Редизайн бизнес-процессов (bpr)

How Airbnb Reengineered the Product Development Process

Airbnb is known for their coolness. Want to sleep in a treehouse in the Balinese jungle? It’s just a few clicks away. Looking to make some secondary income on your vacation home? List it on Airbnb. Behind the scenes, the company was struggling to find their internal identity in a design-centric Silicon Valley, and to create a sustainable, quick to deliver, product development process.Problem Definition The three main functions which contributed to the Airbnb product development process — designers, engineers, and researchers — worked in silos, only jumping into the process at defined times. Those defined times weren’t serving the end goal of delivering a great product on time.  Designers had to wait on engineers to write code before a mock-up could be visualized on screen. In turn, engineers had to wait on researchers to validate product ideas, only to find at the very end that project assumptions were off-base. This was less so a failure of bulldozing researchers, needy designers or overly-coveted engineers.It was a process failure. 

T-Mobile Becomes Un-Carrier by Reinventing Customer Service Process

T-Mobile had one goal — to make customers happy. Simple, humble, some may say obvious, but in the telecommunications world, happy customers were not the KPI customer service reps cared about. Pay structure and customer service success at large were measured mainly by First Response Time (FRT) and Average Handling Time (AHT). Two metrics that screamed “Be quick!” Not “Be kind, be helpful, make customers happy!” Problem DefinitionT-Mobile found itself in a KPI pickle: stick with the industry standard of quick service at a low cost, or find a new process for serving customers and transform how value is measured from a service performance perspective?Due to the introduction of self-service portals, customers no longer used the T-Mobile call center for basic transactional tasks such as balance inquiries and change of address. Now, customers were calling with complex issues that customer service reps, with their existing level of training, low level of authority, and disconnect to local markets, could not solve.Solution #1: Have Those Who Use the Output of the Process Perform the Process T-Mobile set out to reengineer the customer service process for the new needs of customers, by undergoing a wholesale transformation from factory floor to knowledge-work.

“Unshackled from legacy metrics like handle time, instead think about the best way to solve each caller’s problem and, ultimately, how best to improve customer retention, share of wallet, and loyalty.” — Harvard Business Review

Within the Business Process Reengineering initiative, T-Mobile started redesigning the team structure – the core of how customer service is delivered.

Like most call centers, there was one long queue and customers were connected to agents via an often frustrating phone tree. Rather than optimize the existing phone tree, or invest in bots that could better understand human voice requests, T-Mobile reorganized teams based on a typical B2B “named accounts” format.

They called this structure TEX — Team of Experts model.

Cross-functional groups of 47 people were formed which served a dedicated market, geographically speaking. The TEX structure gave representatives power over the entire process of customer service. They were empowered and trained to solve a customer’s problem from start to finish.

History of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) Concept

In 1990, Michael Hammer, a former professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), published an article in the Harvard Business Review, in which he claimed that the major challenge for managers is to obliterate non-value adding work, rather than using technology for automating it. This statement implicitly accused managers of having focused on the wrong issues, namely that technology in general, and more specifically information technology, has been used primarily for automating existing work rather than using it as an enabler for making non-value adding work obsolete.

Hammer’s claim was simple: Most of the work being done does not add any value for customers, and this work should be removed, not accelerated through automation. Instead, companies should reconsider their processes in order to maximize customer value, while minimizing the consumption of resources required for delivering their product or service. This idea, to unbiasedly review a company’s business processes, was rapidly adopted by a huge number of firms, which were striving for renewed competitiveness, which they had lost due to the market entrance of foreign competitors, their inability to satisfy customer needs, and their insufficient cost structure.

Even well established management thinkers, such as Peter Drucker and Tom Peters, were accepting and advocating Business Process Reengineering (BPR)  as a new tool for (re)achieving success in a dynamic world. During the following years, a fast growing number of publications, books as well as journal articles, was dedicated to Business Process Reengineering (BPR), and many consulting firms embarked on this trend and developed BPR methods. Business Process Reengineering (BPR)  was adopted at an accelerating pace and by 1993, as many as 65% of the Fortune 500 companies claimed to either have initiated reengineering efforts, or to have plans to do so.

