These companies still employ web-based devices merely to speed up their entrenched routines of doing business; they suffer performance deficiencies as their core business processes are left untouched and problems undetected.

In times of rapid transformation and intensifying global competition, information technology can no longer serve as a tool of automating business transactions. It should serve as a catalyst for radically redesigning the core processes around which the company is organized.

Business process reengineering (BPR) helps to redefine the core processes of the company in a cross-functional manner using information technology. The aim is to tackle the problem of lack of cohesion underlying many of the conventional processes that are sequentially structured.

Even something as simple as the purchase of pencils in a business setting, not to mention other sophisticatedly designed or manufactured items, can be piecemeal as it frequently requires more than one person to handle a sequence of separate tasks including ordering, goods inspection, bookkeeping, and so forth. Because each person is inclined to focus on the tasks at hand and must wait for the action of another person before he can proceed, a lack of cohesion can interrupt the entire process and result in errors and delays.

The BRP approach can improve communication and cooperation among corporate staff by virtue of real-time computer networks, resulting in cross-functional, simultaneous process change. Moreover, real-time technology can do away with all the features of a company necessary to operate in the off-line world – hierarchies, paperwork, departmental boundaries, etc. – minimizing the risk of communication breakdowns and enhancing data accuracy.

A good example of this type of reengineering work is concurrent (or simultaneous) engineering (CE), which is prevalent in many manufacturing industries. CE occurs when the entire product development effort is specified simultaneously from the design to the final production phase.

Design technology with network capabilities such as the CAD (computer-aided design), a 3-D simulation technique used for product testing, is particularly important to CE. This technique allows designers to simultaneously collaborate with team members and avoid costly design revisions at later stages of the production process. Moreover, software advances also enable people in non-engineering fields, such as marketing and finance, to participate in the design activity at critical decision-making moments.

There are two major benefits to be realized from CE: production cost savings and improved speed of launching a product.

The application of CE to the US automobile industry has proven particularly successful. Some studies show that CE helps US car manufacturers to cut time to market by as much as 40 per cent of the industry average, at the same time reducing scrapping cost and improving company profit.

Admittedly, China's entry into the WTO will pose a serious threat to mainland businesses, whose management style is lagging behind that of most US-run companies. Although many businesses in China are in urgent need of transformation, considerable cultural differences between the two nations still remain an obstacle to applying the same principle [BRP] to Chinese businesses. By analogy with medical patients, Chinese people would need a different medical treatment from Americans.

For better or worse, BRP is a major undertaking for any company. Although reengineering activity is risky because it triggers changes in many areas of the company, it also offers the most benefit. However, people by nature are reluctant to change. If such activity is not handled with care, it can pose a real threat to company moral, and thus the whole effort will likely be met with disappointment.

If there is one thing that set reengineering on a successful path, it is management leadership with a strong vision.

CE is taught widely at universities worldwide, and is now included as part of the syllabus of some advanced management and marketing courses. Some engineering faculties also treat CE as a specialized subject – usually under the branch of Industrial Engineering – teaching students technical details about implementing a successful CE program.

Taken from Career Times 2002/12/06