Exploring the Business Process Re-Engineering: National Science Library’s Experience

The purpose of this paper is to make people aware that business process re-engineering (BPR) plays an important role for satisfying the users’ demand by redesigning the existing activities in the library system. BPR plays an important role for organizational structures also and provides a customer-focused improvement. This paper defines the BPR, the need for BPR in redesigning the activities, satisfying the goals and services of the library. Due to the changes in the information communication technology (ICT), the changes have been occurring in each and every field. The presentation identifies the existed scenario in the National Science Library (NSL – three years back) and suggested for the re-engineering activities in terms of infrastructure development, contents development / access, services using ICT facilities and the satisfaction of the users. Exploring the BPR for implementation in NSL has changed the visibility to everyone and now it is having better infrastructure like installation of additional systems, LAN facility (service extended), more rooms for CD-ROM database access; contents in electronic format along with print collections, e-consortia formation helped NSL to have more e-journals with full text access and services from issue / return has changed from the windows environment to LAN environment (use of e-granthalaya software for automation) are available over network. Proposals are being idenfied to implement RFID technology soon. It concludes that every library should try to implement the BPR activities and gain the benefit out of it

LINKING PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS WITH PROCESS IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS FOR BUSINESS PROCESS RE-DESIGN

This thesis presents research that extends current knowledge in the area of business process re-design, with a specific focus on the 'Make Product' process within manufacturing organisations. Current business process re-design approaches offer only limited guidance on the specific changes that can be made to a process when re-designing it to achieve the desired performance improvements and often overlook any strategically derived performance requirements when re-designing the process. Case experience suggests that practitioners do not consider the performance requirements of their business processes when re-designing them and that the actions they take to achieve performance improvements are not selected with regard to any strategically derived performance requirements. This exploratory research investigates whether relationships can be established between the changes that can be made to a process when re-designing it and the performance improvements gained by implementing those changes. It then questions whether those relationships can be used to help companies to select the appropriate process changes to implement in order to meet their specific performance requirements. Performance Requirements and process changes (Process Improvement Actions) were derived from the relevant literature and included in a questionnaire designed to ascertain the strength of relationships between them. The questionnaire was subject to preliminary and pilot testing to improve validation and reliability prior to being administered to international business process re-design 'experts'. Statistical analysis of the questionnaire data resulted in a ranked list of Process Improvement Actions for each of the Performance Requirements. These were presented in a format for inclusion in a process-based change handbook and enable the practitioner to set the agenda for the intervention and select the Process Improvement Actions on the basis of the Performance Requirements. The Performance Requirements should be derived from the strategy of the company or change programme so a strategic focus is maintained throughout re-design. It was also found that of the thirteen Process Improvement Actions included in the questionnaire just five are needed to achieve improvements in a majority (80%) of the performance requirements. This research showed that it is possible to establish links between Performance Requirements and Process Improvement Actions and according to successful validation by practitioners, against an accepted model, that these can be used for business process re-design, laying foundations for future research in the area

Practice-based Reflection: Considerations for Re-engineering Secondary Healthcare in New Zealand

Re-engineering is the "buzz" word of the nineties. Re-engineering has been successful in industry. Now the principals of re-engineering are being applied to healthcare. Considerations for re-engineering secondary healthcare in New Zealand will be examined in this literature review, which is divided into two sections. The first section provides the aims of the literature review, my background interest and knowledge of the topic, it's relevance to nursing practice, plans for addressing the literature review, and proposed sources of information. Section two illustrates the learning contract to manage the task of conducting the literature review. It identifies timelines for managing the project and agreed arrangements for communication with my mentor. Finally, a report will address my progress in relation to my learning contract articulating insights gained and hopes and dreams for successfully incorporating process re-engineering in my area of nursing and midwifery practice in the future

Empirical modelling for participative business process reengineering

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new broad approach to computing - Empirical Modelling (EM) - and to propose a way of applying this approach for system development so as to avoid the limitations of conventional approaches and integrate system development with business process reengineering (BPR). Based on the concepts of agency, observable and dependency, EM is an experiencebased approach to modelling with computers in which the modeller interacts with an artefact through continuous observations and experiments. It is a natural way of working for business process modelling because the modeller is involved in, and takes account of, the real world context. It is also adaptable to a rapidly changing environment as the computer-based models serve as creative artefacts with which the modeller can interact in a situated and open-ended manner. This thesis motivates and illustrates the EM approach to new concepts of participative BPR and participative process modelling. That is, different groups of people, with different perceptions, competencies and requirements, can be involved during the process of system development and BPR, rather than just being involved at an early stage. This concept aims to address the well-known high failure rate of BPR. A framework SPORE (situated process of requirements engineering), which has been proposed to guide the process of cultivating requirements in a situated manner, is extended to participative BPR (i.e. to support many users in a distributed environment). Two levels of modelling are proposed for the integration of contextual understanding and system development. A comparison between EM and object-orientation is also provided to give insight into how EM differs from current methodologies and to point out the potential of EM in system development and BPR. The ISMs (interactive situation models), built using the principles and tools of EM, are used to form artefacts during the modelling process. A warehouse and logistics management system is taken as an illustrative case study for applying this framework

