Business Process Reengineering
Business process reengineering is defined as the redesign of core business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in productivity, cycle times and quality. It is really about thinking about existing processes to decide:
- Firstly, what processes are to continue and what ones are to be scrapped, and
- Secondly, for the processes that will continue, how can they be done quicker, cheaper and more effectively.
Examples of processes that have changed in the last five to ten years include:
- Emailing customers invoices and statements instead of posting them.
- Daily visits to the post office to pick up the mail reduced in frequency to perhaps once or twice a week.
- Paying bills by cheque replaced with internet banking.
- Instead of physically attending training courses, various courses can be completed online.
- Instead of customer site visits, using video conferencing as an efficient alternative.
Looking back at old processes such as paying bills by cheque, now look so inefficient, but that is what was available and in use at the time.
Annually all businesses need to review their business processes to determine which ones can be eliminated and which ones need to be revised and improved to keep up with change and advancements. It is guaranteed that every business has room for improvement. The challenge for business owners is to see if they can free up a minimum of six weeks of time in each financial year to spend on more important and productive areas. For example, do you really need to collect mail on a daily basis from the post office? If you did this only once a week instead, how much travel time would you save per week and how much does that add up to over a 12 month period? How could you use that time more effectively
