Business Process Reengineering BPR

The business process reengineering or BPR consists in radically transforming organizational processes by an optimal use of resources and information systems to obtain major improvements in terms of quality, performance, productivity and environment. The business process reengineering is more and more often used to improve or optimize the logistics processes

The method can be described as follows:

• Identification and description of existing processes to be improved or optimized.
• Processes analysis: search for the dysfunctions and for optimization solutions.
• Establishment, standardization and validation of the targeted processes
• Implementation of the targeted processes.

A business process reengineering’s success usually lies in a strong mobilization of the responsible teams and of all the actors of the targeted process.

The 5 main steps of the Business Process Reengineering are the following ones:

1. Realization of the processes’ cartography: identification of the processes and their interactions.
2. Look for key processes and hierarchical organization according to the fixed objectives.
3. Detailed description of the targeted processes.
4. Identification of dysfunctions and search for improvements.
5. Establishment and detailed description of the targeted processes.

Step 1: Realization of the processes’ cartography

First of all, the processes are listed and categorized into 4 groups:

• Operational processes: directly bound to the realization of the product or the service
• Management processes: lead the company towards the given objectives and control that decisions taken are in line with these objectives.
• Measurement processes: measure results to identify the corrective actions.
• Support processes: contribute to the good functioning of other processes.

Then, all links between every process are listed.

Finally, the processes’ cartography is drawn up. It is a general view and a synthetic scheme of the company’s processes and interactions between them.

Step 2: Look for key processes and hierarchical organization

The search for the key processes aim is to identify processes influencing the most the objectives’ fulfillment. Management is fully responsible for their identification.

These processes are then prioritised according to the potential savings and the difficulty level of the changes induced by their reengineering.

Step 3: Detailed description of the targeted processes

The detailed description of the targeted processes is obtained by:

• Collecting all information and available documentation (former processes’ cartography, standard sheets of operation, interview with operational staff…)
• Formalizing the existing processes on same model with operational staff:
• Process Spec sheet.
• Organization chart.
• Schemes of physical and information flows.
• KPI – Key Performance Indicators measurement.
• Validating this formalization in a validation meeting including operational staff.

Step 4: Dysfunctions’ identification and search for improvements

Dysfunctions are identified by:

• Interviewing the operational staff of the function,
• By comparing current KPI with targeted KPI or benchmark KPI.

They are then analyzed to find the cause and organized into a hierarchy according to their impact on the obtained earnings.

Then, we proceed to the “search for solutions” phase (sessions of brainstorming, interviews) with all actors of the process.

The chosen solution will be the best compromise between reaching the objectives, costs reduction and solution complexity.

Step 5: Establishment and detailed description of the targeted processes.

The establishment of the targeted processes includes:

• The integration of optimizations thanks to:
• New processes spec sheet presentation
• New organization chart
• New plans of the physical streams and the information
• New KPI
• The assurance of the processes’ homogeneity and expected results of the targeted system:
• Establishment of the targeted processes’ cartography.
• Synthesis of organizational impacts.
• Evaluation of the application costs.
• Evaluation of the expected improvements (earnings, flexibility…)
• The validation of the targeted system and its implementation schedule from all actors.