From business process reengineering to integrated process management: An exploration of issues

Sashidhar Kondareddy, Purdue University

Abstract

This research was undertaken to study two different topics: Explore the need for moving beyond BPR to an integrated process management approach to change, as suggested in the literature; and if there is such a need to move beyond BPR, then explore the need for ‘retooling’ the computer based tools that support BPR. Section 1 synthesizes a number of concepts and case studies, evaluates the utility of BPR and addresses the need to move beyond BPR to integrated process management. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to BPR, its relationship with less radical process change approaches and the role of IT in process change. Chapter 2 provides an empirical validation of some of the suggestions and prescriptions in the BPR ‘critical success factors/pitfall’ literature, through a content analysis of the annual reports of many companies that have reported successful reengineering projects. The results of this analysis suggest that many companies were not implementing BPR alone, but as one of the component of a set of change approaches that include strategic rethinking of business direction and less radical process improvement. This suggests that, at the organizational level, BPR should not be evaluated alone but as a part of a ‘strategic change set’. Chapter 2 also presents an exploratory longitudinal analysis of firm performance measures to see the value created by BPR to organizations. The findings from this analysis show that process change seems to be correlated with the productivity measure sales per employee, but its effect on the other financial performance measures is not evident. This suggests the need for organizations to focus more deliberately on the effect of process change on these measures, and integrate BPR with other change approaches and move towards a continuous change paradigm. Section 2 discusses the various classes of computer based tools used to bridge the process gap, and identifies the key issues that should be considered while choosing a process change tool set, and the need for extending these tools to support integrated process management. This part of the research was undertaken to highlight the need for computer based tools to go beyond BPR and support a number of other approaches to leverage the full value of the process centric approach. Another purpose of the work in this section was to highlight the need for tool users to take a holistic look at all the change management approaches. Chapter 3 takes a comprehensive look at Process Modeling and process modeling tools, explores the relationship between modeling formalisms and discontinuous thinking, and identifies areas for further research. Chapter 4 looks at issues surrounding the implementation end of the process gap, specifically Workflow Management tools and ERP packages and identifies areas for further research. An exposure to the critical issues in the implementation of Workflow and ERP products could be a good guide to the process redesign team. And an exposure to the need for extending these tools could be a good guide to process change tool vendors. The author's attempt to create a clearing house of information related to BPR and BPR tools on the internet is shown in Chapter 5.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Altinkemer, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Management|Design

COinS