Lecture 10: Redesign Principle I

Reference

M. Bliemel and K. Hassanein (2004). E-health: applying business process reengineering principles to healthcare in Canada. Int. J. Electronic Business, 2 (6), 625-643.

Principles and tactics of process redesign for e-business
http://www.slidefinder.naet/p/principles_tactics_process_redesign_business/20788706

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Reflection
In this lecture, the main focus is the principles and tactics for redesigning the business process.


The objectives of those principles and common tactics are:
(1)   Maximize the value-adding content of a process
(2)   Manage non-value adding activities 
(3)   Minimize repeated and redundant elements such as waste, valueless complexities.

Here is a diagram showing the respective tactics for each redesign principle:

There are numerous ways to improve the performance of a company. Business process redesign is one of the most important ways to improve the performance and efficiency of the company significantly. By applying the above principles, companies can clearly notice the areas that can make appropriate improvements as to let the company perform more cost-effectively and reduce unnecessary wastage.

Although the redesign principles define many areas for further improvement, a company should choose limited number of areas depending on the emergency of the need. For any BPR, the process should be made step by step to reduce the risk and the chaos made by BPR towards the company. If not, this may instead create negative effect to the company.

For every BPR projects, the company should first plan carefully and comprehensively with consideration of the extent of how much changes the company could bear. Later, they should prioritize the cost-effectiveness of each process that needed to be redesigned and do the least first as to test the reaction of the company such as the response of employees.

It is nearly impossible for any BPR project to satisfy all the principles. Therefore, the company should focus on certain principle according to the nature of business rather than aiming at satisfying all the principles.

Real-life example

Here are some realated cases for you to understand the application of the principles and tactics in the real world.

Healthcare service in Canada: E-health

Exisiting Problems:

Onaverage, patients have to wait for long hours. Also, there is lack of access to providers and information. Moreover, there are some medical errors.

Application of BPR principles and tactics:

Lose Wait: Reduction of waiting time when lab results are requested and when they are delivered through the utilisation of faster communication technologies such as email to shorten administrative delays.
    Tactics used: Designing for continuous flow, reconfiguring support activities to avoid bottlenecks.

Orchestrate: Coordinating between healthcare providers to balance workloads. For example, when one hospital has more beds for heart patients than another,  the two can share heart patients between them so that both facilities have similar capacity levels. This is more efficient than taking on patients until capacity is reached in one hospital and then redirecting new patients to other hospitals with  available beds.  When hospitals have less than 100% utilisation of capacity, medical staff have more time to tend to patients and to improve service possibly leading to a shorter length of stay for patients.
    Tactics used: Insourcing 

Mass-Customize: Provide flexibility of interaction options and service offerings to different  kinds of patients. This principle can be applied when communicating with patients that have different levels of health literacy, and who also have varying levels of interest  in managing their own health by researching health information online.  For example, patients could be offered multiple ways to access healthcare professionals when seeking advice – through telephone, email, or personal  appointments.

    Tactics used: Flexing Time & Space

Synchronize: Synchronise the physical and virtual parts of processes.To ensure that the online content accessed by consumers already serviced by a healthcare system also reflects the treatment options available under that healthcare system.
    Tactics: Match offerings

 Digitise and propagate: The benefits of digitising health records, workflows and health information are enormous because the information can be shared faster, and more controls can be put into place to ensure their accuracy and completeness.Patients enter their own medical histories and complaints as part of their medical records through a series of structured questions prior to the  consultation with a physician.
    Tactics used: Digitize at source, make the process paperless

Vitrify: When workloads and information about patients(which also follows privacy policies) is  shared – not only throughout individual hospitals but throughout the healthcare system  as a whole – management, researchers and policy makers can get a clearer picture of  problems and opportunities within the system. Understanding the healthcare system is easier  when this principle is applied, allowing on-the-fly analysis of trends and faster problem identification.
    Tactics used: On-demand Information Tracking, On-the-fly Reporting and Analysis

Sensitize: Sensors can be utilised to detect abnormalities within the system in case a patient has been  waiting longer than normal. Once abnormal situations in processes have been detected,  software agents can prompt action by notifying the care provider responsible for the patient. This principle also works well in the healthcare context as sensors monitoring patients’ conditions are already employed with the ability to alert staff when a patient’s medical condition changes.
    Tactics used: Monitor Environmental Change

