Business Process Engineering

Due to growing concern about the competitiveness of industry in the international marketplace and the efficiency ofgovernment enterprises, widespread initiatives are currently underway to enhance thecompetitive posture offirms and to streamline government operations. Nearly all enterprises are engaged in assessing ways in which their productivity, product quality and operations can be improved. These efforts canbe described as Business Process Engineering (BPE). BPE had its roots in industry under differing titIes: Process Improvement, Process Simplification, Process Innovation, Reengineering, etc. It has matured to be an important ingredient of successful enterprises in the private and public sectors. After extensive exploitation by industrial and governmental practitioners and consultants, it is attracting increasing attention from academics in the fields of engineering and business. However, even with all of this attention in the popular literature, serious scholarly literature on BPE is in short supply. TItis is somewhat surprising, especially since so many large international organizations have attempted BPE projectswith varied success.

The first English-language edition of this book was published in 1989 under the title "Enterprise-Wide Data Modelling." It introduced a new enterprise data model that has since gone on to enjoy widespread use as a reference model. Since that time, the author has continued to develop the representation of application problems, both on a theoretical basis using modeling languages and on a practical basis using real-world studies. This has led to so many new aspects that this second English-language edition (the original German version is now in its fifth edition) constitutes a completely new book. The new title expresses the stricter emphasis on business processes in contrast to the previous edition, which was geared more toward a functional structure. This approach reflects the trend toward process oriented structural and procedural organization in enterprises that is currently being supported by new means of information processing. Perhaps the most obvious way in which the second English-language edition differs from the first is in the increased number of pages. This is a direct result of the higher degree of detail and the more thorough problem description presented in the new edition. The degree of detail has increased in the case of those problems that are particularly important in terms of selecting and designing information systems in an industrial enterprise, e.g., the product description and CAM factory organization. This approach provides greater reality and thus facilitates a better understanding of the complex organism that is an industrial enterprise.

​Business process reengineering (BPR) focuses on redesigning the strategic and value-added processes which transcend the organizational boundaries. It is a cross-functional approach that requires support from almost all the departments of the organization. Business Process Reengineering: Automation Decision Points in Process Reengineering offers a new framework based process reengineering and links it to organization life cycle, process life cycle, and process management. This volume describes the fundamental concepts behind business process reengineering and examines them through case studies, and should appeal to researchers and academics interested in business process reengineering, operations strategy, and organizational restructuring and design.

This volume shows how ICT (information and communications technology) can play the role of a driver of business process reengineering (BPR). ICT can aid in enabling improvement in BPR activity cycles as it provides many components that enhance performance that can lead to competitive advantages. IT can interface with BPR to improve business processes in terms of communication, inventory management, data management, management information systems, customer relationship management, computer-aided design, computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and computer-aided engineering. This volume explores these issues in depth.

This is an important text for all students and practitioners of Business Process Reengineering. It provides a comprehensive resource for understanding and implementing BPR as relating to the needs of each individual business, and it places particular emphasis on the importance of the OHandS function within the commercial environment. This volume provides an in-depth coverage of all the key areas which are essential to the implementation of BPR. It provides unique practical guidance on implementing BPR strategies as formulated by the author and a range of academic practitioners and industry experts. Importantly, it demonstrates how these initiatives can be implemented in a real-world environment and in accordance with stated business objectives, so as to effect positive and productive change. The advantages of a newly-developed business tool known as the “Sturdy BPR Matrix” are carefully considered, as is guidance on the implementation of BPR in any situational context.

This textbook explores the fundamental principles of Business Process Reengineering (BPR). The express aim of the book is to address the needs of MBA students opting for courses in ‘Information Technology Management or ‘Operations Management’, MCA students who opt for Business Processes as an elective, and students of BE/B.Tech Mechanical Engineering and Production Engineering for courses in Process Engineering/Automation/Management System Design. The book provides them with the concepts, methodologies, models and tools needed to understand and implement BPR. In a nutshell, the book offers a step-by-step presentation of the practical framework and management techniques needed to achieve engineering solutions for implementation of BPR in an organization. The initial chapters introduce the reader to the need for BPR and its utility in relation to IT and manufacturing. The middle chapters cover the methodology, success factors, barriers, and the technologies that are relevant for BPR implementation. The latter chapters present solutions like lean and virtual manufacturing, enterprise resource planning, and functional information systems. An exclusive chapter is devoted to concepts and tasks of software reengineering. Aided by extensive illustrations, end-of-chapter review questions, as well as a chapter consisting entirely of case studies, this book will help students develop a rich, multifaceted perspective, to enable them to handle complex management and engineering problems. The book will be useful to students in practically all branches of engineering, not just mechanical/production/industrial engineering.

On re-engineering theory of management