Week 7 - BPR Methodologies

Source / Reference:

1.     El Sawy(2001), p.10

2.     Furey, Timothy.R., (1993), A Six Step Guide to Process Reengineering., Planning Review 21 (2), 20-23

3.     Harrison, Brian.D., Pratt, Maurice.D., (1993), A methodology for Reengineering Business., Planning Review 21 (2), 6-11.

4.     Manganelli, Raymond.L., Klein, Mark.M., (1994), The Reengineering Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Business Transformation., American Management Association, New York.

5.     Mayer, Richard.J., Dewitte, Paula.S., (1998), Delivering Results: Evolving BPR from art to engineering., 

6.     Underdown, D. R.,(1997), Transform Enterprise Methodology. Unpublished Paper

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Response:

In this lecture, we mainly focus on the BPR Methodology – the 5 phases. As usual, I would try to give a short summary for this week’s lecture. And then, some other BPR methodology will be introduced. Finally, I will take an example to illustrate the implement of the BPR Methodology. So this posting will include:

1.      Summary on lecture notes – BPR Methodology: 5 phases

2.      Other types of BPR Methodology

3.      Example of BPR Methodology

4.      Conclusion

BPR Methodology: 5 phases

Figure1

Phase 1 - Triggering & executive visioning

Figure2The strategy of this phase is to establish vision of how a company should be. As there may be so many problems in the business processes, company has to first recognize the core processes wanted to redesigned, for example, supply chain, order fulfillment and customer service processes.

Figure3There are two frameworks of process prioritization that can help company to identify the core processes that need to redesign. They are found by Harrington (1991) (Figure2) and Kettinger et al. (1997) respectively (Figure 3). Company can prioritize the process with respect to some criteria, like, customer impact, improvement opportunity and critical success factors.

Phase 2 - BPR Project mobilization

In this phase, selection and assessment are involved. In order to implement a successful BPR, top management and a budget should be proposed. First, company should select a project leader who is capable to lead the project. Second, the core BPR team should be formed with certain level of experience, professions. Third, IT people should make a preliminary assessment of IT infrastructure. And lastly, a BPR plan and budget should be proposed.

Phase 3 - Process redesign

The business processes are redesigned in this phase. Before redesigned the processes, AS-IS and TO-BE processes are analyzed and their performances are compared by modeling analysis & redesign. Five steps of business process redesign will be taken when BPR software is used. After the analysis the modeling, the business processes can start to be redesign.

Phase 4 - Implementation & organizational transformation

This phase is all about implementation. IT infrastructure, the organization and people’s skills are adjusted to fit the TO-BE process which is modeled by the previous phase – Process redesign modeling. The focus is on the design of the IS that support the TO-BE process.

Phase 5 - Monitoring & maintaining

In the last phase of the BPR methodology, the new process is already implementing. It is necessary that the new process should be monitored on a continuous basis and even modified if required. The TO-BE process and new IT infrastructure should also be robust.

Other types of BPR Methodology

There are several different Methodologies associated with BPR that are developed by other researchers and we summarize it as follows:

As you have seen in the table, there are five BPR methodologies that different methodology has their activities to follow. At most, there are 7 activities involved in a single methodology. However, it doesn’t imply that the more activities are involved, the more efficient or successful the BPR methodology is. In fact, to adapt which methodology to be implement for the company, variety of factors have to be considered, for example, the nature of company, external environment, technology, etc. To a certain extent, there is no a restricted way or means to develop the methodology for each company. Therefore, in my opinion, company should only take those methodologies as reference to develop their own methodology for BPR.

Example of BPR Methodology

A good BPR methodology can help a company or an organization become fully operational. The U.S. Department of Homeland security is one of the organizations benefit from it.

Formerly, DHS’s facing two challenges:

1.      Ill-structured problems on 9 components.

2.      Retardation on the BPR project

Then, the DHS followed an industry best practice five-step approach designed to facilitate a process improvement. The five steps were:

1.      Strategic planning

2.      Map and benchmark

3.      Develop solutions

4.      Implement improvements

5.      Review and assess

Moreover, it is recommended that the methodology is taken with rapid deployment of task management, good communication and work-intake process to enhance the efficiency improvement project, which is what we haven’t mentioned before.

With the reengineering efforts, DHS has succeeded to achieve the following results:

1.  EADO’s capacity to operate under best practices that are aligned with the organization’s structure and goals
2. Improved efficiency from increased productivity and budget savings thanks to a staff clearly focused on mission
3. Increased operational tempo within DHS

For more details, you can visit: http://www.1-sc.com/case_dhs_bpr.html

Conclusion

After analysis different types of BPR methodology and the case study of DHS, we can conclude that there is no such one single methodology can apply for all companies. And even the methodology has been identified, during the implementation of BPR, a good management and control are necessarily required for successful BPR.

Comment on Chan Hoi Ki’s week 7 lecture review

Good piece of work with different examples and reference. She first introduces the 5 phase of BPR Methodology and then compared it with other methodologies. And she also provides the case study of Eastman Kodak Company. This gives us an insight to understand the BPR methodology which is not only a set of rule but flexible that it can be changed for different situations. And I also share the same opinion on her recommendation – “companies should follow the systematic BPR methodology in establishing the BPR project.” And a good management is also required for establishing the BPR project successfully.