Operations management is an area of management concerned with overseeing, designing, and redesigning business operations in the production of goods

and/or services.

Operations Management deals with the design and management of products, processes, services and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want.

Business Process Re-engineering involves fundamental rethinking and radicial redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service & speed.

Automation Downsizing Outsourcing

Process Simplification Incremental Change Process-Led Assume Attitudes & Behaviors Management-Led Various Simultaneous Projects

Process Reengineering Radical Transformation Vision-Led Change Attitudes & Behaviors Director-Led Limited Number of Initiatives

Continuous Improvement Incremental Change People Focus Low Investment Improve Existing Work Unit Driven

Process Reengineering Radical Transformation People & Technology Focus High Investment Rebuild Champion Driven

A specific ordering of work activities across time and space, with a beginning, an end, and clearly identified inputs and outputs: a structure for action. (Davenport, 1993)

A group of logically related tasks that use the firm's resources to provide customeroriented results in support of the organization's objectives

Customers
Demanding Sophistication Changing Needs

Competition
Local Global

Change
Technology Customer Preferences

Complacency Political Resistance

New Developments
Fear of Unknown and Failure

BPR seeks improvements of

Cost Quality Service Speed

Although it is difficult to give generic advice on this, some factor that can be considered are: Is the competition outperforming the company by factor? Are there many conflicts in the organization? Is there an extremely high frequency of meetings? Excessive use of non- structure communication? Is a more continuous approach of incremental improvement?

Systems Philosophy Global Perspective on Business Processes Radical Improvement Integrated Change People Centred Focus on End-Customers Process-Based

Feedback

Inputs

Transformation

Outputs

Environment

Added Value
BPR Initiatives must add-value over and above the existing process

Customer-Led
BPR Initiatives must meet the needs of the customer

Sustainable
Process improvements need to become firmly rooted within the organization

Stepped Approach
Process improvements will not happen over night they need to be gradually introduced Also assists the acceptance by staff of the change

Viable Solutions
Process improvements must be viable and practical

Balanced Improvements
Process improvements must be realistic

Business Understanding Empowerment & Participation Organizational Culture

Organization can achieve radical changes in performance( as measures by cost, cycle time, service and quality) It boosts competitiveness in the operations network through lane and more productive processes. Reengineering encourages organizations to approaches to problem solving and to thing big revolutionary thinking. The slow, cautious process of incremental improvement leaves many organization unprepared to compete in todays rapidly changing market place. Reengineering helps organization make noticeable changes in the pace and quality of their response to customer needs.( i.e. Break through improvement)

Through reengineering, an organization can be transformed from a rule driven and job centered organization structure to marketing organization structure that focuses directly on the customer. Reengineering often result in radically new organizational designs that can help companies respond better to competitive pressures, increase market share and profitability and improve cycle times, cost rations, and quality.

The major accomplishment of the reengineering efforts is the change that occur in the corporate culture and the basic principles by which departments operate. Workers at all levels are encourage to make suggestions for improvement and to believes that management will listen to what they want to say. Reengineering will eventually help the culture in the organization to evolve from the insular one to one that accepts change and know how to deal with it. Reengineering has helped create more challenging and more rewarding job with broader responsibility for employees.

70 percent decrease in cycle time 40 percent decrease in costs 40 percent increase in customer satisfaction, quality, and revenue 25 percent growth in market share

Although business process reengineering is presented as a recipe for instant competitive advantage, it is not a panacea. Like any other management approach, how you apply it makes a difference. It is not simple or easily done, nor is it appropriate for all processes for all organizations. Many firms cant invest the time and resources to implement a radical. Clean slate approach.

Moderate gains that better fit corporate strategy and culture might give greater cumulative results than pursuit of break-through. Significant process improvements cannot be realized without use of the information technology. It is not enough if a firm improves its cross functional processes but also processes within each functional area must be improved. The best understanding of a process and how to improve it often lies with all people who perform the work each day nor cross- functional teams or top management.

Moderate gains that better fit corporate strategy and culture might give greater cumulative results than pursuit of break-through. Significant process improvements cannot be realized without use of the information technology. It is not enough if a firm improves its cross functional processes but also processes within each functional area must be improved. The best understanding of a process and how to improve it often lies with all people who perform the work each day nor cross- functional teams or top management.