Process Management: Process Reengineering (Definitions)

"Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"The process of analyzing a legacy system and producing a new, more maintainable system." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"Activities that seek to radically change business processes and support systems in an organization." (Joseph Sarkis & R P Sundarraj, "Implementation Management of an E-Commerce-Enabled Enterprise Information System", 2009)

"Activity consisting in rationalizing and streamlining business processes, often associated with the implementation of an Enterprise System" (Andrea Masini, "ERP-Driven Performance Changes and Process Isomorphism", 2009)

"Reengineering involves a major restructuring (or overhaul) of an organization’s key operations. Another term for reengineering is business process redesign. There are certain features that are typical of a reengineered process. This includes: 1) Creating cross-functional teams, 2) Streamlining the business process, 3) Designing multiple versions of a business process and 4) Sharing information and resources." (Richard A Gershon, "Intelligent Networking and Business Process Innovation: A Case Study Analysis of Home Box Office and Dell Computers", 2009)

"The examination and modification of a system to reconstitute it in a new form and the subsequent implementation of the new form." (Teta Stamati, "Migration of Legacy Information Systems", 2009)

"A technique for evaluating how an enterprise (or part of an enterprise) operates. This involves process modeling, specifically with an eye to identifying processes that do not contribute to the enterprise’s profitability." (David C Hay, "Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map", 2010)

"A methodology in which an organization fundamentally and radically changes its business processes to achieve dramatic improvement." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed, 2011)

"The process of analyzing and radically transforming existing business activities, eliminating or minimizing costs and maximizing value in order to achieve breakthrough levels of performance improvement." (DAMA International, "The DAMA Dictionary of Data Management", 2011)

"The radical redesign of an organization's business, where one takes a current process and makes changes to increase its efficiency and create new processes." (Linda Volonino & Efraim Turban, "Information Technology for Management" 8th Ed., 2011)

"The radical redesign of processes for the purpose of extensive (not gradual) performance improvements." (Joan C Dessinger, "Fundamentals of Performance Improvement" 3rd Ed., 2012)

"the analysis and redesign of workflows and business processes to improve costs and customer service." (Thomas C Wilson, "Value and Capital Management", 2015)

"Using information technology to improve performance and cut costs. Its main premise is to examine the goals of an organization and to redesign work and business processes from the ground up rather than simply automate existing tasks and functions." (William Stallings, "Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards", 2018)

"Involves the analysis and redesign of firms’ processes and workflows to achieve sustainable improvements in quality of response and cost competitiveness." (Debasish Roy, "Critical Success Factors of Analytics and Digital Technologies Adoption in Supply Chain", 2021)

Process Management: Process Reengineering (Just the Quotes)

"At the heart of reengineering is the notion of discontinuous thinking - of recognizing and breaking away from the outdated rules and fundamental assumptions that underlie operations. Unless we change these rules, we are merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We cannot achieve breakthroughs in performance by cutting fat or automating existing processes. Rather, we must challenge old assumptions and shed the old rules that made the business underperform in the first place." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"In reengineering, managers break loose from outmoded business processes and the design principles underlying them and create new ones. [...] Reengineering requires looking at the fundamental processes of the business from a cross-functional perspective. [...] The reengineering team must keep asking Why? and What if? Why do we need to get a manager’s signature on a requisition? Is it a control mechanism or a decision point?" (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"In short, a reengineering effort strives for dramatic levels of improvement. It must break away from conventional wisdom and the constraints of organizational boundaries and should be broad and cross-functional in scope. It should use information technology not to automate an existing process but to enable a new one." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"Reengineering triggers changes of many kinds, not just of the business process itself. Job designs, organizational structures, management systems - anything associated with the process - must be refashioned in an integrated way. In other words, reengineering is a tremendous effort that mandates change in many areas of the organization." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"Business process reengineering encompasses the envisioning of new work strategies, the actual process design activity, and the implementation of the change in all its complex technological, human, and organizational dimensions." (Thomas H Davenport, "Need radical innovation and continuous improvement? Integrate process reengineering and TQM", Planning Review 21 (3), 1993)