Implementing Business Process Reengineering (BPR) in Organizations

In a crude sense, companies began business process improvement with a continuous improvement model. This model attempts to understand and measure the current processes, and make performance improvements. However, some companies make reengineering efforts under the assumption that the current processes are wrong and irrelevant. Under such perspectives designers of business process disassociate themselves from existing processes. This helps in looking at the problem with a clean mind, free of any biases.

The approach to Business Process Reengineering (BPR)  begins with defining the scope and objectives of the reengineering project. Persons entrusted with the tasks of BPR have to undertake research in the light of scope and objectives. They have to go through a learning process. They have to research customers, employees, competitors, new technology, etc. With the help of this research base BPR designers are in a position to create a vision for the future and design new business processes. They also create a plan of action based on the gap between the current and proposed processes, technologies and structure.

Steps in Business Process Reengineering (BPR)  are as follows:

1. Determining Objectives and Framework: Objectives are the desired end results of the redesign process which the management and organization attempts to realize. This will provide the required focus, direction, and motivation for the redesign process. It helps in building a comprehensive foundation for the reengineering process.
2. Identify Customers and Determine their needs: The designers have to understand customers- their profile, their steps in acquiring, using and disposing a product. The purpose is to redesign business process that clearly provides added value to the customer.
3. Study the Existing Process: The existing processes will provide an important base for the redesigners. The purpose is to gain an understanding of the ‘what’, and ‘why’ of the targeted process. However, as discussed earlier, some companies go through the reengineering process with clean perspective without laying emphasis on the past processes.
4. Formulate a Redesign Process Plan: The information gained through the earlier steps is translated into an ideal redesign process. Formulation of redesign plan is to real crux of the reengineering efforts. Customer focused redesign concepts are identified and formulated. In this step alternative processes are considered and the best is selected.
5. Implement the Redesign: it is easier to formulate new process than to implement them. Implementation of the redesigned process and application of other knowledge gained from the previous steps is key to achieve dramatic improvements. It is the joint responsibility of the designers and management to operationalzed the new process.

What is Business Process Reengineering?

Business Process Reengineering or BPR for short, is a methodology and technique with which organisations radically change their business processes with the aim of becoming more efficient and more modern. The far-reaching measures that are taken after the decision to restructure a process not only concern formal procedures or other existing processes, but can also bring about radical changes in management style and corporate culture.

The founder of the Business Process Reengineering concept is Michael Hammer.

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Michael Hammer published the article ‘Reengineering Work: Do not Automate, Obliterate‘ in 1990. With this title, Hammer was saying that just automating processes is not enough. Hammer developed the BPR concept further with James Champy, after which they published their famous book, ‘Reengineering the company, a manifesto for business revolutions’, in 1993.

In the most extreme form, BPR means the complete overhaul and rebuilding of processes. Only then can the organisation’s full potential be achieved, and only then will the organisation benefit from the changes.

The essence of BPR is to encourage process thinking: shifting from task focus to process focus to then removing all processes that do not create value for the customer. In this way, improvements are achieved that are only for the betterment of the performance criteria such as costs, efficiency, quality and service.

Problems in Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Reengineering is a major and radical improvement in the business process. Only a limited number of companies are able to have enough courage for having BPR because of the challenges posed. It disturbs established hierarchies and functional structures and creates serious repercussions and involves resistance among the work-force. Reengineering takes time and expenditure, at least in the short run that many companies are reluctant to go through the exercise. Even there can be loss in revenue during the transition period. Setting of targets is tricky and difficult. If the targets are not properly set or the whole transformation not properly carried out, reengineering efforts may turn-out as a failure.

External Links:

Reengineering Work:  Don’t Automate, Obliterate  (Harvard Business Review)

Business Process Reengineering summary

Business Process Reengineering is a management strategy with which organisations can save costs, increase customer focus and increase their competitive position. By analysing and rebuilding existing business processes, both small and large organisations can radically innovate and change.

Especially in the IT infrastructure, there is still a lot to be gained, and big steps can be taken. BPR is often a sensitive topic among employees in an organisation because more efficient processes often involve downsizing. That’s why it is crucial that the entire organisation supports the plans and that communication is transparent and open.

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Start Your Business Process Reengineering Project With Minit!

Business Process Reengineering is a big step towards Operational Excellence. It favors drastic change over incremental and challenges you to step back, rethink how the process really works, and ask:

1. Which steps are superficial and which steps are fundamental?
2. Where is value really added and how can we be sure a proposed change is the right change?

