Research On Business Process Reengineering

It has been more than 20 years since BPR theory generated,but the systematical theory of BPR is not perfect,and the understanding of BPR inherent mechanism and natural rules does not hold.This paper focuses on my research on the BPR theory and practice of a company based on the systematical view.Since 1990s the business operations environment has taken place the tremendous variety and focusing on customer has become popular.At the same time,the traditional management thought can't adapt to the variety of the modern business operations environment and new modern industrial society-oriented management theory in which BPR is a key part is formatting.Information technology becomes a direct motive of BPR,because IT can increase the capability of information processing and support for BPR. IT plays an important role in implementing BPR.Just so BPR becomes inevitable.BPR is a management approach which can achieve significant improvement of the business benefit when business processes are reengineered radically with the full application of IT under the precondition of meeting customers' demand.The outlines of BPR theory include:BPR is a strategically systematical engineering;the core aspect of BPR is the customer satisfaction-oriented business processes;different businesses have different types of BPR which has three forms;the implementing of BPR must follow certain principles;the businesses that reengineer their processes are divided into three major types;the radical change and the systematical change are two views of BPR;both the domestic and international businesses have the successful practice of BPR. This article originates from systematical view,the studies on the BPR inherent function mechanism,and thoughts that BPR substantially is the result of five change factors which include the strategy change,the process change,the personnel change,the organization structure change and IT change carrying out in concert.The paper puts forward the BPR framework,in which a BPR effort is divided into four layers.From inside to outside in sequence the four layers are:the target layer(strategy change),the core layer(process change),the key layer(personnel change),and the supporting layer (organization structure change and IT change).The framework can reveal relationships among five change factors.The realization of the strategic target is the BPR goal.The top management must plan a high level BPR effort with the strategically stature.The BPR effort is the partial behavior of a process reengineering without management planning and is hard to acquire incorporate benefit. The strategy change is driven by the core business processes.The key aspect of the strategy change is planning the business vision and objectives and the important aspect of the strategy change is identifying BPR strategy approach.The process change is a core factor.It needs to redesign the existing processes first,and then align the processes coinciding with the guidance of the strategy change.Only the personnel, organization structure and IT match closely throughput the whole process change trip,the process change could complete successfully.The BPR is implemented by personnel of all levels of business.The effect of BPR is various on the personnel and BPR puts forward the new require of roles and skills to all the people.That every employee advocates and supports change relates to the BPR success directly,so the change of attitudes and behaviors of the staff is the key to the successful reengineering of processes. The change of process and personnel usually need certain supports that derive from the organization structure change and IT change. The process change will bring about the process-oriented team building in a company,push the certain change of the organization structure,and then the business will build process-oriented structure.The organization structure change has two types,one is radically rebuilding and the other is continuous change,the option depends on the business self-understanding level.IT takes the organization management mode and the communication methods fundamental change,and sets up the modern business management mechanism possible.The management information system can make the information become a kind of core business resources by which a company can acquires the competitiveness,and exactly ERP and CRM just are such information systems.The process redesigning is the preliminary condition of IT change,which undertakes surrounding the process redesigning,reflects BPR thought and services for BPR namely.The framework shows that the beginning of a BPR effort is the beginning of the strategy change(strategy planning) and the completion of strategy change(realization of the strategic goals) is the signal of realization of a BPR effort.The five change factors promote and support mutually in the effort, the inside layer change can not get away from the outside layer change supporting,and at the same time inside layer change is precondition and guideline for the outside layer change.The logistics process reengineering practice of M a corporation is a good example which mirrors this kind of inherent mechanism.Because of the ruthless market competition,the way of the business competition upgraded from original products orientation to all the fields of service,M corporation stepped on the road of the logistics process reengineering.First it identified step by step strategy approach according to the logistics vision,then redesigned the logistics process, third adjusted to the organization structure and took advantage of the support of the advanced system of IT,last strengthened advocacy and training to the employee.In a word,M corporation implemented logistics BPR successfully and funded the next supply chain BPR effort.In conclusion,the paper puts forward suggestions of both sides: The suggestion of the valuation target to the BPR:the valuation metrics should be identified on the basis of the original point of BPR:focus on customer and value to customer,instead of on the basis of particular process or business four walls performances.Then quality,cost,service and cycle time are four metrics;the best way of evaluating BPR is to set both qualitative targets and measurable target.Suggestions to the Chinese BPR:Plan the BPR strategy based on the whole organization,project the integrated BPR proposals,and the establishment of stage targets is the precondition of successful BPR; the focus on redesigning processes is simplification of the existing processes and is not new building;the top management participation is key of BPR;look at employee with the perspective of developing,without only seeking near benefit;try your best to control the organization structure change in the minimum scope;take full advantage of IT.