[Whitepaper] Dimensions of Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

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Framework Primer
Dimensions of Business
Process Reengineering (BPR)
Presentation created by
Measurements
and incentives
Shared Values
Roles and
Responsibilities
Information
Technology
Organizational
Structure
Skills
1 3 5
2 4 6

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Contents
Overview
Business Study
Dimensions of BPR
Templates
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This presentation provides an understanding of Business Process
Reengineering (BPR) and its 2 dimensions—Breadth and Depth
Highly successful companies have demonstrated innovative approaches to expanding
the dimensions of their reengineering projects.
In all too many companies, reengineering has been not only a great success but also a great failure. After
months, even years, of careful redesign, these companies achieve dramatic improvements in individual
processes only to watch overall results decline.
The promise of reengineering is not empty. It can actually deliver revolutionary process improvements, and major
reengineering efforts are being conducted around the world. Yet, companies cannot convey these results to the
bottom line.
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a practice of rethinking and redesigning the way work is done to better
support an organization’s mission and reduce costs. In the process, there are 2 dimensions that are critical in
translating these short-term narrow-focus process improvements into long term profits. Organizations just need
to have a good grasp of these dimensions to effectively manage process improvements.
This framework provides organizations an in-depth understanding of BPR and its 2 dimensions:
Breadth and Depth are critical in translating short-term, narrow focus process improvements into long-term
profits.
This deck also includes slide templates for you to use in your own business presentations.
1 Breadth (of Process Redesigned)
2 Depth (of Business Change)
Presentation Overview

Contents
Overview
Business Study
Dimensions of BPR
Templates

BPR is a Business Management Strategy focused on the analysis and
design of workflows and business processes within an organization
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is also known as Business Process Redesign,
Business Transformation, or Business Process Change Management.
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) – Overview
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is the practice of rethinking and redesigning the way work
is done to better support an organization’s mission and reduce costs.
Companies direct Process Reengineering
initiative on 2 key areas of business.
Help organizations fundamentally rethink
how work must be done to improve
customer service, cut operational costs,
and become world class competitors.
Help companies radically restructure their
organizations by focusing on the ground-
up design of their business processes.
Encourages full scale recreation of
processes rather than iterative
optimization of sub-processes.
BPR can impact the organization through a few
primary ways:
Use of modern technology to enhance
data dissemination and decision-making
process.
Alteration of functional organizations to
form functional teams.
1
2

A detailed analysis of 20 Organizations was conducted to determine why
reengineering results are not conveyed to the bottom line
Breadth and Depth are 2 factors that can critically contribute to the success of Business
Process Reengineering.
Business Study – Overview
The promise of reengineering is not empty. It can actually deliver revolutionary process improvements
and major reengineering efforts are being conducted around the world. Yet, these results are not
conveyed to the bottom line.
Redesigns are difficult to plan, implement, and often fail to achieve
real business unit impact.
Breadth and depth can translate short term, narrow focus process
improvements into long term profits.
Lasting results can be achieved only if senior executives invest
their time and energy.
A research into reengineering projects in more than 100 companies was
conducted with detailed analysis of 20 of these projects.

• Redesign projects often aim at processes that are too
narrow and change only 1 or 2 of the depth levers.
• Even with sufficient depth, efforts still focus on a
narrowly defined process with little discernible impact
on overall performance.
• Managers analyze improvements relative to the
process being designed not the business unit as a
whole.
• Performance tracking mechanisms are never
developed to measure results.
The study of 20 organizations showed that most Process Reengineering
efforts had little measurable impact on the overall business unit
The need to expand the dimensions of the redesign project is critical for it to be successful.
Business Study – Results
Results of the study of 20 organizations revealed a few common missteps in Process Reengineering
efforts.
Only 6 of 20 companies analyzed
achieved an average 18% reduction
in business unit costs.
Performance improvements reflected
along multiple dimensions.
Reengineering projects were
designed and conducted in strikingly
similar ways.

Narrow process improvements do not yield bottom line results
Narrow process successes have led senior executives to expect overall business unit
improvements to follow suit—yet, this does not always follow.
Business Study – Results (Details and Dimensions)
Performance improvements in 11 of 20 organizations studied in detail measured less than 5%.
Source: How to Make Reengineering Really Work; Hall, Rosenthal, Wade; Harvard Business Review; 1993
A B
C
D
E
F
G H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
T
Breadth
of process
redesigned
Depth of
business
change
Projected cost savings, Impact of breadth and depth
S
Cost reduction at a percent of
Total business-unit costs
Process
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
European retail banks a
European retail banks b
US electronics manufacturer
US hotel chain
US bank (operating product)
European computer manufacturer
UK consumer company
UK life insurer
US computer manufacturer
US retailer
US insurance company
US computer processor
Pacific-Rim life insurer
Pacific-Rim industrial company
European industrial (US division)
European industrial
European commercial banks a
European commercial banks b
US agriculture company
US information-services company

Contents
Overview
Business Study
Dimensions of BPR
Templates

There are 2 dimensions of BPR—Breadth and Depth—together, they help
us drive short term process improvements into long term results
Only projects that are sufficiently broad and sufficiently deep can produce widespread and
long-lasting bottom line results.
Dimensions of BPR – Overview
To better understand BPR, let us define and understand 2 dimensions of BPR. The dimensions of BPR
are critical in translating short term, narrow focus process improvements into long term profits.
Depth (of Business
Change)
Breadth
(of Process
Redesigned) • How many and how much of the depth
levers change as a result of reengineering.
• Redesign must penetrate to the company’s
core, fundamentally changing 6 crucial
organizational elements.
• The range of activity types within a
process.
• The process to be redesigned must
be broadly defined in terms of cost
or customer value to improve
performance across the entire
business unit.

