Business Process Re-engineering (BPR): Concept | Business Process Reengineering in Public Sector

Introduction of Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is the process / method of emphasizing the improvement of the working processes of any organization. This is a revolutionary process. This process forgets the previous process and start from zero. The goal of business process re-engineering (BPR) is to dramatically increase or change efficiency, effectiveness and quality. It seeks holistic change within the organization. Changes are sought in each structure. BPR is not a continuous improvement, it is a revolutionary change. To restructure the organization's processes, activities, related systems and organizational structures through BPR in order to dramatically improve the work process. The BPR method is to forget the whole process of today and start a new process. There are four reasons why BPR is needed:

• Financial performance
• External competition
• Declining market share
• New opportunities created in the market, etc.

Business process re-engineering (BPR) does not mean down sizing, mechanization, restructuring, new technology, reorganization, etc. BPR is the testing and modification of the five major components of an organization. These include;

• Testing and changing strategies
• Testing and changing processes
• Testing and changing technology
• Testing and changing organizations
• Testing and changing culture, and so on. 

This concept of business process re-engineering (BPR) originally came from the private sector. Re-engineering, a 1993 book by Michael Hammer and James Champy, brought this idea to the force. According to the book, BPR is a process of fundamentally redesigning its business processes and revolutionizing its structure in order to dramatically change the way an organization performs. As in TQM, it incorporates customer control systems and culture and information systems strategies into the BPR process. TQM adopts small improvement processes but BPR improves and changes the whole process.

BPR Process: - BPR goes through the following five specific stages:

Business Process Re-engineering

• Define the goals and objectives of the BPR Process.
• Start the learning process with customers, employees and non-competitors and with new technologies.
• See the future today, to start the necessary new process.
• Planning will be done on the basis of projections and gaps in the existing process.
• Implementing appropriate solutions. 

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) in Public Sector

• BPR is more challenging to implement in the public sector than in the private sector.
• It seeks change and coordination between the lines of every authority of the bureaucracy.
• The more revolutionary change is sought in the government sector, the greater the risk, the more radical change, the more opposition.
• The US General Accounting Office has developed a guideline for the evaluation of BPR, in which nine issues are identified and placed in the following three major areas. 

Section 1:

1. Has the organization really re-evaluated its mission, fundamental and strategic goals?
2. Has the organization identified the performance problem and set the criteria for its improvement?
3. Has the organization really done re-engineering? 

Section 2:

1. Is this re-engineering process properly organized?
2. Has BPR's project team analyzed the intended targeting process and developed possible alternatives based on it?
3. Has the team implementing BPR prepared a healthy business case to implement the new process?

Section 3:

1. Has this organization followed the overall implementation plan?
2. Have the organization's chief executives addressed change management issues?
3. Did the new process achieve the expected results?

In the early stages, more than half of the Re-engineering (BPR) projects failed. So, there was a lot of discussion about the key to its success, and after 24 months of research into 150 BPR implemented companies, it was discovered that BPR could be implemented if the following things were done:

• Commitment of top management (strong / strong consistent engagement)
• Strategic affiliation (organization strategy and direction)
• Pressurized business case for change (with measurable purpose)
• With a clearly defined method (including future formatting)
• Effective change management (addresses cultural transformation
• Line ownership
• Re-engineering group structure (all necessary groups including those with knowledge)

---

You may also like to read:

• Participative Management in Public Administration

• Concept of Comparative Public Administration (CPA)

• Concept and Meaning of New Public Management (NPM)

• Future Trends and Implications of Public Administration

• Public Administration, Public Policy Making

• Concept and Meaning of Good Governance

---