Business process Reengineering

Chapter I

Need to Redefine the Management Concepts

BPR was conceptualized because there arose a need to redefine management concept.

The need to redefine management concepts arose because today, way we do business is quite different from the way business was conducted when the old management concepts were written by Fayol & F.W.Taylor.

Lets look at few of them

Fayol gave the concept of Unity of Command & Scalar Chain. But in today’s corporations employees has more than one superior under Team Management & the information can flow from Multi-dimensional sources.

Adam Smith broke down work in specialized tasks.

F.W.Taylor in his Scientific Management emphasizes on division of labour. But modern corporations prefer the employees with multi-skills

Previously corporations used to look for specialized skills.. But empowerment goes hand- in-hand with generalization.

Modern organizations also desire to recruit the candidates with multi-cultural, skills, job & organizational background. These, modern day organizations believe in the emerging view that “rolling stone gather masses.”

Hierarchical corporate structures no longer a match for the dynamism of global markets.

Function oriented hierarchical organizations require rigid information flows & they lead to long lead times for internal & external orders.

The organizational principles were designed for relatively stable environmental conditions.

Today the change is no longer slow & evolutionary but rapid & revolutionary.

There is also a change from industrial society to Information society.

Customer requirements & expectations of the quality of the products & level of services are also taking a new direction.

Previously the product was designed according to the convenience of the organization. But today they are designed to meet the expectation of the consumers keeping in view the competition.

Most of the organizations still follow the principles, structures & management concepts written down more than two centuries ago.

Michael Hammer & James Champy suggests that time have come to retire these principles & adopt a new set. They should re-engineer their business process in order to improve their efficiency & meet the competition effectively.

But the key question is what are the new set that the organizations should adopt?