Computer Cases & Towers

Business process reengineering

                                    BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING

                                 K.S.Rathore*, Sadhana Yadav, Deepika Pokhrana

                               B.N.Girls' College of Pharmacy, Udaipur-Raj.

 Abstract

Business Process Reengineering is a discipline in which extensive research has been carried out and numerous methodologies churned out. But what seems to be lacking is a structured approach. In this paper we provide a review of BPR and present ‘best of breed' methodologies from contemporary literature and introduce a consolidated, systematic approach to the redesign of a business enterprise. The methodology includes the five activities: Prepare for reengineering, Map and Analyze As-Is process, Design To-be process, Implement reengineered process and Improve continuously.

Keywords: Business Process Reengineering, Methodology, Improvement

Introduction:

"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." The key words in the preceding definition are the italicized ones.

In today's ever-changing world, the only thing that doesn't change is ‘change' itself. In a world increasingly driven by the three Cs: Customer, Competition and Change, companies are on the lookout for new solutions for their business problems. Recently, some of the more successful business corporations in the world seem to have hit upon an incredible solution: Business Process Reengineering (BPR).

Some of the recent headlines in the popular press read, "Wal-Mart reduces restocking time from six weeks to thirty-six hours."" Hewlett Packard's assembly time for server computers touches new low- four minutes."

"Taco Bell's sales soars from $500 million to $3 billion[3]." The reason behind these success stories: Business Process Reengineering!

BPR advocates that enterprises go back to the basics and reexamine their very roots. It doesn't believe in small improvements. Rather it aims at total reinvention. As for results: BPR is clearly not for companies who want a 10% improvement. It is for the ones that need a ten-fold increase. According to Hammer and Champy, the last but the most important of the four key words is the word-‘process.' BPR focuses on processes and not on tasks, jobs or people. It endeavors to redesign the strategic and value added processes that transcend organizational boundaries.

Reengineer:

According to many in the BPR field reengineering should focus on processes and not be limited to thinking about the organizations. After all the organization is only as effective as its processes So, what is a process? "A business process is a series of steps designed to produce a product or a service. It includes all the activities that deliver particular results for a given customer (external or internal)[9]." Processes are currently invisible and unnamed because people think about the individual departments more often than the process with which all of them are involved. So companies that are currently used to talking in terms of departments such as marketing and manufacturing must switch to giving names to the processes that they do such that they express the beginning and end states. These names should imply all the work that gets done between the start and finish. For example, order fulfillment can be called order to payment process.

Talking about the importance of processes just as companies have organization charts, they should also have what are called process maps to give a picture of how work flows through the company. Process mapping provides tools and a proven methodology for identifying your current As-Is business processes and can be used to provide a To-Be roadmap for reengineering your product and service business enterprise functions. It is the critical link that your reengineering team can apply to better understand and significantly improve your business processes and bottom-line performance.

Having identified and mapped the processes, deciding which ones need to be reengineered and in what order is the million-dollar question. No company can take up the unenviable task of reengineering all the processes simultaneously. Generally they make their choices based on three criteria:-

• dysfunction: which processes are functioning the worst?;
• importance: which are the most critical and influential in terms of customer satisfaction;
•  feasibility: which are the processes that are most likely to be successfully reengineered.

How to reengineer?

 Few BPR methodologies

Activity# Methodology #1 [11] Methodology #2 [5]

1 Develop vision & strategy Determine Customer Requirements &Goals for the Process

2 Create desired culture Map and Measure the Existing Process

3 Integrate & Improve enterprise Analyze and Modify Existing Process

4 Develop technology solutions Design a Reengineered Process:

5 Implement the Reengineered Process

Activity# Methodology#3 [2] Methodology #4 [9] Methodology #5 [7]

1 Set Direction Motivating Reengineering Preparation

2 Baseline and Benchmark Justifying Reengineering Identification

3 Create the Vision Planning Reengineering Vision

4 Launch Problem Solving Projects Setting up for Reengineering Technical & Social design

5 Design Improvements As Is Description & Analysis: Transformation

6 Implement Change To-Be Design and Validation

7 Embed Continuous Improvement Implementation

Consolidated Methodology:

A consolidated methodology has been developed from the five methodologies previously presented and an

IDEF0 model was developed to provide a structured approach and to facilitate understanding. But for the sake of brevity, we have shown only the major activities in the IDEF0 model in Figure 1. In the ensuing section, we deal with the details of our methodology.

Activity #1: Prepare for Reengineering:

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail". Planning and Preparation are vital factors for any activity or event to be successful and reengineering is no exception. Before attempting reengineering, the question ‘Is BPR necessary?' should be asked? There should be a significant need for the process to be reengineered. The justification of this need marks the beginning of the Preparation activity.

Figure 1 BPR: The surest way to the Top!

