Reengineering Business Processes

Maybe the most critical element necessary for the initiation of any improvement effort within an organization is the development of a rigorous approach for implementation. Many practitioners can support this statement with tales of failure due to the lack of a clear and consistent mapping of how project efforts are to be performed and in what sequence. The following Business Process Reengineering Framework (Figure 4), answers the questions: Who, What, How, and When. This framework provides a step by step view of activities needed to accomplish each of the three major phases required to reengineer business processes. One critical success factor, in terms of achieving successful implemen­tation, does not appear within the framework—top management support and commitment to the process. This may sound redun-

dant and certainly we have all heard this before, however, due to the strategic nature and enormous level of change engendered by reengineering efforts, implementation should not be attempted without the appropriate support and strong commitment of the executive management team.

The major objective of the Discover Phase is to make an appraisal of the entire enterprise in order to assess the amount of opportunity for improvement and prioritize implementation efforts. This is accomplished via the following four steps:

1. Mobilize—During the mobilization step a project team is built, preferably with members from several different functional areas. There is also an advantage if members are more than casually familiar with the core business processes within the enterprise. The project team then develops a detailed project plan including major activities and tasks within each activity. Team members develop interview schedules, are assigned specific activity respon­sibilities and timing estimates are developed.

2. Assess—Project team members perform both an internal and external analysis of the enterprise including all com­ponents of the supply chain. High level business process flows are developed and competitive benchmarking is performed. Critical success factors and key performance indicators are developed including both operational perfor­mance as well as financial results. An assessment of the organization's cultural profile is developed including adaptability to change.

3. Select—Gaps in current performance versus best in class competitors are established and prioritized based on their impact to critical success factors. Target improvement projects are defined and associated risks are evaluated. A series of short-term improvement opportunities are defined based on knowledge known to date.

4. Engage—Project findings are prepared in summary form including: first-cut process redesigns, potential cost/benefit analysis, and work continuation activities. The summary is provided to executive management for agreement on future improvement activities and to obtain commitment for the Redesign Phase.

To be Continued

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