"Business Process Reengineering seeks radical rather than merely continuous improvement. It escalates the efforts of JIT and TQM to make process orientation a strategic tool and a core competence of the organization. BPR concentrates on core business processes, and uses the specific techniques within the JIT and TQM 'toolboxes' as enablers, while broadening the process vision." (Henry J Johansson, Business process reengineering: Breakpoint strategies for market dominance", 1993)

"Business reengineering isn't about fixing anything. Business reengineering means starting all over, starting from scratch. Business reengineering means putting aside much of the received wisdom of two hundred years of industrial management [...] How people and companies did things yesterday doesn't matter to the business reengineer." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"Reengineering posits a radical new principle: that the design of work must be based not on hierarchical management and the specialization of labor but on end-to-end processes and the creation of value for the customer." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"Thorough rethinking of all business processes, job definitions, management systems, organizational structure, work flow, and underlying assumptions and beliefs. BPR’s main objective is to break away from old ways of working, and effect radical (not incremental) redesign of processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical areas (such as cost, quality, service, and response time) through the in-depth use of information technology." (Elvira Rolón, "Healthcare Process Development with BPMN", 2010)

Michael M Hammer - Collected Quotes

"At the heart of reengineering is the notion of discontinuous thinking—of recognizing and breaking away from the outdated rules and fundamental assumptions that underlie operations. Unless we change these rules, we are merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We cannot achieve breakthroughs in performance by cutting fat or automating existing processes. Rather, we must challenge old assumptions and shed the old rules that made the business underperform in the first place." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"Conventional process structures are fragmented and piecemeal, and they lack the integration necessary to maintain quality and service. They are breeding grounds for tunnel vision, as people tend to substitute the narrow goals of their particular department for the larger goals of the process as a whole. When work is handed off from person to person and unit to unit, delays and errors are inevitable. Accountability blurs, and critical issues fall between the cracks." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"In reengineering, managers break loose from outmoded business processes and the design principles underlying them and create new ones. [...] Reengineering requires looking at the fundamental processes of the business from a cross-functional perspective. [...] The reengineering team must keep asking Why? and What if? Why do we need to get a manager’s signature on a requisition? Is it a control mechanism or a decision point?" (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"In short, a reengineering effort strives for dramatic levels of improvement. It must break away from conventional wisdom and the constraints of organizational boundaries and should be broad and cross-functional in scope. It should use information technology not to automate an existing process but to enable a new one." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"Information technology can capture and process data, and expert systems can to some extent supply knowledge, enabling people to make their own decisions. As the doers become self-managing and self-controlling, hierarchy - and the slowness and bureaucracy associated with it - disappears." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"Reengineering cannot be planned meticulously and accomplished in small and cautious steps. It's an all-or-nothing proposition with an uncertain result. Still, most companies have no choice but to muster the courage to do it. For many, reengineering is the only hope for breaking away from the antiquated processes that threaten to drag them down." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"Reengineering triggers changes of many kinds, not just of the business process itself. Job designs, organizational structures, management systems - anything associated with the process - must be refashioned in an integrated way. In other words, reengineering is a tremendous effort that mandates change in many areas of the organization." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990) [source]

"A business process is a collection of activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output that is of value to the customer. A business process has a goal and is affected by events occurring in the external world or in other processes." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"A process perspective sees not individual tasks in isolation, but the entire collection of tasks that contribute to a desired outcome. Narrow points of view are useless in a process context. It just won't do for each person to be concerned exclusively with his or her own limited responsibility, no matter how well these responsibilities are met. When that occurs, the inevitable result is working at cross–purpose, misunderstanding, and the optimization of the part at the expense of the whole. Process work requires that everyone involved be directed toward a common goal; otherwise, conflicting objectives and parochial agendas impair the effort."  (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"'Automating a mess yields an automated mess.' Unless an organization reconceptualized its operations, overlaying new technology on these operations accomplished little." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"Business reengineering isn't about fixing anything. Business reengineering means starting all over, starting from scratch. Business reengineering means putting aside much of the received wisdom of two hundred years of industrial management [...] How people and companies did things yesterday doesn't matter to the business reengineer." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service and speed." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"Reengineering posits a radical new principle: that the design of work must be based not on hierarchical management and the specialization of labor but on end-to-end processes and the creation of value for the customer." (James A Champy & Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering the Corporation", 1993)