Rethinking the risk matrix

So far risk has been mostly defined as the expected value of a loss, mathematically PL (being P the probability of an adverse event and L the loss incurred as a consequence of the adverse event). The so called risk matrix follows from such definition. This definition of risk is justified in a long term “managerial” perspective, in which it is conceivable to distribute the effects of an adverse event on a large number of subjects or a large number of recurrences. In other words, this definition is mostly justified on frequentist terms. Moreover, according to this definition, in two extreme situations (high-probability/low-consequence and low-probability/high-consequence), the estimated risk is low. This logic is against the principles of sustainability and continuous improvement, which should impose instead both a continuous search for lower probabilities of adverse events (higher and higher reliability) and a continuous search for lower impact of adverse events (in accordance with the fail-safe principle). In this work a different definition of risk is proposed, which stems from the idea of safeguard: (1Risk)=(1P)(1L). According to this definition, the risk levels can be considered low only when both the probability of the adverse event and the loss are small. Such perspective, in which the calculation of safeguard is privileged to the calculation of risk, would possibly avoid exposing the Society to catastrophic consequences, sometimes due to wrong or oversimplified use of probabilistic models. Therefore, it can be seen as the citizen’s perspective to the definition of risk

Πρότυπο μοντέλο επιχειρησιακών διαδικασιών στην τεχνική ανάπτυξη νέων προϊόντων

Παρουσίαση ενός Ολοκληρωμένου Μοντέλου που αφορά την τεχνική Ανάπτυξη Νέων προϊόντων, από το στάδιο της σύλληψης της αρχικής ιδέας μέχρι την κατασκευή του Προϊόντος και την έναρξη της σειριακής παραγωγή

Business process re-engineering and organisational change : evaluation of implementation strategies

This thesis is based on research carried out within the CONDOR project funded underthe European ESPRIT programme, which is a partnership between English, French,and Swedish construction companies. The thesis aims at presenting empiricalevidence and discussion that moves toward a theory of successful implementation ofchange initiatives such as business process re-engineering trying to identif' its maincomponents. The thesis challenges the concept of business proàess re-engineeringtrying to add to the body of knowledge in this area through the development of a newbusiness process re-engineering methodology applied and evaluated in the three casestudies which were participated in the research.The research methodology used is a combination of quantitative and qualitativeresearch methods (triangulation technique). A major element of the thesis is theempirical work carried out, in which the researcher was actively involved using thenew business process re-engineering methodology.The analysis of both qualitative and quantitative results showed that the basis of asuccessful business process re-engineering should concern the development of someorganisational characteristics, which would prepare the organisation for a moreholistic form of organisational change.Finally, the thesis draws together the different problems and questions that arise inorder to develop a business process re-engineering strategy, based upon the literatureand empirical findings, in order to improve organisational effectiveness and help theorganisations to survive in a continuously changing environment

Business process re-engineering in UK universities

The thesis starts by examining the environment surrounding UK universities and concludes that external pressures are forcing universities to change. Internal pressures, largely resulting from rapid growth and lack of business systems are also adding to the argument for change. Having concluded that UK universities do indeed need to become more: customer focused; flexible; and efficient - the thesis then puts forward the hypotheses that: • Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) may provide UK universities with a methodology for change; but that the contextual differences between UK universities and business enterprises are so great that existing BPR methodologies couldn't be easily adopted by universities in the UK; • yet, existing methodologies may be used as a basis for creating a methodology designed specifically for UK universities. On reviewing existing BPR methodologies in light of the contextual differences between UK universities and business enterprises, it was concluded that existing methodologies were indeed inappropriate for the university context. The remainder of the thesis documents work carried out in order to develop a more appropriate methodology for the UK university sector. Firstly the results of a quantitative survey aimed at establishing how many UK universities have tried to use Business Process Re-engineering are reported. Secondly the results of a more in-depth, qualitative, investigation are documented. The qualitative research took the form of in-depth interviews with personnel involved in "BPR" exercises in ten UK universities. The drivers for change, the methodologies employed, the problems and the success factors are documented in this thesis. Having analysed the results of this research, a methodology for Business Process Re-engineering in UK universities is developed and documented. Based on feedback received from academics, practitioners and consultants alike, the thesis concludes that the methodology represents a contribution to current knowledge.The thesis starts by examining the environment surrounding UK universities and concludes that external pressures are forcing universities to change. Internal pressures, largely resulting from rapid growth and lack of business systems are also adding to the argument for change. Having concluded that UK universities do indeed need to become more: customer focused; flexible; and efficient - the thesis then puts forward the hypotheses that: • Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) may provide UK universities with a methodology for change; but that the contextual differences between UK universities and business enterprises are so great that existing BPR methodologies couldn't be easily adopted by universities in the UK; • yet, existing methodologies may be used as a basis for creating a methodology designed specifically for UK universities. On reviewing existing BPR methodologies in light of the contextual differences between UK universities and business enterprises, it was concluded that existing methodologies were indeed inappropriate for the university context. The remainder of the thesis documents work carried out in order to develop a more appropriate methodology for the UK university sector. Firstly the results of a quantitative survey aimed at establishing how many UK universities have tried to use Business Process Re-engineering are reported. Secondly the results of a more in-depth, qualitative, investigation are documented. The qualitative research took the form of in-depth interviews with personnel involved in "BPR" exercises in ten UK universities. The drivers for change, the methodologies employed, the problems and the success factors are documented in this thesis. Having analysed the results of this research, a methodology for Business Process Re-engineering in UK universities is developed and documented. Based on feedback received from academics, practitioners and consultants alike, the thesis concludes that the methodology represents a contribution to current knowledge