of working relationships. A cycle then develops; it begins with the awareness or perception of a problem and is followed sequentially by data collection, data sharing diagnosis, action planning, action implementation, and behavioral evaluation. This style is repeated as new problems are identified.
At the time of the case, why has SAP America grown so rapidly? What challenges have been created by the company’s explosive growth?
In every business offered by any organizations, it is very important to ensure that the customers will always satisfied with services provided. People nowadays are looking for the new technologies, new markets, new ideas and also new inventions. Thus the organization must always keep up with the current changes in demand to ensure that their services are still relevant to the customers. The changes of demand also called as an evolution and to achieve these, the organizations are advised to have a process that we called as “Business Transformation” (“Business Transformation: The Importance of Change,” 2014).
All this may seem a little overwhelming and tiresome to some or to all, but do be assured it is not as hard as it seems. Just keep in mind that you have to embrace the differences between all the demographic characteristics and the culturally diverse team members that make up your group. This with an open mind, and a willingness to cooperate, compromise, and the pleasure to collaborate will harvest many great results and have the organization reaping the many great benefits along with a great top of the line fueled to the rim high performance team.