Chapter 3

Vision and Goals


Complex reengineering projects require a compelling vision of the new organization, including the values that will support that vision and a set of well-formulated goals that map out and measure progress toward attainment of the vision.

Visions for reengineering projects are:

   - specific and concrete, not lofty and idealistic,

   - customer-focused,

   - integrating process, people and technology,

   - proclaiming bedrock changes,

   - proactive,

   - expressing the desired values of the new organization.

BPR projects need concerete targets on which to set their sights. Goals:

   - shift attention from what is possible to what needs to be done to make it possible,

   - provide top-down guidance and work priorities,

   - specify expectations around performance,

   - give direction

       a. to the individuals and teams for achieving the reengineering vision,

       b. to the executives who are sponsoring the reengineering and providing funding,

   - should concentrate energy in those areas where the greatest return on investment will be realized,

   - establish the basis for prioritisation of all activities within the reengineered operation and must be linked to the strategic        direction of the organization as a whole.

The success of the reengineering effort will ultimately be measured by the value created for the customer, as determined by the customers inside and outside of the organization.

Visions and goals must be seen as transforming as well as transformational.

To properly size the reengineering project; the issues of

   - scope

   - boundaries,

   - timing,

   - resources

must be addressed.

The core of any reengineering project is the set of processes that will be redesigned to achieve the vision:

   - no more than seven and no fewer than four interrelated processes,

   - a business process typically contains four to seven subprocesses,

   - processes must relate directly to the vision,

   - processes will share a common culture.

The next step in scoping a BPR project is to define the interfaces that connect the selected business processes to the rest of the operations.

The first part (the blueprint, 10-15 % of the total project costs) of any reengineering project, if approached in a structured and disciplined manner using accelerated design techniques, can be completed within four to six months.

The actual implementation time may take many additional months or even years, depending on:

   - number and complexity of business processes,

   - severity of changes,

   - resistance of the culture to change,

   - amount and type of new technology applied.

There are three key resources for any business reengineering project:

   - financial,

   - facilities and equipment,

   - human.

Without a systematic approach, the search for problem causes is likely to become random and biased. Most problems are rooted in product or process complexity. There are a number of techniques, which are simple and straightforward, used to determine which processes to include within the scope of a reengineering project:

- decomposition diagram,

- process flow diagram (*),

- decision flow diagram (*),

- work flow diagram,

- deployment chart,

- Pareto chart,

- frequency chart,

- dot plot diagram,

- defect concentration diagram,

- cause and effect (fish bone, Ishikawa) diagram (*),

- structure tree and 5Ms diagram,

- stratification and "is/is not" matrix (*),

- scatter diagram,

- data flow diagram (*),

- entity relationship diagram (*).


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