This activity begins with the development of executive consensus on the importance of reengineering and the link between breakthrough business goals and reengineering projects. A mandate for change is produced and a cross-functional team is established with a game plan for the process of reengineering. While forming the cross functional team, steps should be taken to ensure that the organization continues to function in the absence of several key players. As typical BPR projects involve cross-functional cooperation and significant changes to the status quo, the planning for organizational changes is difficult to conduct without strategic direction from the top. The impact of the environmental changes that serve as the impetus for the reengineering effort must also be considered in establishing guidelines for the reengineering project. Another important factor to be considered while establishing the strategic goals for the reengineering effort is to make it your first priority to understand the expectations of your customers and where your existing process falls short of meeting those requirements. Having identified the customer driven objectives, the mission or vision statement is formulated. The vision is what a company believes it wants to achieve when it is done, and a well-defined vision will sustain a company's resolve through the stress of the reengineering process. It can act as the flag around which to rally the troops when the morale begins to sag and it provides the yard stick for measuring the company's progress.

Activity #2: Map and Analyze As-Is Process:

Before the reengineering team can proceed to redesign the process, they should understand the existing process. Although some BPR proponents (in particular Hammer and Champy) argue against analyzing the current enterprise, saying that it inhibits the creative process, that might not always hold true[1]. It varies from case to case.

While some organizations which are in dire straits might go the Hammer and Champy way (attempt a new process design while totally ignoring the existing processes) most organizations need to map the existing processes first, analyze and improve on it to design new processes. The important aspect of BPR (what makes BPR, BPR) is that the improvement should provide dramatic results. Many people do not understand the value of an as-Is analysis and rather prefer to spend a larger chunk of their valuable time on designing the To-Be model directly. What follows is an illustration that illustrates this fallacy.

A large manufacturer spent six million dollars over a period of one year in a bid to develop a parts-tracking system and was all set to go online. Only then did he realize that he had totally overlooked a small piece of information – ‘the mode of transmission of information between the scheduling staff and the shop floor was through

The main objective of this phase is to identify disconnects (anything that prevents the process from achieving desired results and in particular information transfer between organizations or people) and value adding processes. This is initiated by first creation and documentation of Activity and Process models making use of the various modeling methods available. Then, the amount of time that each activity takes and the cost that each activity requires in terms of resources is calculated through simulation and activity based costing (ABC). All the groundwork required having been completed; the processes that need to be reengineered are identified.

Activity #3: Design To-Be process:

The objective of this phase is to produce one or more alternatives to the current situation, which satisfy the strategic goals of the enterprise. The first step in this phase is benchmarking. "Benchmarking is the comparing of both the performance of the organization's processes and the way those processes are conducted with those relevant peer organizations to obtain ideas for improvement[7]." The peer organizations need not be competitors or even from the same industry. Innovative practices can be adopted from anywhere, no matter what their source.

Having identified the potential improvements to the existing processes, the development of the To-Be models is done using the various modeling methods available, bearing in mind the principles of process design.

Then, similar to the As-Is model, we perform simulation and ABC to analyze factors like the time and cost involved.

It should be noted that this activity is an iterative process and cannot be done overnight. The several To-Be models that are finally arrived at are validated. By performing Trade off Analysis the best possible To-Be scenarios are selected for implementation.

Activity #4:Implement Reengineered Process:

The implementation stage is where reengineering efforts meet the most resistance and hence it is by far the most difficult one. If we expect that the environment would be conducive to the reengineering effort we are sadly mistaken. The question that confronts us would be,' If BPR promises such breath taking results then why wasn't it adopted much earlier?' We could expect to face all kinds of opposition - from blatantly hostile antagonists to passive adversaries: all of them determined to kill the effort. When so much time and effort is spent on analyzing the current processes, redesigning them and planning the migration, it would indeed be prudent to run a culture change program simultaneously with all the planning and preparation. This would enable the organization to undergo a much more facile transition. But whatever may be the juncture in time that the culture change program may be initiated, it should be rooted in our minds that ‘winning the hearts and minds of everyone involved in the BPR effort is most vital for the success of the effort. Once this has been done, the next step is to develop a transition plan from the

As-Is to the redesigned process. This plan must align the organizational structure, information systems, and the business policies and procedures with the redesigned processes. "Rapid implementation of the information system that is required to support a reengineered business process is critical to the success of the BPR project. The IDEF models that were created in the As-Is can be mapped to those created during the To-Be and an initial list of change requirements generated. Additional requirements for the construction of the To-Be components can be added and the result organized into a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Recent developments in BPR software technologies enable automatic migration of these WBS activity/relationships into a process modeling environment. The benefit here is that we can now define the causal and time sequential relationships between the activities planned." Using prototyping and simulation techniques, the transition plan is validated and it's pilot versions are designed and demonstrated. Training programs for the workers are initiated and the plan is executed in full scale.

