BPR Research
...s-oriented thorough reform for the purpose of increasing the competitive power of an enterprise. The traditional function-oriented management addresses problems from the perspective of internal production of an enterprise, while BPR stresses the effect of customersf service and output of an enterprise. Therefore BPR represents the pursuit of a new enterprise organizational work model. Some people have viewed BPR as a second enterprise management reform following TQC (Total Quality Control), and it is also predicted that BPR will become the dominating trend of enterprise management. In todayfs economic society, it is hard to imagine that there is an enterprise team who has never got involved in BPR. Above all, changing the enterprise status quo and improving its performance is exactly what the management is doing about. In this process, the management is implementing BPR consciously or unconsciously. The effectiveness of business process is determined by the performance of new business. And the operation performance is determined by profit-gaining capability, customersf satisfaction, assets return rate, business growth, market share and other factors. As we know, there are various types of business process. Some are based on teamwork, some are driven by enterprise strategic planning, and some are rooted in the continued improvement of business process either through organizational progress or objective management, among which BPR with its unique strengths, has started a second revolution in modern enterprise management. We say the business rules set up since the Industrial Revolution are no longer applicable to todayfs enterprise development because some fundamental changes regarding business environment have taken place over the past century. In todayfs world, customersf needs, product life cycle, sales growth, technology upgrading rate, competition law and so oncalmost none of them is predictable and stays stable. Currently, there are three forces that are attracting the attention of executives. These forces create a sense of unfamiliarity with the unprecedented business environment among executives. On one hand these three forces have changed fundamentally. On the other hand, the three forces are beginning to have increasing impacts on enterprises. The three forces are customer, competition and change. In short they have been called g3Ch. Customer: From the early 80fs up to now, significant changes have taken place in the buyer-and- seller relationship. Currently it is totally the buyerfs market. Customers are dominating the buyer-and-seller relationship. The era when Ford could sell black T-shaped cars to the entire American generation is over. Even in the field of marketing, the g4Psh put forward by E. J. MaCarthy is beginning to give way to g4Csh. Competition: Since World War II, the world economy is obviously shifting from internationalization to globalization. This is reflected in the South-east Asia Crisis, which was sparked in one country and spread across the entire South-east Asia and eventually posed a threat to the world economy. The globalization of the world economy intensifies the world market competition. Now the fierce competition in the world market can be felt by almost every company. Change: The evolution of the two forces mentioned above is influenced by change. In the Information Age, the change is accelerating. As the president of the CitiBank John Reed said, g If anyone thinks that whatever exists today will continue to exist tomorrow, he is doomed to failure.h (Forbes 1998/6/15). So J Kane commented in the latest issue of Fortune: Be it Microsoft, French Airlines or Nokia, they all will have to face the uncertain customers, market and ever-changing sci-tech. (Fortune, 1998/8/3). It is just due to the influence of the three forces, entrepreneurs are seeking to find a way out. The impacts of the three elements on enterprises are so profound that the operation of modern enterprises cannot be governed by the rules formulated by Adam Smith. In order to achieve sustainable growth, enterprises are resorting to new business rules. Thus BPR came into being. 2.2 Basic Concepts of BPR According to Hammer and Champy, gBPR can be defined as fundamental reconsideration and radical redesign of the business process of an enterprise so as to bring about dramatic achievements which can be measured in terms of cost, quality, service and speedh. It takes business process as the object and center of reengineering. Taking customersf needs and satisfaction as the objective, BPR involves fundamental reconsideration and radical redesign of the business process. By employing advanced manufacturing technology, information technology and modern management devices, and maximizing the integration of technological functions and managerial functions, and breaking away from the traditional function-organization, it aims to build totally new process-oriented organization, thus achieving significant improvements of business operation in terms of cost, quality, service and speed. The reengineering model is as follows: Taking operation process as the center, it breaks away from the top-down organizational structure, helps the enterprise to adapt to the high efficiency and fast pace of the modern society, enables all staff members to take part in management, make possible effective communications across all sections. And gfundamentalh, gthoroughh, g dramatich and g processh are the major concerns of the definition. By gfundamentalh, it means that BPR is concerned with those core questions facing enterprises, such as gWhy are we doing the the current job?h gWhy are doing the job in the current way?h gWhy should we rather than others do the job?h and so on. Through considering these fundamental questions carefully, the enterprise can find that the business assumptions they live by turn out to be out of date and even false. gthoroughh means that, in carrying out BPR, the root causes of things should be found out. BPR aims to cast away all old traditions and conventions, neglect all prescribed structures and processes and create totally new methodology. It aims to restructure enterprise rather than improve, strengthen and readjust it. g dramatich requires that in implementing BPR, what we are seeking is significant increase in business performance rather than insignificant increase or improvements in the common sense. Significant increase in performance is the major feature of BPR. Finally, what BPR is concerned about is the enterprise business process. All BPR-related work is supposed to center around business process. Business process refers to a series of interrelated activities carried out to create value for customers. Michael Porter-- a Harvard professor describes the enterprise business process as value chain. Competition is something between the respective value chains of enterprises rather than between enterprises. Only those enterprises who can manage the different links of a value chain effectively can win the competitive advantage in the market. With business process at its core, BPR means reconsidering the enterprise business process fundamentally, breaking away from old operation process, reducing unnecessary links, relocating positions and reorganize departments so as to formulate new process and achieve great achievements in some key factors, such as cost, quality, service and speed. ‡@ Staff reengineering: Robert Newman the German entrepreneur once said, g the biggest problem in implementing BRP is human laziness at the beginning.h Therefore, whether implementing BRP proves a success or not is determined by the overall quality of the staff.. In particular, the top leader should be innovative, enterprising and ready to meet challenges. He should also possess a keen competitive awareness and a sense of crisis. In addition, he should have a good understanding of BPR and is ready for philosophy shift. ‡A Technology reengineering: Advanced information technology is to be emplyed to reshape the enterprise information infrastructure. It aims to provide easy access to related information for all staff members over the network. Some big companies have attached great importance to information technology application. Take Ford for example. In its finance department, payment process is reengineered through adoptin...