Lecture 8 - Redesign Process I

 Reference
 1.The case of Chase Manhattan Bank
 http://info.sugoo.com/CN/Ebook/%E7%94%B5%E5%AD%90%E4%B9%A6%E7%B1%8D/%E8%BF%90%E4%BD%9C%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86/BRP%E5%9C%A8%E6%9B%BC%E5%93%88%E9%A1%BF%E9%93%B6%E8%A1%8C%E6%A1%88%E4%BE%8B%E5%88%86%E6%9E%90.pdf

Summary of lecture
This lecture took a deeper look on Process Redesign, i.e. one of the Five Phases Approach of BPR methodologies discussed in last lecture. It includes five steps, scoping, modeling, analysis, redesign and integration. In order to better understand the process, a case study of Paloma Bank was used to explain what should be exactly done during every phase.

Here are the steps for scoping the process:
1)        Operationalize process performance targets
2)        Define process boundaries
3)        Identify key process issues
4)        Understand best practices & define initial visions
5)        Familiarize participants with BPR software 
6)        Outline data collection plan & collect baseline data
7)        Plan for modeling phase


Example and Evaulation
Here is an example to apply process redesign of BPR in reality. According to the case of Chase Manhattan Bank as referenced, it explored the procedures of BPR in Chase Manhattan Bank from the planning stage. It investigated that BPR best suited for financial institutions. This case provided detailed information of this BPR. This can much strengthen our understanding of BPR and better get the core idea of BPR.

Then, how can the process be redesigned? We always see long queues for the counter service at the bank particularly at lunch hours. In fact, some bank branches have already redesign the process and solved this problem with the help of a machine at the entrance to estimate customers' waiting time. We can use it as an example to illustrate process redesign.

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1. Operationalize process performance targets:

1. To shorten customers' waiting time
2. To maintain short queues at the bank
3. To better allocate the resources

2. Define process boundaries:

Process name: Estimation of customers' waiting time
Process owners: Customer service officers
Process triggers: Customer walk into the bank
Sub processes:
     1. Front-end customer service (CS officiers ask customers the service they required and input to the machine)
     2. Backend calculation (calculate the estimated waiting time for the incoming customer according to the number of customers awaiting)
Process delivable: a ticket to the customer showing the estimated waiting time for the required banking service

3. Identify key process issues:

1. Algorithm for calculating the estimated waiting time
2. Flag areas requiring attention

4. Familiarize related CS officers with the BPR software

5. Outline data collection plan:

1. collect statistics to count the estimated service time per customers for each type of service, e.g. deposit & withdrawal, investment, enquires
2. collect data on customer flow at different time periods

 6. Plan for modeling:

1. Create scoping report to prepare for modeling the whole process

Lecture 7 - BPR Methodologies

Reference
1. "Redesigning Enterprise Processes for e-Business", O. A. EI Sawy
2.  http://www.plus.ie/bpr/papers/Critique%20of%20existing%20business%20process%20re-engineering%20methodologies.pdf


Summary of lecture
The BPR methodology is a structured set of guidelines/ principles that enables an analyst to derive ways for problem solving.

The general methodology taught in lecture consists of 5 typical phrases:
1. Triggering & executive visioning
2. BPR Project mobilisation
3. Process redesign
4. Implementation & organizational transformation
5. Monitoring & maintaining

 In fact, the choice of technologies and methods within each phrase and the degree of relative emphasis of various aspects pf phrases is contingent upon the context of BPR, such as the scope and depth of the BPR project, the nature of the organizational infrastructure, and the nature of the process.

Evaluation
As referred to the journal Critique of existing business process re-engineering methodologies – The development and implementation of a new methodology, it revealed the weakness of these methodologies and used 3 European construction companies as case studies to explain this belief.

This critique mainly focused on missing the element of human and organizational issues in most of the BPR methodologies,i.e. the human and organizational issues were not incorporated well in the proposed methodologies. Also ,it focused on cost and effectiveness of the methodologies, which stated that the cost spent might not be worth and might exceed the benefits made.

From my point of view, we should use these methodologies appropriately and adjusting it depending on the nature of the company. I think no BPR methodologies are perfect and the company can certainly get a success in BPR after adopting these methodologies. It is impossible to have a theory that can apply to all the companies perfectly and solve all problems. Also I think we should not reject any methodologies because of some minor mistakes.