What is BPR?

Generally the topic of BPR involves discovering how business processes currently operate, how to

redesign these processes to eliminate the wasted or redundant effort and improve efficiency, and how

to implement the process changes in order to gain competitiveness. The aim of BPR, according to

Sherwood-Smith (1994), is “seeking to devise new ways of organising tasks, organising people and

redesigning IT systems so that the processes support the organisation to realise its goals”

Definition of Business Process Reengineering:

Different definitions are available. Following are the definitions provided in notable publications in the world:

Hammer and Champy (1993) define BPR 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."

Concept of BPR

The concept of BPR was first introduced in the late Michael Hammer's 1990 The

authors promoted the idea that sometimes-radical redesign and reorganization of

an enterpriseis necessary to lower costs and increase quality of service and that

information technology is the key enabler for that radical change. 

Hammer and Champy suggested seven reengineering principles to streamline the

work process and thereby achieve significant levels of improvement in quality,

time management, speed and profitability:

1. Organize around outcomes, not tasks.

2. Identify all the processes in an organization and prioritize them in order of

redesign urgency.

3. Integrate information processing work into the real work that produces the

information.

4. Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized.

5. Link parallel activities in the workflow instead of just integrating their results.

6. Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the

process.

7. Capture in

Methodology of BPR:

Although the names and steps being used differ slightly between the different methodologies, they share the

same basic principles and elements. The following description is based on the PRLC (Process Reengineering

Life Cycle) approach developed by Guha et.al. (1993). A more detailed description can be found here.

Simplified schematic outline of using a business process approach, exemplified for pharmaceutical R&D:

1. Structural organization with functional units;

2. Introduction of new product development (as cross-functional process);

3. Re-structuring and streamlining activities, removal of non-value adding tasks.

A.Envision new processes 

1.Secure management support

2.Identify reengineering opportunities

3.Identify enabling technologies

4.Align with corporate strategy

B.Initiating change 

1.Set up reengineering team

2.Outline performance goals

C.Process diagnosis 

1.Describe existing processes

2.Uncover pathologies in existing processes

D.Process redesign 

1.Develop alternative process scenarios

2.Develop new process design

3.Design HR architecture

4.Select IT platform

5.Develop overall blueprint and gather feedback

E.Reconstruction 

1.Develop/install IT solution

2.Establish process changes

F.Process monitoring 

1.Performance measurement, including time, quality, cost, IT performance

2.Link to continuous improvement

3.Loop-back to diagnosis

Also within the management consulting industry, a significant number of methodological approaches have been

developed. A set of short papers, outlining and comparing some of them can be found here, followed by some

guidelines for the companies considering contracting a consultancy for a BPR initiative which involves:

1.Overview;

2.Framing the requirements;

3.Various facets of reprocessing;

4.Guide lines for Changes / comparison; 

5.Guide lines for BPR consulting clients.

5. BPR - a rebirth of scientific management:formation once and at the source.