Business Process Reengineering
Also known as: BPR, Process Reengineering, Hammer & Champy Reengineering
A radical redesign approach that rethinks business processes from scratch to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, speed, and service — rather than incrementally improving existing processes.
Quick Reference
Memory Aid
Don't fix it — rethink it from scratch. Start with the outcome, not the existing process.
TL;DR
Select a broken, important process. Don't improve it — redesign it from scratch around desired outcomes. Use technology to enable new ways of working, not to automate old ones. Invest heavily in change management.
What Is Business Process Reengineering?
Instead of making small improvements to existing processes, BPR asks: 'If we were starting from scratch today, how would we design this process?' It's about radical redesign for dramatic improvement, not incremental tweaking.
Don't automate, obliterate.
— Michael Hammer
BPR challenges the fundamental assumptions behind existing processes. Many processes evolved over decades, accumulating unnecessary steps, handoffs, and controls. BPR starts with a clean sheet, designing processes around desired outcomes rather than existing functional boundaries. Key BPR principles include: organize around outcomes not tasks, have those who use the output perform the process, merge information-processing work into the real work, treat geographically dispersed resources as if centralized, and put decision points where the work is performed.
Before and After: Process Reengineering Impact
A comparison showing the typical transformation when business processes are reengineered from scratch rather than incrementally improved. Demonstrates the radical nature of BPR outcomes.
Origin & Context
Published in 'Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution.' Hammer argued that most business processes were designed for an industrial era and needed to be fundamentally rethought for the information age.
Core Components
Clean-Sheet Redesign
Starting from scratch rather than improving the existing process.
Example
Ford reduced its accounts payable department from 500 to 125 people by redesigning the process from scratch, eliminating invoice matching entirely.
Outcome Focus
Organizing work around desired outcomes, not tasks or departments.
Example
Instead of separate departments for order entry, credit check, and fulfillment, one person handles the entire customer order process.
Technology-Enabled
Using technology not to automate old processes but to enable entirely new ones.
Example
Amazon didn't automate bookstore processes — it invented an entirely new way to sell and deliver books.
Cross-Functional Integration
Breaking down functional silos to create end-to-end processes.
Example
Instead of sequential handoffs between sales, engineering, and manufacturing, concurrent engineering where all functions work simultaneously.
Michael Hammer's original 1990 Harvard Business Review article 'Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate' became one of the most reprinted articles in the journal's history. Hammer later acknowledged that he was 'insufficiently appreciative of the human dimension' and that the methodology was too often used as a euphemism for mass layoffs, which contributed to its backlash in the late 1990s.
When to Use Business Process Reengineering
Eliminating broken legacy processes
Problem it solves: When processes are so outdated that incremental improvement won't be enough.
Real-World Application
Ford's accounts payable reengineering eliminated the three-way matching process (purchase order, receiving document, invoice) by using a shared database. Headcount went from 500 to 125 with better accuracy.
Digital transformation of core processes
Problem it solves: When digitization offers an opportunity to fundamentally redesign processes, not just put them online.
Real-World Application
An insurance company redesigned its claims process from 30+ steps across 5 departments to a single-handler digital process, reducing processing time from 3 weeks to 3 days.
BPR has a high failure rate (estimated 50-70% of initiatives fail). The most common reasons: lack of leadership commitment, resistance from middle management, and poor change management. BPR is a technical and human challenge.
How to Apply Business Process Reengineering: Step by Step
Before You Start
- →Senior executive sponsorship with real authority
- →Willingness to challenge fundamental assumptions
- →Strong change management capability
Select Process for Reengineering
Choose a process that is strategically important, fundamentally broken, and feasible to redesign.
Tips
- ✓Pick processes where customers experience the most pain
Common Mistakes
- ✗Trying to reengineer too many processes simultaneously
Understand the Current Process
Map the current process to understand it — but don't try to improve it.
Tips
- ✓Understand what the process achieves, not how it achieves it
Common Mistakes
- ✗Getting bogged down in improving the current process
Redesign from Scratch
Start with a clean sheet and design around desired outcomes.
Tips
- ✓Ask: 'If we were starting today, knowing what we know, how would we do this?'
Common Mistakes
- ✗Constraining the redesign with current organizational boundaries
Implement with Strong Change Management
Roll out the new process with comprehensive change management.
Tips
- ✓BPR's technical redesign is the easy part — people change is the hard part
Common Mistakes
- ✗Focusing on technology without addressing organizational and cultural change
Value & Outcomes
Primary Benefit
Achieves dramatic (not incremental) improvements by fundamentally rethinking how work is done.
Additional Benefits
- ✓Eliminates outdated processes that accumulated over decades
- ✓Creates processes designed for modern technology and customer expectations
What You'll Learn
- →How to challenge fundamental process assumptions
- →How to design processes around outcomes rather than tasks
Typical Outcomes
Best Practices
📋 Preparation
- •Secure unequivocal executive sponsorship
- •Select the right process — important, broken, and feasible
🚀 Execution
- •Design around outcomes, not tasks
- •Don't automate the old process — redesign it
🔄 Follow-Up
- •Invest heavily in change management
- •Monitor for drift back to old ways
💎 Pro Tips
- •The most powerful BPR insight: most process steps exist to compensate for errors in other steps. Prevent the errors and you can eliminate the compensation steps.
BPR at Ford Motor Company
Ford's accounts payable department had 500 employees processing invoices. After benchmarking against Mazda (which used just 5 people for the same function), Ford reengineered the process. Instead of matching purchase orders, receiving documents, and invoices (a three-way match), they created a shared database where receipt of goods automatically triggered payment. The result: headcount dropped from 500 to 125, accuracy improved, and processing time was dramatically reduced.
Limitations & Pitfalls
High failure rate due to organizational resistance and change complexity
Mitigation: Invest as much in change management as in process redesign
Can be used as cover for downsizing, creating cynicism
Mitigation: Be transparent about goals and involve employees in the redesign
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