FREE online courses on Business Needs and ERP - BPR and ERP - Process of
Reengineering
How does one go about reengineering a business? The process
will depend upon organizational goals.
If you wish to streamline a process, you will engage in
detailed analysis of the current approach, seeking to understand, for example,
the gaps in time between each value-added action. An order may enter the company
and go to one department to be checked for availability; to another group to
check that all the pieces of equipment being ordered actually work together; to
sales, in the case of a custom order, to apply the correct price and relevant
discounts; over to the accounts receivable department for a credit check, back
to the order desk to identify the funding source; and so forth. Many companies
have discovered numerous handoffs in their process and inevitably the customer
order, in this case, waits for the next person to be ready to add their value to
the paper. Eliminating those gaps when no value is added by grouping activities
together or by automating some or all of the process, will shorten the overall
process time and usually lower the cost.
At the other end of the continuum, to reinvent a process you
may spend some time to understand the nature of the current process, but you
will quickly move to look at the business problem. It is useful to start, in the
case of a sales order, with the end of the cycle-a satisfied customer.
Understanding what the customer wants and needed from you will begin the process
of looking at how your company processes orders. In this case, you may discover
the customer is very familiar with your product line and can be equipped with
the ability to send in orders electronically. The entire process may be
automated with a few individuals available to solve problems, should they occur.
The system should detect these exemptions early rather than waiting until the
customer takes receipt of the product.
The process for reengineering consists of four basic steps:
choose a process, understand it to the extent needed, redesign it and implement
the change.
Nothing about this simply stated process is easy. The entire
process must be identified by executive management as essential to the company's
success or survival; else why do it at all? Each step will take considerable
deliberation and will be broken into several components. Along the way, the
ultimate recipients of the changes must be kept involved and informed. The
process requires a combination of attention to detail and creative out of the
box thinking which is scarce.
