Best Practices in Business Process Reengineering

Improving business processes, whatever or wherever they are in the enterprise is an acknowledged way of improving the bottom line. Whether it's re-engineering, Six Sigma, TQM, or any number of other techniques, the problem is that it's usually such a huge undertaking that it's more work than it's worth. But the problem is BPR is often used by companies on the brink of disaster to cut costs and return to profitability. The danger is that during this process the company may slash its capacity for future growth. So the question now is what can be done in terms of process improvement? 

Recently I was reading few articles on BPR and got these Best Practices, I would like to share with you these practices and I hope it will be helpful to you...

• Make the customer the starting point for change -- by identifying customer wants and creating the infrastructure to support these expectations

• Design work processes in light of organizational goals

• Restructure to support front-line performance.

• Recognize that IT is only part of the solution: it allows managers to collect, store, analyze, and communicate and distribute information better.

• Cut and paste the IT tools needed.

• Bring in internal or external IT experts: their knowledge, skills, acumen, and experience are invaluable.

• After implementation, continually monitor IT performance and keep up with new IT developments.

• BPR must be accompanied by strategic planning, which addresses leveraging IT as a competitive tool.

• Place the customer at the center of the reengineering effort -- concentrate on reengineering fragmented processes that lead to delays or other negative impacts on customer service.

• BPR must be "owned" throughout the organization, not driven by a group of outside consultants.

• Case teams must be comprised of both managers as well as those will actually do the work.

• The IT group should be an integral part of the reengineering team from the start.

•  BPR must be sponsored by top executives, who are not about to leave or retire.

• BPR projects must have a timetable, ideally between three to six months, so that the organization is not in a state of "limbo".

• BPR must not ignore corporate culture and must emphasize constant communication and feedback.

BPR, if left unchecked, seems to offer the dismal prospect that competitive advantage lies in constant cost minimization. Foreward looking thinkers propose that competitive advantage for the new century lies in a nation's workforce and infrastructure, and the ability to create and deliver new products and services in the global marketplace.