Activity #5: Improve Process Continuously:

A process cannot be reengineered overnight. A very vital part in the success of every reengineering effort lies in improving the reengineered process continuously. The first step in this activity is monitoring. Two things have to be monitored – the progress of action and the results. The progress of action is measured by seeing how much more informed the people feel, how much more commitment the management shows and how well the change teams are accepted in the broader perspective of the organization. This can be achieved by conducting attitude surveys and discrete ‘fireside chats' with those initially not directly involved with the change. As for monitoring the results, the monitoring should include such measures as employee attitudes, customer perceptions, supplier responsiveness etc. Communication is strengthened throughout the organization, ongoing measurement is initiated, team reviewing of performance against clearly defined targets is done and a feedback loop is set up wherein the process is remapped, reanalyzed and redesigned. Thereby continuous improvement of performance is ensured through a performance tracking system and application of problem solving skills. Continuous improvement (TQM) and BPR have always been considered mutually exclusive to each other. But on the contrary, if performed simultaneously they would complement each other wonderfully well. In fact TQM can be used as a tool to handle the various problems encountered during the BPR effort and to continuously improve the process. In corporations that have not adopted the TQM culture as yet, application of TQM to the newly designed processes should be undertaken as a part of the reengineering effort.

Business process reengineering is the redesign of business processes and the associated systems and organizational structures to achieve a dramatic improvement in business performance.  The business reasons for making such changes could include poor financial performance, external competition, and erosion of market share or emerging market opportunities.  BPR is not - downsizing, restructuring, reorganization, automation, new technology, etc.  It is the examination and change of five components of the business:

1. Strategy
2. Processes
3. Technology
4. Organization
5. Culture

Michael Hammer defines business process reengineering in his book "Reengineering the Corporation" as:

Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to bring about dramatic improvements in performance.

Hammer focuses on one of the key concepts of BPR, that it is fundamental and radical.   The alternative business improvement methodology is Continuous Process Improvement, which emphasizes small and measurable refinements to an organization's current processes and systems. Continuous process improvement has its origins in total quality management (TQM) and Six Sigma,a program that began at Motorola.

BPR, as a term and as a practice, has a tarnished history.  Reengineering became very popular in the early 1990s, however, the methodology and approach was not fully understood nor appreciated.  Many times, improvement projects labeled with the title "BPR" were poorly planned and executed.  Employees and organizations cringed at the thought of another "BPR" experience.  The term itself is being used less, or is being altered so that these types of initiatives are not associated with the "BPR" of the past.

Despite this abuse of the practice and tarnished name, the practice of redesigning business processes and the associated technology and organizational structure is more popular today than ever. Companies continue to reexamine and fundamentally change the way they do business.   Competitive pressures and a sluggish economy provide the impetus for continued efforts to "deliver more with less."  Reengineering remains an effective tool for organizations striving to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Business process reengineering (often referred to by the acronym BPR) is the main way in which organizations become more efficient and modernize. Business process reengineering transforms an organization in ways that directly affect performance.

The impact of BPR on organizational performance

The two cornerstones of any organization are the people and the processes. If individuals are motivated and working hard, yet the business processes are cumbersome and non-essential activities remain, organizational performance will be poor. Business Process Reengineering is the key to transforming how people work. What appear to be minor changes in processes can have dramatic effects on cash flow, service delivery and customer satisfaction. Even the act of documenting business processes alone will typically improve organizational efficiency by 10%.

Implementation of a BPR project

The best way to map and improve the organization's procedures is to take a top down approach, and not undertake a project in isolation. That means:

• Starting with mission statements that define the purpose of the organization and describe what sets it apart from others in its sector or industry.
• Producing vision statements which define where the organization is going, to provide a clear picture of the desired future position.
• Build these into a clear business strategy thereby deriving the project objectives.
• Defining behaviours that will enable the organization to achieve its' aims.
• Producing key performance measures to track progress.
• Relating efficiency improvements to the culture of the organization
• Identifying initiatives that will improve performance.

Once these building blocks are in place, the BPR exercise can begin.

Tools to support BPR

When a BPR project is undertaken across the organization, it can require managing a massive amount of information about the processes, data and systems. If you don't have an excellent tool to support BPR, the management of this information can become an impossible task. The use of a good BPR/documentation tool is vital in any BPR project.

