FREE online courses on Business Needs and ERP - BPR and ERP - The difference
between BPR and ERP
It is clear from the fundamental definition that BPR and ERP
are quite different from each other. While BPR focuses more on the
transformation aspect of the business processes, using innovative business
concepts, ERP focuses on the automation aspect of the business processes, using
ICT to achieve the same objective.
This can be explained by an example. If a large fertilizer
plant has two strong functional departments (namely operations and maintenance)
located far from each other, there will be considerable delay in sending a work
order from the operations department to maintenance department in case of an
equipment breakdown. This delay would result in low availability of the
equipment, hence, higher costs and longer lead times.
An ERP can make the delay almost zero, where work order
generation and communication is automatic and instant, thereby reducing the
delay in attending it, increasing the availability of the equipment and
decreasing cost. A BPR, however, may result in drastically changing the business
process, where there are no separate departments for operation and maintenance.
Additionally, maintenance (at least 95% of the cases, except where exceptionally
high expertise is required) may also be required to be carried out by the
operations man.
This would not only make him more responsible for operations
but also eliminate the need for generating a work order for maintenance
department. Of course, this will lead to multi-skills concepts etc. This BPR
would also increase the availability of the machines (by eliminating delays),
reduce cost etc. and may not need automation at all. Thus, the approach of BPR
and ERP can be quite different in achieving the same goal -more availability of
equipment and lesser cost.
