Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering

Posted on Feb 14, 2025 in Business Administration and Management (BAM)

Lecture 6: Total Quality Management and Business Process Reengineering

Total Quality Management (TQM)

TQM and Total Productive Maintenance are continuous improvement approaches focused on:

  • Primacy of Quality: Quality is the key objective.
  • Customer-Centricity: Quality is defined by customer perception.
  • Total Quality: Building quality systems where all processes contribute.
  • Quality Management: Focus on the interaction of forces producing output.
  • Process View: Quality is achieved through process improvements.
  • Total Engagement: Engaging all organizational levels.
  • Continuous Improvement: Utilizing approaches like Plan-Do-Check-Act.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

BPR is the fundamental rethinking and critical analysis of existing business processes to achieve breakthrough performance improvements that meet customer needs.

Characteristics and Differences between BPR and TQM

  • No “One Best Way”: There isn’t a single best approach to BPR.
  • Customer-Centricity: Both BPR and TQM prioritize customer needs.
  • Total Process View: Both emphasize understanding process interactions and interdependencies. However, TQM improves overall quality infrastructure, while BPR addresses specific process issues.
  • Radical Improvement: BPR challenges core process assumptions, requiring time, money, and strategic focus.
  • Project Management: BPR utilizes cross-functional teams, project managers, and tools like PERT, Gantt charts, and work breakdown structures.

BPR Heuristics

  1. Task Elimination
  2. Task Specialization
  3. Triage
  4. Knock-Out
  5. Parallelism
  6. Specification
  7. Standardization (Generalization)
  8. Centralization: Balancing workload, flexible case assignment, and employee empowerment.
  9. Communication Optimization
  10. Automation

Criticisms of BPR and Change Management

BPR hasn’t always yielded desired results due to design issues (ineffective project work) and implementation issues (organizational resistance). Key success factors include effective project execution and organizational readiness for change.

BPR can challenge established norms and power dynamics, requiring careful change management. Successful change management involves:

  • Creating a sense of legitimacy for the change.
  • Engaging stakeholders throughout the process.
  • Sustaining the new process with appropriate structures and funding.

Continuous improvement cycles are crucial for addressing design and implementation issues. The Plan-Do-Check-Act approach remains relevant in BPR.