For Process Optimization-Implement Business Process Engineering!!

Have you wondered what BPR is? : It is an integrated set of  project management procedures, modelling, analysis, design and testing techniques for analyzing existing business processes and systems; identifying and designing new processes and systems; testing, defining new designs prior to implementation; and managing the implementation process.

Business Process Re-engineering Life Cycle:

From the diagram above, there are different phases involved during each stage of the Process. For each of the eight phases, a competent business analyst should perform tasks at the senior, intermediate and junior levels.

1. Develop Vision and Objectives
   The first step in reengineering is to prepare and communicate the “Gap” and the “Strategic vision”. The “Gap” is a skeleton of the business problems of the organization. The “Vision” describes how the organization is going to work and what results should be achieved. Here the Senior Business Analyst forecast, quantifies and resolve issues with objectives. The Intermediate Business Analyst applies techniques in discussing requirements with clients and uses specific methods for Collecting Requirements. Junior Analyst assists in Requirements gathering using basic techniques. 
   
   
2. Understand Existing Process
   During this phase, all Levels of Business Analyst (Senior, Intermediate, and Junior) need to gain a better understanding of the existing processes, concerning what they do, how well or how poorly they perform, and the critical issues that govern their performance.
   
   
3. Identify Process for Re-design
   In this phase, the most important business processes are identified and are described from a global perspective using a set of process maps since it is unrealistic to reengineer all the high level processes of an organization at the same time. Therefore, it’s the job of Junior and Intermediate Level Business Analysts to identify which all processes need to be redesigned. This is a very important part of a BPR effort. Once the Processes are identified for reengineering, Senior Business Analyst forecasts the impact to customers, chances of successful reengineering and how it will contribute to organizations objectives.
   
   
4. Identification Change Levers
   During this phase, there are 3 levels of Business Analyst working. They are Senior Analyst, Intermediate Analyst, and Junior Analyst. Senior Business Analyst visualises the impact of the reengineered processes and decides which processes need to be redesigned. Intermediate Business Analyst and Junior Business Analyst are the sub processes who help in reengineering the identified processes.
   
   
5. Implementation of the identified business processes
   All the new business processes that are identified are implemented. The processes are implemented in such a way that a process management approach is followed.  Senior Business Analyst suggests concurrent changes in management approaches. The intermediate and Junior Business Analyst work on the changes suggested as by Senior Business Analyst.
   
   
6. Make new process Operational
   In this phase, the identified processes are made operational. Senior Business Analyst has the responsibility of monitoring the performance of the processes across the various functions involved. The intermediate Business Analyst examines cross-functional enhancements that are needed, and Junior Analyst work on the changes required.
   
   
7. Evaluate the new process
   Here all the processes are tested and performance is assessed based on the results. Also impact of new technologies on process improvement is evaluated. The Senior Analyst monitors user acceptance testing and responds to problems. The Intermediate Analyst prepares the test cases and test plans. Junior Analyst validates knowledge of test Strategies, plans and execution.
   
   
8. Ongoing Continuous Improvements
   Here set of procedures are put in place to monitor and measure continuous improvements in the redesigned processes by Senior Business Analyst. A redesigned process must include a set of measures which enable the firm to monitor and improve the performance of that processes. Intermediate and Junior Business Analysts work on the improvements suggested as by Senior BA using different Modelling Techniques and thus help in improving the efficiency of process cycle.
   
   

Impact of Business Process Reengineering through a case study

In 1990s, Mahindra and Mahindra, one of the largest Automobile Manufacturer was facing loses at its 2 plants (Igatpuri and Kandivali) in Maharashtra. Reasons for Loses were inefficiencies of the workers, corruption, poor productivity, long production cycle, sub-optimal output. They tried implementing various business schemes but failed. Then, eventually, they decided to implement Business Process Reengineering. It was kind of a risk for them as it was a new concept altogether in India. While implementing they just focused on two major things i.e reengineering the layout of the existing processes and changing the methods of working which help increasing the productivity of the company. Soon after the implementation, the first signs of benefits were evident. Earlier 70 engines were produced by 1200 employees but after implementing BPR 100 employees could produce 35 engines a day.

BPR implementation in M&M had seen radical change for the better not only in its functions but also in its results. As the technology keeps advancing and the processes get old and obsolete over a period of time, Reengineering of the processes becomes an important aspect as it helps business grow and enhance the working methodology.

About Author:

Nisha Bhatt is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: nisha.bhatt@spluspl.com