Business Process Reengineering
(BPR)

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Fundamentally reconsidering and radically redesigning of organizational processes. Explanation of Business Process Reengineering of Hammer and Champy.

The Business Process Reengineering method (BPR) is described by Hammer and Champy as 'the fundamental reconsideration and the radical redesign of organizational processes, in order to achieve drastic improvement of current performance in cost, services and speed'.

Rather than organizing a firm into functional specialties (like production, accounting, marketing, etc.) and to look at the tasks that each function performs, Hammer and Champy recommend that we should look at complete processes. From materials acquisition, towards production, towards marketing and distribution. One should rebuild the firm into a series of processes.

Value creation for the customer is the leading factor for BPR and information technology often plays an important enabling role. Compare: Relationship Marketing

Michael Hammer and James Champy

The main proponents of re-engineering were Michael Hammer and James Champy. In a series of books including Reengineering the Corporation, Reengineering Management, and The Agenda, they argue that far too much time is wasted, passing on tasks from one department to another. They claim that it is far more efficient to appoint a team who perform all the tasks in the process.

A five step approach to Business Process Reengineering

Davenport (1992) prescribes a five-step approach to the Business Process Reengineering model:

Develop the business vision and process objectives: The BPR method is driven by a business vision which implies specific business objectives such as cost reduction, time reduction, output quality improvement.
Identify the business processes to be redesigned: most firms use the 'high-impact' approach which focuses on the most important processes or those that conflict most with the business vision. A lesser number of firms use the 'exhaustive approach' that attempts to identify all the processes within an organization and then prioritize them in order of redesign urgency.
Understand and measure the existing processes: to avoid the repeating of old mistakes and to provide a baseline for future improvements. Compare: Scientific Management
Identify IT levers: awareness of IT capabilities can and should influence BPR.
Design and build a prototype of the new process: the actual design should not be viewed as the end of the BPR process. Rather, it should be viewed as a prototype, with successive iterations. The metaphor of prototype aligns the Business Process Reengineering approach with quick delivery of results, and the involvement and satisfaction of customers.

As an additional 6th step of the BPR method, sometimes you find: to adapt the organizational structure, and the governance model, towards the newly designed primary process.

Generic Circumstances that influence whether BPR is advisable

Although it is difficult to give generic advice about this, some factors that can be considered are:

Does the competition clearly outperform the company? Compare: Turnaround Management
Are there many conflicts in the organization?
Is there an extremely high frequency of meetings?
Excessive use of non-structured communication? (memos, emails, etc)
Is it possible to consider a more continuous approach of gradual, incremental improvements? (see: Kaizen).

Critics of the BPR approach

Reengineering has earned a bad reputation because such projects have often resulted in massive layoffs. In spite of the hype that surrounded the introduction of Business Process Reengineering, partially due to the fact that the authors of Reengineering the Corporation reportedly bought huge numbers of copies to reach the top of the bestseller lists, the method has not entirely lived up to its expectations. The main reasons seem to be that:

BPR assumes that the factor that limits organization's performance is the ineffectiveness of its processes. This may or may not always be true. Also BPR offers no means to validate this assumption.
BPR assumes the need to start the process of performance improvement with a "clean slate", i.e. totally disregard the status quo.
BPR does not provide an effective way to focus the improvement efforts on the organization's constraints. (As done by Goldratt in the Theory of Constraints).
Sometimes, or maybe quite often, a gradual and incremental change (such as Kaizen) may be a better approach.
BPR is culturally biased towards the US way of thinking. (see: Cultural Dimensions)

BPR compared to Kaizen

When Kaizen is compared with the BPR method is it clear the Kaizen philosophy is more people-oriented, more easy to implement, but requires long-term discipline and provides only a small pace of change. The Business Process Reengineering approach on the other hand is harder, technology-oriented, it enables radical change but it requires considerable change management skills.

Book: Hammer and Champy - Reengineering the Corporation -

Book: Davenport - Process Innovation -

Business Process Reengineering Forum

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Faster and more Flexible than BPR - Alternative Approaches?
"Is there any other alternative to BPR? Something that is more flexible, faster and with less work than BPR."

Is BPR Useful for Small Companies (SMEs)?
"Can BPR be used in small and middle size companies as well?"

