BP Blog 1

BP Blog 1

Business process reengineering is an approach that management may use, that aims at improving efficiency and effectiveness of the current processes that are in a company. BPR allows management to step back and take a look at their business processes from a clean slate perspective. By doing this they may determine the way to reconstruct their business process so that it may be improved.

The idea of BPR was developed in the 1990’s. Hammer and Champy advocated eliminating, or reducing the amount of work done by staff that is not “value adding” for the customers. Instead of having many workers conduct these types of activities, they should automate this process. This idea was widely accepted for many reasons at the time. One of them is that with the relative sudden emergence of a global business environment many companies were losing their customers to their foreign competitors. By implementing a BPR they would be able to cut costs and allow their staff to focus on more value adding activities for their customers.

During the mid 1990’s many critiques were published that gave BPR a poor name. These critiques criticized BPR that it allowed management to downsize, lay off workers, and dehumanize the workplace. At this time many business started to slow down their BPR activities. Much of this criticism arose from the fact that many businesses abused the possibilities of BPR and instead of focusing how they may be able to improve their business systems they focused on simply cutting down costs.

In recent years BPR has gained in popularity. The fact that it has gained popularity comes as no surprise as it is an effective way to reduce costs and focus on activities that add value to the company’s customers. Through the automation of certain business activities customers are able to be better satisfied as their accounts and information will be more current and up-to-date. Also when management can loosen their focus on their internal business focus and focus more on the needs of their customers, they will be able to generate better products/services that will result in an increase in sales, which in turn will generate higher net incomes for the respected companies.

I personally feel that initiating a BPR or even thinking about the system would be beneficial for any company. By forcing the decision makers of a company to take a step back and look at their business, where they are, and where they want to go would allow the company an opportunity to see their company in a different light. They may be able to see little quirks that were not within their view before. Whether it is a Ma and Pa business or a large enterprise, the decision makers will be able to if nothing else see where there challenges lay and where changes need to be made in order to add more value to their customers.