Business Process Re-engineering
Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) entails a comprehensive overhaul of essential business processes to achieve substantial improvements in quality, productivity, and cycle times. During BPR, companies often begin with a clean slate, rethinking existing processes to enhance or add value for the customer. This approach can lead to performance improvement, zero-based redesign, and overall business process optimization.
BPR operates through a series of five key steps that top management should undertake:
1. Align the company’s values with customer needs.
2. Utilize information technology to redesign core processes, leading to significant improvements.
3. Restructure the business into cross-functional teams with complete responsibility for specific processes.
4. Reevaluate fundamental issues related to people and organizational structure.
5. Ensure that improvements are implemented across the entire organization.