Business Systems Reengineering 

5. How To Do It?

D. Develop Improvement Approach

1. Develop Mission, Goals, Objectives

Follow Figure 1 and start by "flowing" company strategic and operating plan mission, goals and objectives down to the level of business system goals and objectives. Often, neither even exist or really make sense, so they may need to be thought through first. They may be specific (e.g., reduce drawing release time to 1 week), or more general (become the leading supplier of titanium bathroom fixtures).

Try to develop some simple, clear overall objectives. For exam­ple, one client resolved to reduce administrative cycle times and steps by 50%, a rather ambitious goal, which while they weren't totally successful, much more was achieved than they would have with no such overriding objective.

A key point to the approach, with great benefits if handled properly, is to develop an overall schematic first and create process mission statements for it and each major element of the process(es). A recent case encountered illustrates the need for the role of effective mission statements. A supervisor in charge of material control was asked what her mission was. She stated that it was to:

Receive material, generate paperwork, move material to inspec­tion, handle rejects, move material to stock, issue it to production, and fill shortages.

After some debate, the new mission became:

To secure company materials, make them available to support the master schedule and inform other departments of status as required.

This change in mission led the team to consider dismantling much .of the stores area, route material directly to the point of use (sometimes by suppliers), and work on certifying suppliers to reduce inspection. These actions will lead to a major reduction in inventory, handling, cycle time, and administrative costs.

2. Set up Change Mechanisms

Put tools in place to help rapidly translate findings and recom­mendations into change. A good way to do this: competent team members are drawn from affected areas, empowered by their management to make changes, given guidelines for rapid change implementation and encouraged to do it! To break bureaucratic logjams, we suggest that suggested changes be approved by default, if entered to a regularly published issues resolution log, discussed at project meetings, distributed to management, and remain unchallenged for a specified time.

3. Construct a Model of the Future (To-Be) System ...

... only after the preceding is accomplished. Why: People tend to "automate the mess they already have" unless alternative approaches and objectives are offered, strongly encouraged, and enablers are provided.

Use the (To-Be) flow chart as the framework for the future system. Add more descriptive information only where required. Use the same approach as the as-is chart. These charts, along with form, report, and screen layouts, ultimately replace or augment the procedures. They may eventually end up as computer-based documentation for future easy maintenance and reference. The work performed and issues resolved help drive policy and proce­dure development. Keep checking back against the improvement objectives that were originally set.

Some useful tools employed worth telling you about:

• Process and functional matrix—Put the organization chart on one axis and various process elements on the other. A great tool for identifying redundancy, gaps, and other insanities. Helps rationalize the organizational task assignments.

• Quality Functional Deployment—A more complex multidi­mensional matrix tool designed to help you chart higher level relationships, starting with Customer needs, take them down to things you need to be doing to meet them.

• Avoid highly complex analysis, project management, and docu­mentation approaches. They may slow you down more than they help.

E. Transitioning

1. Reduce Risk

There is often a major fear factor that works against reengineer-ing. Some people think that it involves completely tearing the company apart and that this entails grave risks. While this can be true, there are a number of ways to substantially mitigate risks. First, involve all parties with a stake, to help ensure that important items are properly considered and that "ownership" is secured.

Next, contain the scope of the effort, based on what can be attained with the resources employed. Guarantee that new areas won't be implemented until responsible areas have thoroughly tested them, rehearsed, documented and trained their people.

2. Conference Room Pilot

Once the new design is well underway, reduce risk even further by simulating operation of the new system—policies, procedures, forms, software and hardware, until the bugs are out and everyone understands it. Do this with teams, on paper and on the computer (where applicable), with realistic scenarios. Use this approach to model the business, develop procedures and implementation approach, train and rehearse. Then you're ready to implement.

6. Summary

Reengineering can be practical, cost-effective and attainable for organizations willing to make the investment in time, money and attention. It is not for "short-attention span" organizations, unless done in sharply limited areas on a tight schedule. It requires focus on the process, not merely "results orientation." It's an invest­ment in the company's future, with a large potential payback. Although the payback is not always as obvious as with purchase of production tools, it's potentially larger and more strategic.

The common thread to successful approaches is that they: have strong leadership, capture the imagination of the people, have executive support, are well planned and managed, tied to company goals, use teams to accomplish the work, are Customer-driven, educate the people, are well designed, tested, rehearsed and implemented.

  STAY CONNECTED

To stay current on bullet-proofed manufacturing solutions, subscribe to our free ezine, "The Business Basics and Best Practices Bulletin." Simply fill in the below form and click on the subscribe button. 

We'll also send you our free Special Report, "Five Change Initiatives for Personal and Company Success."

Your personal information will never 
be disclosed to any third party.

Manufacturing leaders have a responsibility to educate and train their team members. Help for developing a self-directed, World Class Manufacturing training program for your people is just a click away:

http://bbasicsllc.com/training-modules.htm

You are welcomed to print and share this bulletin with your manufacturing teams, peers, suppliers and upper management ... better yet, have them signup for their own copy at:

http://bbasicsllc.com/subscribe.htm

With the escalating spam-wars, it's also a good idea to WHITELIST our bulletin mailing domain via your filtering software or control panel: 

bizbasics@getresponse.com

This will help guarantee that your bulletin is never deleted unexpectedly.

Manufacturing Knowledge you’ll not find at offsite 
seminars nor in the books at Amazon.com

Lean Manufacturing - Balanced Scorecard 
ISO 9000:2000 - Strategic Planning - Supply Chain 
Management - MRP Vs Lean Exercises - Kaizen Blitz 
Lean Six Sigma - Value Stream Mapping

All at one Website: Good Manufacturing Practices