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Business process
reengineering: a survey of
international experience
Majed Al-Mashari,
Department of Information Systems, CCIS, King Saud University,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Business process
reengineering
437
Zahir Irani
Department of Information Systems and Computing, Brunel University,
London, UK, and
Mohamed Zairi
European Centre for TQM, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK
Keywords
Business process re-engineering, Information technology, Total quality management,
Organizational change
Abstract
Despite the widespread adoption of business process re-engineering (BPR), it has in
many cases repeatedly failed to deliver its promised results. The lack of integrated implementation
approach to exploiting BPR is seen as one of the important reasons amongst others, behind BPR
failures. Yet, a relative void in the literature remains the scarcity of suitable models and
frameworks that address the implementation issues surrounding BPR. This motivates the
presented study to attempt to provide a ``frame of reference’’ with which current practices can be
re-positioned. A survey was therefore designed to collect data from a sample of organizations in
the USA and Europe. The survey assesses the level of importance placed on the essential elements
of integrated BPR implementation. In doing so, the study was also able to identify the level of
maturity of BPR concepts within organisations. Empirical findings are then discussed in the
context of other studies.
Introduction
Increases in consumer requirements for both product and service efficiency and
effectiveness has resulted in business process reengineering (BPR). The
reengineering of business processes is concerned with fundamentally
rethinking and redesigning business processes to obtain dramatic and
sustaining improvements in quality, cost, service, lead-times, outcomes,
flexibility and innovation (Hammer and Champy, 1993).
Watts (1995) calls for the need to establish an integrative and holistic view
on BPR. Al-Mashari and Zairi (2000, p. 36) define holistic BPR as:
. . .a
continuum of change initiatives with varying degrees of radicalness supported by IT
means, at the heart of which is to deliver superior performance standards through
establishing process sustainable capability.
Along similar lines, Andreu
et al.
(1997) and Watts (1995) believe that holistic
BPR should recognize the importance of processes and technology and their
integration in business vision, structure and relationships, resources and
culture. Yet, research studies that claim to adopt a holistic perspective are still
Business Process Management
Journal, Vol. 7 No. 5, 2001,
pp. 437-455.
#
MCB University
Press, 1463-7154
BPMJ
7,5
lacking many critical constructs, as found by Deakins and Makgill (1997,
p. 104) who state that:
. . .there
is limited evidence that broad implementation issues are now being addressed to the
same extent as the (previously dominant) IT issues
438
Survey studies like those of Mitchell and Zmud (1995), Doherty and Horsted
(1996), Braganza and Myers (1996) and Kohli and Hoadley (1997) do not
address BPR implementation factors from a holistic view. Even some large
industry surveys (e.g. ProSci, 1997), that have attempted to enhance the
understanding of BPR, fail to capture some of the dimensions that the holistic
perspective demands. Other work that has addressed BPR success factors, has
been largely anecdotal in nature or based on single organisations (e.g.
Davenport, 1993; Davidson, 1993). Although, Vakola and Rezgui (2000) go
some way to extrapolating key success factors through critiquing development
and implementation BPR methodologies. Clearly, an exploratory survey study
is necessary to achieve an assessment and generalizability, as well as providing
additional richness about some pertinent concepts and issues involved in
implementing the BPR holistic perspective.
BPR: definitions and barriers
Much of management’s difficulty in understanding BPR centres around the
inherent difficulty in defining the constituents of a ``business process’’ (Nickols,
1998). This presents much difficulty, as it then becomes unclear what is
actually being reengineered. Irani
et al.
(2000) provides a comprehensive review
of differing opinions on what constitutes a business process. Similarly, Al-
Mashari and Zairi (2000, 1999) review the BPR literature and show that there is
no clear and agreed definition of this term. Examples of definitions
extrapolated by Irani
et al.
(2000) include:
``a set of activities that, taken together, produces a result of value to a
customer’’ (Hammer and Champy, 1993);
``a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business
outcome’’ (Davenport and Short, 1990);
``an ordering of work activities with a beginning, end, and clearly identified
inputs and outputs’’ (Davenport, 1993); and
``any sequence of pre-defined activities executed to achieve a pre-specified
type or range of outcomes’’ (Talwar, 1993).
Al-Mashari and Zairi (2000) suggest that reengineering of business processes
involves changes in people (behaviour and culture), processes and technology.
As a result, there are many factors that prevent the effective implementation of
BPR and hence, restrict innovation and continuous improvement. These are
identified by Irani
et al.
(2000) to include loss of nerve, focus and stamina;
senior management who are comfortable in their ``ivory towers’’; lack of
``holistic’’ focus and settling for minor improvement gains; human and
organisational issues; organisational culture, attitudes and skills based; and
Business process
resource restrictions and fear of information technology (IT).
reengineering
BPR’s promised business benefits, in most cases, remain very elusive and
the problems it creates are a bigger distraction than it could have been
anticipated. Numerous surveys and reports highlight the problems associated
with BPR implementation. Some of the problems associated with the BPR
439
concept include for instance the following areas:
BPR appeals to senior managers because it promises the quickest short
cut to success and business excellence.