The types of attributes you should look for in BPR software are:

• Graphical interface for fast documentation
• "Object oriented" technology, so that changes to data (eg: job titles) only need to be made in one place, and the change automatically appears throughout all the organization's procedures and documentation.
• Drag and drop facility so you can easily relate organizational and data objects to each step in the process
• Customizable meta data fields, so that you can include information relating to your industry, business sector or organization in your documentation
• Analysis, such as swim-lanes to show visually how responsibilities in a process are transferred between different roles, or where data items or computer applications are used.
• Support for Value Stream mapping.
• CRUD or RACI reports, to provide evidence for process improvement.
• The ability to assess the processes against agreed international standards
• Simulation software to support 'what-if' analyses during the design phase of the project to develop LEAN processes
• The production of word documents or web site versions of the procedures at the touch of a single button, so that the information can be easily maintained and updated.

The software we use by choice is Protos, a very comprehensive Dutch system that has been translated into English. Protos meets all the above requirements, and many more, and is better than any system originated in English that we have seen.

 Prepare for BPR

• Build Cross functional team
• Identify Customer driven objective
• Develop Strategic Purpose

Map & Analyze As-Is Process

• Create Activity Models
• Create Process Models
• Simulate & Perform ABC
• Identify disconnects & value adding processes

Design To-Be Processes

• Benchmark processes
• Design To-Be processes
• Validate To-Be processes
• Perform Trade-off Analysis

Implement Reengineered processes

• Evolve Implementation plan
• Prototype & simulate transition plans.
• Initiate training programs
• Implement transition plan

Improve Continuously

• Initiate Ongoing measurement
• Review performance against target
• Improve process continuously

 Conclusion:

An intense customer focus, superior process design and a strong and motivated leadership are vital ingredients to the recipe for the success of any business corporation. Reengineering is the key that every organization should possess to attain these prerequisites to success. BPR doesn't offer a miracle cure on a platter. Nor does it provide a painless quick fix. Rather it advocates strenuous hard work and instigates the people involved to not only to change what they do but targets at altering their basic way of thinking itself. In this paper we have attempted in evolving a structured approach to reengineering.

"50 to 70 percent of reengineering efforts fail to deliver the intended dramatic results." Those who are standing in the wings afraid to take the plunge must remember just this: A BPR effort has been considered a failure just because it doesn't provide the dramatic results it promised to deliver. But on after thoughts hasn't there been a significant improvement in the company's performance? A 200 % increase in output may not match the 300 % predicted. It may be a failure according to the high standards set by preceding BPR efforts. But if the question is –‘Are the results good enough for pursuing the BPR effort?' The answer is a resounding YES!!!

One more very critical factor to be noted is that the statement says- 50 to 70 % efforts have failed and not that they will fail. There is a monumental difference between the two. We can track down all these failures to the common trivial mistakes that these corporations commit. Once these mistakes are identified and overcome, the successful completion of the BPR effort is very much possible.

To be successful, business process reengineering projects need to be top down, taking in the complete organization, and the full end to end processes. It needs to be supported by tools that make processes easy to track and analyze.

Moreover failure doesn't mean that reengineering stops forever. "It usually stalls and then restarts as the company gets itself refocused and remobilized. It cannot stop.

The business imperative is just too great!"

 Future Research:

An IDEF0 model for ‘Transforming the Enterprise' is being developed and will be published on the web shortly.

 References

1. Feldmann Clarence.G, (1998),The Practical Guide to Business Process Reengineering using IDEF0., Dorset House Publishing, New York.
2. Obolensky, Nick., (1994)., Practical Business Reengineering., Gulf Publishing Company, Houston.
3. Underdown, D. R.,(1997), Transform Enterprise Methodology. Unpublished Paperwww.mrc.twsu.edu/enteng/tem.html
4. Furey, Timothy.R., (1993), A Six Step Guide to Process Reengineering., Planning Review 21 (2), 20-23
5. Grover,Varun., Malhotra, Manoj.K.,(1995), Business Process Reengineering: A tutorial on the concept, evolution, method, technology and application., Journal of Operations Management 15 (1997) 193-213
6. Hammer,M., Champy.J., (1993), Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution., Harper Collins, London.
7. Harrison, Brian.D., Pratt, Maurice.D., (1993), A methodology for Reengineering Business., Planning Review 21 (2), 6-11.
8. Hunt, Daniel.V., (1996), Process Mapping: How to Reengineer your Business Process., John Wiley and Sons Inc, New York.
9. Manganelli, Raymond.L., Klein, Mark.M., (1994), The Reengineering Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Business Transformation., American Management Association, New York.
10. Martin, James., (1995),The Great Transition: Using the Seven Disciplines of Enterprise Engineering to Align People, Technology, and Strategy., American Management Association, New York.
11. Mayer, Richard.J., Dewitte, Paula.S., (1998), Delivering Results: Evolving BPR from art to engineering.

About the Author

Reader, Bhupal Nobles' Girls' College of Pharmacy, Udaipur-Raj.313002 INDIA Email: kamalsrathore@yahoo.com kamalsrathore@gmail.com Mobile: +919828325713

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