9.2.5 Re-engineering
Process re-engineering necessitates escaping the conceptual parameters imposed by past ideas and ways of 'doing things'. Such an approach is often termed a greenfields approach to reform or change. A greenfields approach requires those involved in a re-engineering exercise to rethink everything they do. Starting with a blank white board their rethinking of a process must:
- Suspend reference to existing practices and traditional concepts;
- Start process design from the output service/product delivered and the external customer requirements;
- Define process relationships by mapping the ideal or optimal internal customer relationships that can support external customer requirements;
- Derive ideal and optimal procedures and relationships without initial regard as to 'why we cannot do this';
- Frame new performance targets;
- Review the new performance targets against corporate or strategic targets; and
- Establish priorities and responsibilities for implementing process re-engineering.
In effect, re-engineering is about escaping the incremental and ad hoc change exercises to promote a radical re think of how organisations conduct operations. It is therefore more than a tool or adjunct to existing management theories. It is both holistic in its consideration of organisational management and in how we change operations. The Phases in Process Re-engineering encompass all levels of organisational operations.
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