The concept itself has a lot of appeal because it is simple to absorb and
its rules are not too complex.
BPR promises immediate benefits and major leaps in competitive
performance. This is very compatible with a culture of ``short termism’’
in the West.
BPR is promoted as a better alternative to other modern management
concepts such as total quality management (TQM), since it is supposed to
be less costly to implement and guarantees real benefits much more quickly.
BPR in most cases refers to the implementation of hard solutions dealing
with soft problems, thus suggesting that the use of IT for instance will
go a long way to making businesses more effective and securing future
competitiveness.
Research methodology and framework
Table I summarizes the themes and findings of six representative empirical
studies on a variety of BPR issues. These studies show the importance of this
study in eliciting the experience of organisations regarding elements and key
factors in holistic BPR implementation (Figure 1). This is clearly targeting the
``what’’ components of research (structural components), and it requires a
possible large sample and a wide range of organisations. Given the nature of
the topic, and as supported by Eisenhardt (1989) and Yin (1989), this type of
inquiry favours the use of an exploratory structured questionnaire survey. This
study attempts to unify the available writings and research work, which
mostly represent different schools of thought on BPR implementation. As a
result, groups and categories are extrapolated from the literature, and
represented by a set of structural elements based on which a large-scale mail
survey can be designed and used to collect data.
This study begins with a comprehensive review of relevant literature on
BPR implementation. The literature review provides a grounding of the
research and focus, as well as establishing a basis for developing the research
instrument. The identified key components in BPR implementation represented
the structural elements that make up the questionnaire survey.
A standardised questionnaire was developed to elicit data from a large
sample of organisations in the USA and Europe. The rationale for choosing the
BPMJ
7,5
Author
Doherty and
Horsted (1996)
Themes of research
Organisations becoming increasingly aware of cost of survivor
syndrome during and after BPR
Managing both leavers and survivors a necessity in managing
major change
Successful BPR must consider people-related issues at three
levels: organisational change, personal transition and
psychological contract
Organizations that have adopted TQM show greater use of
strategic and process management techniques,
benchmarking, and self-assessment in BPR efforts
On project basis, BPR appears less successful at TQ
organisations
Ensuring sponsorship, creating strategic alignment, building
strong teams, establishing business case for change, using
proven methodology, and managing change effectively are
areas critical to successful BPR projects
Ranking of management philosophies, objectives, and techniques
associated with BPR
BPR practice in terms of duration, initiators, scope, success
factors, and drivers
Degrees of awareness of BPR by different management
personnel
Ranking of key reasons for doing BPR
BPR is adopted alongside other change initiatives
Identifying degree of importance and difficulty associated with
five essential items
BPR concepts and tools assessed considered useful
BPR effective approach to improve competitiveness
BPR not a passing fad
40 percent of responding organisations are planning for more
BPR in future
440
Zairi and Sinclair (1995)
ProSci (1997)
Hewitt and Yeon (1996)
Braganza and
Myers (1996)
Kohli and Hoadley (1997)
Table I.
Emprical surveys on
various BPR issues
USA and Europe is justified by Deakins and Makgill’s (1997) findings that
suggest BPR practice has more presence in these parts of the world than others.
The survey was an attempt to assess the level of importance of the elements
that constitute the holistic approach to BPR implementation. It was also aimed
at identifying the level of maturity of BPR concepts and practices. Moreover, it
sought to provide assessment of the level of familiarity, experience and
comprehension of the essential elements of BPR within the sample
organisations.
The organisations that took part in this survey were chosen from three main
sources, the
American Society for Quality Directory
(1998), the
European
Foundation for Quality Directory
(1997), and the
Strategic Planning Society
Directory
(1998) of the UK. These three societies have a long-established
history, particularly in relation to business performance improvement through
Business process
reengineering
441
Figure 1.
Holistic BPR framework
adopted
strategic programmes of TQM and BPR-related changes. These directories list
the names and addresses of the organisations’ representatives (e.g. directors,
quality managers, and process improvement managers). Addressing the
questionnaires to these representatives directly (rather than to the organisation
anonymously) was thought to enhance the chance of getting back a quick and
effective response. Moreover, the membership of all these societies is
subscription-based. This gives more confidence in the relevance and quality of
the population from which organisations were sampled. Two major BPR
newsgroups on the Internet, (BPMI@quality.org) and (BPR-IAC@quality.org),
were also used to gain more participation in the survey.
This study planned to obtain responses from different industries, so that
generalisation of the findings could be established. However, the selection
process was made semi-randomly, as some organisations which are known
from the literature for their mature experiences with BPR were intentionally
selected. Nonetheless, it is the case that many other organisations were not
selected on this basis. As supported by Trochim (1997) and Vaus (1985), this
approach can ensure a balance between richness and quality of data obtained

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