17 February 2023

Business Process Reengineering: Tips & Techniques

The ultimate aim of a business is to remain profitable while providing best-in-class products and services to its customers. Every business has a set of processes that contribute a lot to making it profitable. However, a company's short-term and long-term objectives shift from time to time. In today’s time, when businesses are on the constant lookout for new ways to reduce costs and maximise outputs, coming up with new strategies is even more important. The reason behind this is simple: sticking to the old ones is not always the best thing for your business. There can be times when you realize that your existing business processes are not working as efficiently as you planned them to and that making some changes is necessary. In such a scenario, business process re-engineering is one of the first few things that come to mind.

What is Business Process Re-engineering?

Business process re-engineering is a concept that involves extensive rethinking to come up with an approach that fits the new goals. Sometimes, people confuse business process re-engineering with business process optimization, but they are two different things. Business process optimization involves tweaking a few things here and there, whereas reengineering is all about bringing in some seismic changes. Simply put, BPR rejects the existing rules and takes an unconventional route to rethink the entire approach.

There are several benefits that a business can reap with business process re-engineering. Some of these are:

• Increased Productivity
• Reduced Costs
• Better Customer Service
• Competitive Advantage

Tips and Techniques

Now that you know what business process re-engineering is and why it is important for your business, let’s discuss a few tips to make the most of it.

Identify the Need for Change

Before you get started, it is extremely important to understand the requirements of your business. There is no single solution that is perfect for every business. Every business has different requirements depending on its size and the current situation. So, mapping the current state of your business processes is the first step in re-engineering. For this, you will need to gather a lot of data from different sources. In short, a detailed business analysis can help you find the right processes to redesign.

Pick the Right Team

Now the next step is to put together the right team. The team you choose to execute the re-engineering plan holds great importance. An ideal team has to include different people for different roles, such as a key decision-maker, an operation manager, and the re-engineers.

Define KPIs

Before you go any further, it is important to define the KPIs, or key performance indicators, for the said process. This will also help you assess if you are going in the right direction towards your goals or not.

Design a Future-state Process Map

This is one of the most important steps in business process re-engineering. Once you are done making the changes, every concerned person must have a clear idea about how the new ones will work. You should have clear communication with all the relevant parties about the new process.

Assess the KPIs

Taking another look at the previously defined KPIs is the best way to assess efficiency. With the help of reports and dashboards, you can monitor if the new process is performing as expected or not. If not, a few more changes are required.

Business process re-engineering can prove to be a game changer for your business, but only when you do it the right way. With all these tips, you can make sure that you optimize your business process to achieve significant improvements in several aspects.