Breadth is a dimension of BPR that focuses on the range of activity types
within a process
Many reengineering efforts fail because of insufficient process breadth.
Breadth – Overview
DESCRIPTION
• Identification of activities included in the
process being redesigned that are critical for
value creation in the overall business unit.
• Cost reduction measured as a percent of the
business unit as a whole.
IMPORTANCE
• If more activities are in the process, the
improvements are more likely to extend throughout
the entire business unit.
• If a process includes interrelated activities,
incremental opportunities can be identified that
normally would not surface in single function
performance improvement efforts.
DIMENSION
Breadth of Process
Redesigned

Breadth reduces overall business unit costs
Broadening the range of BPR can open opportunities for change not visible in the narrow
process.
Breadth – Impact
Greater impact is achieved when one or more processes that comprised most of the critical
activities in the business unit are redesigned.
Cost reduction as a percent of the business unit
20 company sample
Narrowest
Single activity
Broadest
All business
activities that
drive competitive
advantage.
Single
function

Breadth can reveal unexpected opportunities for redesign
The breadth of BPR can open a range of opportunities that can lead organizations
to achieve innovative performance and enhancements.
Breadth – Opportunities for Redesign
There are numerous opportunities that emerge as we look into the breadth dimension of BPR. These types
of opportunities along with examples are presented below.
Example
Problem
• Errors in order entry at a US computer company
were caused by sales representatives who
incorrectly configured systems. As a result, the
cost of the sales and order process was 30%
higher than that of competitors, and the error
rates for some products were as high as 100%.
Redesign
• The cross-functional redesign fixed
both the configuration problems and
sales-force skills so that on-time
delivery improved at significant cost
savings.
Eliminate problems
caused upstream of
activity
• The processing of a new policy at a UK
insurance company involved ten handoffs and
took at least 40 days to complete.
• A case-manager approach was
implemented so that only one hand-
off occurred, and the policy was
processed in less than seven days.
Remove delays or errors
during handoffs between
functional areas
• At a US electronics equipment manufacturer,
seven possible job titles in three different
functions were involved in the nine steps
required to provision hardware.
• All but two job titles were
eliminated, leaving one job in sales
and one job in manufacturing.
Combine steps that span
businesses and/or
functions

Depth is a dimension of BPR that focuses on the abstraction levels
of process logic within a process
Many reengineering efforts fail because of insufficient process breadth.
Depth – Overview
DESCRIPTION
• Refers to how many and how much of the
depth levers change as a result of
reengineering.
• Cost reductions measured as a percent of the
process being redesigned.
IMPORTANCE
• Provides the most dramatic process cost reduction.
• Avoid the classic reengineering pitfall of focusing on
fixing the status quo.
DIMENSION
Depth of Business
Change

Depth reduces specific process costs
Companies that effectively manipulated the 6 Depth Levers to bring about behavioral
change experienced the most dramatic process cost reduction.
Depth – Impact
Greater performance improvement is achieved when an effective transformation of the depth
levers is undertaken.
Cost reduction as a percent of the process
20 company sample
Unidimensional
structure
or skills
or IT systems
or roles
or measurements/
incentives
or shared values
Multidimensional
structure
and skills
and IT systems
and roles
and measurements/
incentives
and shared values

The depth of BPR, as the core in the organization’s redesign, requires
the pursuit of practical changes in 6 identified Depth Levers
The successful redesign of a broad process requires the complete restructuring of the key
drivers of behavior to ensure that actual results measure up to the redesign plan.
Depth – Depth Levers
There 6 depth levers that need to be addressed to achieve success in Process Reengineering.
An effective transformation
of the 6 depth levers requires
a clean slate approach to
Process Redesign.
Measurements
and incentives
Shared Values
Roles and
Responsibilities
Information
Technology
Organizational
Structure
Skills

Contents
Overview
Business Study
Dimensions of BPR
Templates

Insert headline
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Dimensions of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) – TEMPLATE
Depth (of
Business Change)
Breadth (of
Process
Redesigned)
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text, filler text, filler
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Insert headline
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The 6 Depth Levers – TEMPLATE
Measurements
and incentives
Shared Values
Roles and
Responsibilities
Information
Technology
Organizational
Structure
Skills
1 3 5
2 4 6

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Flevy (www.flevy.com) is the marketplace
for premium documents. These
documents can range from Business
Frameworks to Financial Models to
PowerPoint Templates.
Flevy was founded under the principle that
companies waste a lot of time and money
recreating the same foundational business
documents. Our vision is for Flevy to
become a comprehensive knowledge base
of business documents. All organizations,
from startups to large enterprises, can use
Flevy— whether it's to jumpstart projects, to
find reference or comparison materials, or
just to learn.
Contact Us
Please contact us with any questions you may have
about our company.
• General Inquiries
support@flevy.com
• Media/PR
press@flevy.com
• Billing
billing@flevy.com

[Whitepaper] Dimensions of Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

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[Whitepaper] Dimensions of Business Process Reengineering (BPR)