s “thefundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achievedramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance,such as cost, quality, service, and speed” (Hammer and Champy,Reengineering). Since the BPR idea has surfaced it has been under constantridicule by the popular press. They say it takes far too long, createsmanagement headaches, fails 70% of the time, and it’s only for bigcompanies with big checkbooks (Hydrel. . .
). However, I feel that with theright plan, the right people, and total commitment from those involved, BPRor Reengineering can work for any company. The Hydrel ExperienceA good example of this is Hydrel, a manufacturer of in-ground andunderwater lighting equipment. They were about to begin selling theirproducts in the international market, and were afraid their current systemscould handle the rapid increase in volume. So the company president, CraigJennings, hired the D. Appleton Company (DACOM) to help reengineer thecompany’s plans to handle its growth rate.
After DACOM reviewed Hydrel’sfunctional areas and the desires of the top-level management, they concludedthat the order management and inventory control process had to beredesigned to meet the demands. Then they comprised three teams: process, quality, and information. But before the three teams could work separately, they had to go through aprocess to determine if the team members were on the right team, and if theycould work together. So each of the three teams reviewed employeepersonalities using the Pearson Personality Inventory (Hydrel. . .
). After usingthe PPI system they found that all the teams were compatible, and beganworking on the job at hand. The process team attacked the reengineering of the “Manage CustomerOrder” process which included all contact with prospects, customers, andsales agents the moment a question came up. Then they invited customersand suppliers to air their own issues and ideas about their company. All ofthem had something to say about the company and were impressed with thereengineering effort. The Hydrel process team concluded its redesign workwith a delivery process that removes 37% of the order management activities(Hydrel.
. . ). And also designed a new computer system to carry out the newprocess. The new computer system will also be used by the quality team toupdate their new metrics system. The quality team developed a completelynew system for the reengineering process.
This new metrics systemcontinually updates them on changes in the market that deal with quality. This is important so they can deal with the changes right away and staycompetitive. And finally the information team came in to wrap up the wholeprocess and implement the new computer system. They design a system thatfit the current demands but is able to grow and expand a the same rate as thecompany. Due to total commitment from the right people, using the rightmethods Hydrel has successfully reengineered the process of ordermanagement and positioned the company for dramatic profitable growth. And they have proved my statement that reengineering can work for everycompany no matter what their size.
The Texas Commerce Bank ExperienceIn early 1994, Texas Commerce Bank (TCB) launched a reengineeringprocess called Process Improvement, which included every organizationalprocess and all 9,000 employees (Betting. . . ).
TCB’s goals for their programwere: remove all employee frustrations associated with policies, processes,services, or products; change processes to improve quality, deliver improvedservice to customers, and eliminate unnecessary expenses (Betting. . . ). However, TBC took a different approach towards their business processredesign.
They decided to approach this as a whole inorder to get maximuminvolvement from their employees. TBC had several reasons for this onebeing; there were already strong relationships present between bankemployees and they didn’t want those relationships damaged. However, this idea didn’t last long due to the overwhelming number ofreplies from the “Ideas To Bank On,” which was a suggestion box. AndTCB was forced to create about 180 process teams. Which included seniormanagers,process managers, team leaders, and about 1,800 employees(Betting.
. . ). This move, however, caused a bit of turmoil in the wholeprocess due to he fact that, many employees weren’t use to works in groups. And eventually led to the redesign phase, one that went to drastic measuresand wiped the slate clean.
This time, however, the bank knew what it had to do. So this timeTCB moved quickly through the process, and it led to quick results. Theybegan by redesigning the bank’s lines, question certain products, eliminatedprocesses, and apply newer technologies. And finally a blue print emerged. Which included narrative descriptions of processes, new flowcharts, allprojects cost/benefit analyses, and the implementation of strategies.
Thebenefits of this process were significant: 16,000 ideas, 1005 projects, 1,100positions to be terminated, and $43M in reduced expenses (Betting. . . ). So now that a new plan is in place TCB has taken the appropriate stepsto keep them in working order.
The 1,005 recommendations have beenassigned to teams within the line of business. Formal project plans for eachteam are developed and gathered weekly and are loaded into a database fortracking by other interdependencies (Betting. . . ) This database is alsoavailable the employees to access if they want to check on an idea or if theywant to suggest an idea.
This database is also a great way for managers andemployees to keep intouch on all aspects of the business, both big and small. Although this process didn’t run as smooth the Hydrel experience itstill proves that reengineering or BPR can work for a company. Also I thinkthe TCB experience proved that, there are different ways to go aboutreengineering a company but the bottom line is, with total commitment it canwork for all companies. ————————————————————–
