Week6 - BPR vs TQM, BPM

Lecture 6: Basics of BPR (2)

Total Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering
In this lecture, Total Quality Management (TQM) is introduced. It is a management approach for an organization to enhance customer satisfaction by improving the quality of products and services in an incremental manner.

Although there are some differences between BPR and TQM, they both are very important to the organizational environment. TQM is a management system that aims at long-term continuous improvements in customer satisfaction and real costs. BPR, on the other hand, is the rapid and radical redesign of strategic processes to optimize the workflow and productivity in an organization [1].

The following is the table of differences between BPR and TQM:

BPR	TQM
Revolution	Evolution
Quantum improvement	Incremental improvement
Top down approach	Bottom up approach
One-shot Project	Continuous Improvement
IT based	Possibly non-IT based

So, which one has more organizational benefits? In the lecture notes, it shows that the model combining BPR and TQM has the interdependence to provide the most effective and efficient business model.

Some may say that BPR programs should be followed by TQM’s long-term continuous improvements. BPR could later be used when another dramatic change is required [2]. TQM may be a natural extension of a successful BPR program, and BPR is the turning point of a TQM initiative.

Integrated approach to organizational change, combining tools from BPR and TQM is the most likely to have more organizational benefits. TQM enables the implementation of reengineering  by providing training and communication [3]. It is the breakthrough of TQM and BPR.

                                                                                                                                         

Business Process Management

Zairi (1997: 78) defines BPM as "an approach which is dependent on strategic elements, operational elements, use of modern tools and techniques, people involvement and, more importantly, on a horizontal focus which will best suit and deliver customer requirements in an optimum and satisfactory way" [4]



And gives out seven rules:
(1) Major activities have to be properly mapped and documented;
(2) BPM creates a focus on customers through horizontal linkages between key activities;
(3) BPM relies on systems and documented procedures;
(4) BPM relies on measurement activity to assess the performance;
(5) BPM has to be based on a continuous approach;
(6) BPM has to be inspired by best practice;
(7) BPM is an approach for culture change.


Implementing BPM is a strategy that aims at gaining competitive advantages. Ptocess Aligment is the core concept in the implementation of  BPM. It involves empowering employees towards common organizational goals.

                                                                                                                                         
Reference

[1]  Raymond Manganelli and Mark Klein, The Reengineering Handbook, Amacom, 1994
[2] Gary Salegna and Farzaneh Fazel, “An Integrative Approach for Selecting a TQM/BPR Implementation Plan,”
[3] http://asqcincinnati.org/Library/qm/TQMvsBPR.pdf
[4] http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14783360500249836
                                                                                                                                         

Comment on http://chankl-2107.blogspot.com/2012/02/week-5.html


"To characterize the specialties of business processes, the following 7 bullet points are generally adopted: 
• Definability: It must have clearly defined boundaries, inputs and outputs 
• Order: It is constituted by a sequence of activities 
• Customer: “Customer” means the recipient of the process' outcomes (person, organization, process) 
• Value-adding: It provides value to its customer 
• Cross-functionality: It may span across organizational/ departmental boundaries
• Repeated: It is repetitive 
• Sub-processes: A business process can normally be broken down into a finite series of sub-processes "

This seven categories are very useful for characterizing the business processes and redesign the business process. As we have to redesign the business process, it would be better to get understanding of the characteristic of the process. It would result in better redesign model of the business process.