These are all valid questions, and sometimes fears, that come along with undergoing Business Process Reengineering. Minit has created a solution for mitigating the risks associated with BPR — Process Mining combined with Process Simulation.

We make it possible to deliver a BPR project supported by real data. Your data + our system = data-driven process reengineering.

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Регулятор противодавления серии BP и BPR

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Специальные методы исследования керна

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Core Lab Instruments, США

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• Описание
• Спецификация и технические характеристики

Компания Temco предлагает две серии регуляторов противодавления для поддержания давления в лабораторных установках. Данные регуляторы используются в фильтрационных исследованиях, PVT анализах, испытаниях сверхкритических флюидов и в реакторах с непрерывным потоком.

Произведенные компанией Temco регуляторы применяются для контроля давления в системах с однофазным и многофазным потоком. Они балансируют давление в системе. Газ под заданным давлением подается в камеру регулятора. Это давление изолирует флюид или газ из рабочего процесса. Как только рабочее давление регулятора превысит давление в камере регулятора, диафрагма прогнется, что позволит флюиду и газу пройти и, таким образом, поддержать рабочее давление. Когда рабочее давление опустится ниже давления в камере регулятора, диафрагма снова выпрямится, изолируя поток флюида или газа из процесса, тем самым поддерживая давление на заданном уровне.

В сериях BP используются высокоэластичные или тефлоновые диафрагмы. Первые изготавливаются из резины Buna-N или Viton. Данные диафрагмы рекомендуются для применения в условиях низкого давления до 1000 psi. При давлениях до 5000-10000 psi рекомендуется использовать тефлоновые диафрагмы. Для предотвращения засорения регулятора в присутствии твердых частиц есть возможность расширить проходные порты.

Также имеется BPR с диафрагмой из тонкого металла с иглой. При деформации диафрагмы игла выходит из паза, что позволяет пропустить жидкость и газы через регулятор. Такая мембрана рекомендуется для двухфазного потока или в случаях, когда необходима очень тонкая регулировка давления.

Данные регуляторы укомплектованы всеми необходимыми фитингами. Внутренняя конструкция позволяет максимально снизить мертвый объем. Регуляторы в стандартном исполнении изготавливаются из нержавеющей стали, но так же доступны версии из Hastelloy, B-2 и C, монель-металла (Monel) и титана. Диапазон рабочей температуры — от комнатной до 212oF (100oC). Для работы с более высокими температурами до 400oF (204oC) используются специальные термоустойчивые материалы.

Спецификация и технические характеристики:

Steps in the change process

1. Create a vision

Before a process is reviewed or adjusted, there needs to be a clear picture of the reason for the change. It’s important that the customer is the focus of this vision. The objectives must then be clarified in qualitative and quantitative terms. If the objectives are clear, it’s important to convince the employees that the changes are necessary.

2. Select a team

A skilled team needs to be formed to get started with the changes and to minimise the chance of failure. It’s valuable to set up a diverse team because creativity is essential in analysing current business processes and developing new ones. For example, the problem is looked at from different perspectives and an accurate diagnosis is formed in the following steps.

3. Select and understand current process

The complete current process needs to be mapped out in order to optimise it. This can be done by using flowcharts and software.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can then be linked to the relevant process in order to be able to monitor whether the process has the desired effect. This way, all matters that add no value to the process can be identified. These KPIs are compared in the following phases with the same indicators, but then for the new process.

4. Develop a new process

If the KPIs show that a current process is inefficient or ineffective, a new process must be drawn up. The customer-oriented vision from step 1 should be the guide here.

5. Implement a new process

Once the development and planning of the new process is complete, a small scale test can be run. If necessary, adjustments can then be made. The results and effects must be closely monitored with the KPIs. If it turns out that the new process works better than the previous one, it can be implemented on a larger scale.

6. Evaluate

In a highly dynamic environment, a lot changes, so sometimes the indicators can give a different picture over time. By running an evaluation, inconsistencies are noticed sooner and can be adequately anticipated.

More information

1. Hammer, M. (1990). Reengineering work: don’t automate, obliterate. Harvard business review, 68(4), 104-112.
2. Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (2009). Reengineering the Corporation: Manifesto for Business Revolution. A. Zondervan.
3. Grover, V., Jeong, S. R., Kettinger, W. J., & Teng, J. T. (1995). The implementation of business process reengineering. Journal of Management Information Systems, 12(1), 109-144.