Business Process Reengineering Failure Reasons
"Re-engineering usually fails due to two main reasons:
A) Failure due to the actual re-engineering process:
1. Trying to fix a process instead of changing it
2. Not focusin..."

BPR Works only Top-Down
"I am a BPR envangelist and in my experience BPR is only effective if it starts from the top, i.e. when senior managers accept the challenge to first revamp their mental models of management before the..."

Business Reengineering References
"Can you point out companies who were successful in BPR implementation? And what is the success rate of these projects?
I am currently doing my thesis on this topic. Any assistance would be..."

Maintaining the Quality of a BPR Programme
"How can quality be maintained during a BPR inititiative?"

Reward Management During Business Reengineering
"More often than not, Kenyan organizations in need of adapting to changes in the competitive business environment fail to satisfy the needs of the diverse groups of employees within the company. Many e..."

Personal Business Process Reengineering?
"Would anyone help me with one doubt here, can the concept of BPR be implemented in anyone’s personal life to have a radical change? Or is BPR specifically for business need only?"

Business Process Reengineering = People
"In BPR the people are the process and they are central to the success of any innovative change."

BPR Through E-governance Initiatives
"In the public sector field of a government like India, implementing a 100% BPR would be difficult. Because the waste processes & positions identified out of such exercises would be of greater portion ..."

Business Process Reengineering in Agriculture
"How to start BPR from clean sheet for large and very old agri industry? Any effective guide line? Thank You!"

BPR is Like A Pipeline Through Pour Water
"We know that drinking water comes through a tube for transporting clean water even when it's going through pour water. Without the pipe we do not get clean water. Similarly, to bring change in our cou..."

BPR is not an End, but a Means
"BPR is not an end, it is a means to an end."

Misunderstandings around BPR
"Many people misunderstand the concept of BPR as a natural phenomenon or for resisting changes to roll back from its unfavorable impact. Say downsizing. Such people are heard in quoting wrong sayings ..."

Business Process Reengineering and Downsizing
"Why should BPR proceed downsizing?"

Business Process Reengineering can be abused
"I learned that BPR is a helpful tool for developing countries to break their old and unproductive thinking ans system. But I also realized that incompetent leaders can simply abuse it."

ERP and Business Process Reengineering
"Business process reengineering involves radically changing the status quo to fulfil customer's expectation and keep them coming back. This involves change management thinking and implementation of org..."

BPR supported by TQM
"After we implement BPR on the ground we should use TQM as a continuous improvement tool or cal it Kaizen or other tools to maintain the system and satisfy the "moving target" customers needs."

Mental Transformation Required to Implement Business Process Reengineering
"BPR is a tool for making a fundametal ,radical & dramatical change but what is most important is mental transformation required to implement it. I believe if we understand it we can bring a revolutio..."

BPR needs Positive Thinking
"BPR doesn't need a special management skill, rather it needs positive thinking and a changing way of thinking."

Business Process ReengineeringTypes
"What types of re-engineering processes can be distinguished? Thank you for your input..."

BPR is needed in Ethiopia
"I believe BPR is an important change management tool. It is a radicalist tool. You can't help all the bureacratic mess created on customers with any other tools - be it kaizen , TQM,etc. That is why..."

Required Management Skills
"BPR requires highly skillfull management and deep knowledge of what needs to be done. Is it possible to do BPR with less knowledge of what must be done?"

BPR in agricultural research?
"Is BPR applicable for the agricultural research sector? Is there anyone in the world who can share me the experience how to reengineer the agricultural research system?"

Selective Application
"Authors and consultants like Michael Hammer often present big ideas, because that is the realm they deal with as academics. I think that being a good practitioner means taking the good ideas and appl..."

Costs of BPR - Any ideas?
"Hoping that someone can point to some reference providing info on how much a BPR activity would cost -- some percentage of overhead expenses??"

How practical BPR approach is
"The underlying assumption on BPR presented in this article is "task completion through unified team effort". But how is this possible in practical business world --? There arn`t no one group of member..."

Quotes on Business Process Reengineering
"Do you know some deep, famous or funny quotes on Business Process Reengineering? Quotations? Proverbs? Please share them as a reaction to this posting and mention the author. To get started, here's my..."

BPR: Lean business processes
"Jeff Hall in Management Services, Winter2006, Vol. 50 Issue 4, encourages the adoption of a lean approach to business process improvement. Lean is about building world class processes that deliver bes..."