Business Process - set of sequential steps followed to obtain a desired result. Whereas Business Process Re-engineering - steps taken to de-design the current process in order to meet Organization’s goal and objective (cost, quality, service, speed so on). This concept is adopted in early 1990.
BPR is a 4 step methodology:
Step 1 is to identify process
One of the toughest questions is to identify the process. There are several processes in an organization which can be categorized as “Core and Support process”. BPR concepts should be applied on Core process for the better results.
Core processes are those which are related to vision of the organization. Core process (es) provides organization competitive advantage, creates value for customer and are aligned to organization vision
Eg- In Banks core process is providing financial services. For a food processing company any process related to production, packaging and shipment of food are core processes. For a back office completing the transaction on time and with minimal error are the core processes. All the other process could be termed as Support process
Step 2 Review and Analyze
In step 2 “As-is” core processes is reviewed and if required perform some process improvement and see if the output is improving. Even after the changes if the output (desired result) is not impacted much analyze the reason for the low output. Use tool like 5Why analysis to analyze the root cause of the As is processs
Step 3-Design To be
As part of this step “Design To be process” which might require changes in People/Processes/Technologies. Tools used here to design new process as “Benchmarking” the process which best in class within same industry or different industries
Step 4 -Test and Implement
Once “To be” process is defined, next step is pilot testing (the new concept is tested on a very small area or in controlled environment). Once the pilot testing is successful, implement the “To-be process in one go (if process identified is small) or in phased manner (if the process is lengthy). Post successful implementation start from Step 1 for the new process re-engineering.
In case of failure of pilot test (means that either analysis or the “To-be” process is not right, hence it is re-commended to start from the beginning)
DMADV-(Define, Measure, Analyze, Design and Validate)
Since BPR focuses on re-think and re-design the process hence traditional Six Sigma DMADV would be on line with the concept. Integration DMADV will enhance the BPR study as Six Sigma focus on the variation reduction and is a customer/business centric approach.
Once the core process is identified in Step 1 of BPR its advantageous to introduce DMADV which will help in:
1) Introduction of DMADV will help business to view the process end-to-end from business and customer value point. Hence focus will be more than cost reduction
2) DMADV is a structure approach and is a robust methodology, which also emphasize on cross –functional groups and better stake holder management
3) DMADV will be more focused towards the area where the solution are unknown
4) It’s a metric driven approach hence post improvement using Six Sigma concepts will help in analyzing the actual benefit in terms of metric movement
5) Apart from the as a practice in Six Sigma – it also focuses on sustenance of the improvement
Hence DMADV will complement BPR and will result in better yield to the vision of the Organization.