نقش فناوری اطلاعات در مهندسی مجدد فرایند کسب و کار

This paper discusses the role of information technology in business process reengineering (BPR). BPR was introduced in manufacturing/service industries with the objective of changing the management of the supply chain. In manufacturing, the nature of material flow determines the type of information and decision support systems required to achieve system integration and hence the overall effectiveness of the system. A conceptual model has been developed in this paper to illustrate the role of information systems in BPR and the type of information systems required to integrate functional areas in manufacturing. Hammer's (1990) message “Reengineering work: don't automate, obliterate” stresses a radical process simplification as the way to reduce time and cost, and to eliminate or at least simplify processes, not just speed them up. There has been tremendous interest on how to simplify the process and hence the information system required for effective management of material flow in manufacturing. The implementation of BPR using innovative application of information technology (IT) aims at flexible, team-oriented, and cross-functionally co-ordinated management. A framework has been presented in the paper to design a more effective BPR system with the help of advanced IT. Finally, a summary and conclusions are presented.

Business process reengineering (BPR) concernsthe fundamental rethinking and radical redesign ofbusiness processes to obtain dramatic and sustainingimprovements in quality, cost, service, lead time,outcomes, flexibility and innovation. A group ofrelated tasks that together create value for a customeris called a business process. Common corporate goalshave been (a) customer satisfaction, (b) return oninvestment, and (c) market share (Hewitt, 1995). These require process inter-dependencies and systemdependencies that are established through integrationof various business processes. The basic objectivein BPR is to develop integrated inventory managementand logistics strategies and processes to ensuretheir implementation through procedures and systemsacross the company based on the business process.A business process can be identified as the typeof commodity that flows through the system. Forexample, a product development and its transformationinto a final product can be viewed as a process.BPR focuses on the whole process, say starting fromproduct conceptual stage to final product design.Process focus provides the opportunity to reengineerthe process or radically reduce the number ofactivities it takes to carry out a process with thehelp of modem IT (Hammer, 1990; Hammer andChampy, 1993; Peppard and Rowland, 1995). New developments in IT such as multimedia, image processingand expert systems can be used to reduce thenumber of non-value added activities. Organizationalrestructuring including job redesign, can be used toimprove the delivery process of goods and services.Process simplification is the first major step inBPR. Therefore, a process improvement team should be established with an objective to analyze the wholeprocess and then to identify non value-added activitiessuch as storage and inspection, and eliminate them.The delivery process emphasizes cross-functionalperformance rather than encouraging departmentaloptimization and the consequent system-wide suboptimization.The role of IT in re-engineering can be viewedfrom two perspectives: (i) the role of the IT function(e.g. Internet, Multimedia, EDI, CAD/CAM, ISDN),and (ii) the role of the technologies themselves (e.g.CD-ROM, ATM, fibre optics). The IT have playeda vital role in the success of the overall re-engineeringinitiative. Information management throughout thecompany should be encouraged to develop skills incomputer-aided systems engineering (Davenport andShort, 1990; Hewitt, 1995).Realizing the importance of IT in BPR, an attempthas been made in this paper to understand first the concept of BPR and its importance to improve thecompetitiveness of firms and second the role of IT inBPR. Finally, a framework has been presented thatprovides a stage-wise design of a BPR system. Theorganization of the paper is as follows: Section 2presents the concept of BPR. Advances in IT are discussedin Section 3. The role of information systemsin BPR is discussed in Section 4. Section 5 presentsa framework for the design of BPR system. A list ofsuggestions for BPR is presented in Section 6. Thefinal section contains the conclusions of the paper.

In this paper, a conceptual model and strategicframework are presented for BPR. The issues of BPRhave been discussed as well as the application of ITin BPR. Many companies address BPR through ITsuch as document image processing and expert systems.The authors believe that there is a substantialcommonality of processes across industry types. Thestrategic capability may vary. For example, engineerto-order companies will have strengths in the productdevelopment process, make-to-stock companies willhave to focus attention on the whole logistics supplychain. This should involve using manufacturingflexibility and IT to make the end product highlycustomized for the end user. Also, service industriesneed to use IT in their BPR for improving productivityand quality. The following are ED1 benefits: (i)reduced handling costs, (ii) reduced and consistentorder cycle lead times, (iii) reduction in stock, (iv) reduced risk of lost orders, (v) security, and (vi)close relationship with suppliers and customers. Theglobal view of the pipeline contains complex flowsof goods and information through multiple productionand distribution channels. To control these flowsand provide an efficient logistics system, the flow ofgoods must be backed up with an accurate and timely information system.