How to cite this article:
Janse, B. (2018). Business Process Reengineering (BPR). Retrieved from ToolsHero: https://www.toolshero.com/quality-management/business-process-reengineering-bpr/

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Why BPR?

Organizations that take part in Business Process Reengineering are the first to examine the organisation and its environment. Objectives play a leading role in shaping new processes or changing existing processes. Business Process Reengineering, invented by IT expert Michael Hammer, is mainly applied in information technology, but is a standardised model that can be used to optimise many processes or organisations. Benefits of using BPR are:

Shorten lead times

In information technology, in particular, there is a lot of potential that is not yet being used. Outdated processes, such as the manual execution of administrative matters, can be fully automated with an investment. The investments are recouped by the lower wage costs.

Increase productivity

The goal of BPR is to modernise outdated processes and that often yields time-saving results. For example, after performing BPR, the organisation can discover that a certain process can be carried out by two employees instead of four. It’s important that the employees themselves provide input and come up with suggestions; after all, they know better than anyone else how the business processes work.

Improve quality and customer focus

By changing task orientation to process orientation, the focus is put on the customer. This has the advantage that all irrelevant processes quickly come to the foreground, after which they can easily be removed or modified.

Improve competitive position

Normally, changes that an organisation makes are only gradually noticed. In order to keep up with the competition, and to satisfy customer needs, however, we must act appropriately. BPR is ideally suited for this because the radical changes are implemented in a relatively short period.

Implement new technology

For example, an online webshop can choose to implement an extensive help centre with an interactive Q&A. The visitor can ask his or her question with the help of keywords and use the computer to look for a standardised answer. This way, the customer service employee won’t be occupied and can keep themselves busy with something else.

A downside to adjusting business processes as quickly as possible in order to be able to work more efficiently, is that some employees need more time to adjust than others. If an employee on Monday morning hears that their entire job description has been changed, this can seem overwhelming. Which is why it’s very important that the changes that are implemented are well communicated to the employee, and that guidance is provided if necessary.

What About New Examples of Business Process Reengineering Projects?

For thoroughness’ sake, and because it is a damn good example of BPR, we do take a moment at the end of this article to describe how Ford Motor Company transformed Procure-to-Pay with invoiceless processing. 

But now for freshness’ sake, we want to explore how modern businesses of the 21st century undergo Digital Transformations associated with process redesign.

We turned to two well-known companies who have undergone massive process transformation and are relevant to how businesses operate in 2020 — Airbnb and T-Mobile.You won’t find these BPR implementation case studies cited in any textbook, nor will you find them quoted across the internet. That’s because we dug deep to find stories about businesses of today that are applying the principles of Business Process Reengineering to achieve quantum leaps. Yet, they don’t always call it BPR. Digital Transformation, Change Management, and Process Reinvention are sometimes more popular terms to call what Hammer and Champy coined as “Business Process Reengineering”.A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, thus, the underlying rules of Business Process Reengineering apply to these examples:

• A core business process is broken, dysfunctional, or underperforming
• Leadership seeks dramatic process change (reengineering) as a solution

Business Process Reengineering Example

One of the best-known examples of organisations that used BPR in an effort to become more efficient is Ford, a car manufacturer. In the 1980s, the car industry went through a recession, and the managers at Ford decided to analyse the business processes thoroughly. They noticed that over 500 people worked in the accounting department. For comparison: around 100 people worked in the same department at their competitor Mazda.

Despite Ford being a larger company, they decided to reduce the number of employees in that department to just a couple hundred people. Ford put together a team that started to analyse the processes.
Originally, separate invoices had to be made for all ordered materials that were sent from the purchasing department to the accounting department.

When the materials were delivered, Ford received an invoice from the supplier. This was compared with the invoice that the purchasing department sent to the accounting department and then was paid manually.

Instead of making minor changes, Ford developed a completely new process. Information technology played an important role in this new process. They developed a database in which a notification was sent when the purchasing department had placed an order. When the materials were delivered, a warehouse employee would input this into the computer. The computer was able to verify in a fraction of a second whether the delivered materials were in order and then automatically paid.

Thanks to these changes in business processes, Ford reduced the number of administrative employees by 75%.