Business process reengineering (BPR) is a management approach to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processes within and across the organization through evaluation.
The concept of BPR was introduced in 1990 and had become very popular immediately. The reason of this popularity was the immediate adoption of this concept by the firms who had lost their competitiveness due to the market entrance of foreign competitors at that time and were striving to regain it. There are many successful stories of implementing BPR like Proctor and Gamble Corporation and General Motor Corporation while many organizations failed on the other hand.
Although there are too many reasons of the failure of BPR projects but the main three are: (1) Lack of sustained management commitment and leadership, (2) Unrealistic scope and expectations, and (3) Resistance to change.
1 - Lack of sustained management commitment
BPR projects are very time consuming and takes years to complete, therefore it is very important for the management to have long-term commitment for their successful execution. One of the reasons of failure of BPR projects is lack of sustained management commitment, initially they are motivated and enthusiastic but as the time passes they lose their commitment which result in failure of the project. To tackle this problem management should align the objectives of BPR with organization’s objectives.
2 - Unrealistic scope and expectations
Unrealistic scope and expectations is another factor of failure of BPR because of it management and other people working on the project lose their interest and motivation when they cannot get the results that they expect. It is very important to set realistic and attainable goals using the SMART rule.
3 - Resistance to change
Resistance to change is another factor that causes failure of BPR. There are many reasons that employees resist any change e.g. lack of understanding around the vision and need for change, comfort with the status quo and fear of the unknown, corporate history and culture, opposition to the new technology, requirements, and processes introduced by the change, and fear of job loss. Change management is very important to tackle all these issues.
Other problems:
- The risk of another inefficient system
- Hidden agenda of top management
- Lack of communication
- Selection wrong IT solution
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_reengineering
http://www.kmbook.com/bpr.htm
http://www.mis.boun.edu.tr/erdem/mis517/projects-04/cagla-banu-ergin.ppt#292,28,BPR Project Problems
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hey Najeeb,
BPR is a interesting subject, it took me a while to get the grasp of what the purpose was. I like how you explained each point of the failures, but there must have been some good parts of BPR other than the successful companies, how were they successful? The system must still be used today but managers might take a slightly different approach, when do you think you would ever use the BPR system if you were a manager? Anyways I like what you have written, it gave me a different look at BPR.
Thanks Matt
I strongly agree with this comment, “Lack of sustained management commitment BPR projects are very time consuming and takes years to complete, therefore it is very important for the management to have long-term commitment for their successful execution.” The company I work for has an issue with top management being involved in daily operations, let alone major projects so I can sincerely understand how this comment is correct. If we were to take on a major project as BPR, I would fear the lack of commitment and probably would expect failure.
Post a Comment