1.1 Research Background
The concept of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) was first introduced by Hammer in 1990. BPR has been defined as a fundamental rethink and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed (Hammer, 1990). Adopted by many organizations worldwide, BPR has become a popular management tool to cope with rapid technological and business changes in today’s competitive environment (Hamid, 2004). One study showed that about 87% of firms surveyed were either engaged in BPR projects, or indicating their intention to take up BPR projects in the next few years (Ranganathana &
Dhaliwal, 2001). With the rise of e-commerce, the development of inter-organizational relationships and significant increases in the business integration has made BPR even more important. Such integration requires facilitating processes across the boundaries of organizations as well as streamline of back and front office processes (Fadel and Tanniru, 2005; Lin et al., 2002). In this decade, businesses will need to continue by using technology to add customers, suppliers, and other partners to the process redesign mix. The redesign of work will be between a company and its customers, suppliers and partners (Champy, 2002).
With such high importance and adoption rate of BPR to organizations worldwide; however, various surveys and assessments reported that as many as 60-80 percent of BPR projects having been unsuccessful (Chiplunkar et al., 2003; Dennis et al., 2003).
1.2 Research Motivation
BPR projects typically include attempts to transform the organizational subsystems of management (style, values, measures), people (jobs, skills, culture), information technology, and organizational structure, including team and coordination mechanisms (Kettinger &
Grover, 1995). Such an organizational change perspective recognizes that BPR is not a monolithic concept but rather a continuum of approaches that need a solid implementation methodology (Kettinger et al., 1997). According to Wu (2003) and Vakola & Rezgui (2000), BPR methodology plays a crucial role in the success of BPR implementation for a number of reasons. First, a methodology provides a framework for suggesting structured knowledge, idea and techniques. It makes it possible to apply, evaluate and test them in a facilitated manner. Second, a BPR methodology develops a capability to organize, plan, and monitor the project life cycle, and to measure the performance of the re-engineered organization.
Finally, the methodology holds the potential of creating a coordinated collaborative working environment. Then, it is possible to assign tasks to team-based groups, monitor the executing tasks, and measure the performance. Empirical researches also confirmed that establishing a disciplined approach for BPR and using a sound methodology are prerequisites for BPR success (Berrington et al., 1995; Majed et al., 1999; Al-Mashari et al, 2001;Paper & Chang, 2005). Various researchers have introduced different methodologies with their own specialties, characteristics, and techniques (Reijers and Mansar, 2005; Wu, 2002). These methodologies address different stages in implementing BPR, although they reveal key similarities (Al-Mashari and Zairi, 2000; Vakola and Rezgui, 2000). Some methodologies consider BPR as strategic-oriented and then emphasize the defining of the goals of the project. In contrast, systematic-oriented methodologies focus on process analyzing and modeling (Abdolvant et al. 2007). Nevertheless, none of these methodologies is comprehensive enough for every BPR project (Adesola and Baines; 2005; Chan and Spedding, 2003). Moreover, the previous research were either inadequate to provide implementation guideline details or short of empirical case study to verify the methodology (Tennant & Wu; 2005). Thus, it is difficult to select an appropriate methodology in order to guarantee the comprehensiveness and hence success.
1.3 Research Objective
Therefore, the purpose of this research is to develop a comprehensive project implementation methodology framework outlining the stages and activities of a BPR project that can help people to successfully carry out BPR in their organizations. The validity of the framework will be verified by two major BPR initiatives. One is an electronic Supply Chain Management (eSCM) process integration undertaken at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry and also the 2nd largest IC manufacturing company in the world. The other is a pricing management process reengineering at one company in the electronic industry.
1.4 Research Method
To address the research objective of this research, a literature review of BPR essence is conducted, which includes the definition, types, critical successful factors, and implementation methodology. Some key elements of the proposed methodology framework are extracted and synthesized from the result of literature review. In addition, practical experience of three consulting firms is also referred. To verify the completeness of the proposed framework, a thorough comparison with previous academic works is performed. The case study research methodology is adopted to test the validity of the proposed framework. The case study research methodology is often appropriate for studying
“how” and “why” questions (Yin 2003). As such, a multiple-case study to illustrate how effective BPR was achieved and why. This case study illustrates how a leading high-tech manufacturing company successfully applies the proposed framework and implementation guidelines that yield a series of initiatives to improve its competitive advantage. The following figure demonstrates the research method framework.
Figure 1 Research Method Framework
1.5 Organization of the dissertation
The remainder of this dissertation is organized in the following sections. In chapter 2, a literature review was conducted to examine the definition of BPR, the critical success factor (CSF) of BPR, and implementation methodology. Chapter 3 presents a comprehensive BPR implementation model comprising of 5 stages and 36 activities. Chapter 4 describes how the framework were successfully applied in two major business process reengineering initiatives. Chapter 5 compares the difference of these two BPR adopting the proposed implementation model and essential commonality that contributes the project success.
Chapter 6 is the conclusion and suggestion of future research.
Literature Review
External BPR: eSCM Internal BPR: Pricing Mgt
Conclusion & Future Research Suggestion BPR theoretical perspective
Case Study
Definition Methodology CSF
BPR practical perspective
Issues & Problem Type
BPR Implementation Framework
Comparison and Finding