Week 7 – BPR Methodologies

Reference:
1) http://www.prosci.com/bpr_method.htm
2) Development of Business Process Reengineering Methodology for a Commercial Airline - Ayed T. Al-Amri
3) Business Process Reengineering: A Consolidated Methodology - Subramanian Muthu, Larry Whitman, and S. Hossein Cheraghi
4) Critical review of existing BPR methodologies, the need for a holistic approach - George Valiris, Michalis Glykas
5) Redesigning Enterprise Processes for e-Business, O. A. EI Sawy

Subject: Critical review in BPR methodologies
We have learnt Business process reengineering for weeks. BPR has lots of approach. Therefore, setting up methodologies is important in BPR to address each of the phases in BPR. Methodologies aim at improving what already exists in the organization usually by eliminating non value added activities in order to achieve lower throughput times and best re-allocation of resources.

The general methodology taught in lecture consists of 5 typical phrases:
1. Triggering & executive visioning
2. BPR Project mobilization
3. Process redesign
4. Implementation & organizational transformation
5. Monitoring & maintaining


In my opinion, the choice of technologies and methods within each phrase and the degree of relative emphasis of various aspects of phrases is contingent upon the context of BPR, such as the scope and depth of the BPR project, the nature of the organizational infrastructure, and the nature of the process.


Real-life example
According to "Development of Business Process Reengineering Methodology for a Commercial Airline", it uses two companies for case study to investigate and analyze their BPR methodologies, so as to propose a BPR methodology model for another commercial airline.

American Airlines (AA)


Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia)

Comparison of the AA and Saudia BPR methodologies

From the analysis of the two picked airline companies, American and Saudia Airlines, we can see that the BPR methodologies of the two companies are not the same, with different focuses in the BPR. AA focuses on the "Initiation" phrase while Saudia emphasized on the "Redesign" phrase.

From my point of view, I think that the generic model for BPR methodologies should be used for reference only, in order to customize a suitable BPR methodology for an organization so that it can meet the unique requirements and needs, and match with the visions of the organizations. Besides, it can take into account the current business position and situation of the organization.