"To succeed at reengineering, you have to be a missionary, a motivator, and a leg breaker." (Michael M Hammer, Fortune, August 1993)

IT: Automation (Just the Quotes)

"Systems engineering embraces every scientific and technical concept known, including economics, management, operations, maintenance, etc. It is the job of integrating an entire problem or problem to arrive at one overall answer, and the breaking down of this answer into defined units which are selected to function compatibly to achieve the specified objectives. [...] Instrument and control engineering is but one aspect of systems engineering - a vitally important and highly publicized aspect, because the ability to create automatic controls within overall systems has made it possible to achieve objectives never before attainable, While automatic controls are vital to systems which are to be controlled, every aspect of a system is essential. Systems engineering is unbiased, it demands only what is logically required. Control engineers have been the leaders in pulling together a systems approach in the various technologies." (Instrumentation Technology, 1957)

"As the decision-making function becomes more highly automated, corporate decision making will perhaps provide fewer outlets for creative drives than it now does." (Herbert A Simon," Management and Corporations 1985", 1960)

"Objectives recorded on the System Specification work sheet, even though preliminary in nature, should be specific. It is never sufficient to state an objective in terms of simply improving an existing system or of implementing a computerized system. The idea that a system or an 'automated' system is a better system has been a popular concept too long. An improved system, per se, is of no benefit to a business client; implementing a better system in order to increase profits or reduce costs is of great benefit." (Robert D Carlsen & James A Lewis, "The Systems Analysis Workbook: A complete guide to project implementation and control", 1973)

"Autonomation [automation with a human touch] changes the meaning of management as well. An operator is not needed while the machine is working normally. Only when the machine stops because of an abnormal situation does it get human attention. As a result, one worker can attend several machines, making it possible to reduce the number of operators and increase production efficiency. [...] Implementing autonomation is up to the managers and supervisors of each production area. The key is to give human intelligence to the machine and, at the same time, to adapt the simple movement of the human operator to the autonomous machines." (Taiichi Ohno, "Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production", 1978)

"Autonomation [..] performs a dual role. It eliminates overproduction, an important waste in manufacturing, and prevents the production of defective products. To accomplish this, standard work procedures, corresponding to each player's ability, must be adhered to at all times." (Taiichi Ohno, "Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production", 1978)

"When you automate an industry you modernize it; when you automate a life you primitivize it." (Eric Hoffer, "Between the Devil and the Dragon", 1982)

"Automation is certainly one way to improve the leverage of all types of work. Having machines to help them, human beings can create more output." (Andrew S. Grove, "High Output Management", 1983)

"Information engineering has been defined with the reference to automated techniques as follows: An interlocking set of automated techniques in which enterprise models, data models and process models are built up in a comprehensive knowledge-base and are used to create and maintain data-processing systems." (James Martin, "Information Engineering, 1989)

"At the heart of reengineering is the notion of discontinuous thinking - of recognizing and breaking away from the outdated rules and fundamental assumptions that underlie operations. Unless we change these rules, we are merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. We cannot achieve breakthroughs in performance by cutting fat or automating existing processes. Rather, we must challenge old assumptions and shed the old rules that made the business underperform in the first place." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990)

"In short, a reengineering effort strives for dramatic levels of improvement. It must break away from conventional wisdom and the constraints of organizational boundaries and should be broad and cross-functional in scope. It should use information technology not to automate an existing process but to enable a new one." (Michael M Hammer, "Reengineering Work: Don't Automate, Obliterate", Magazine, 1990)

"When a database is computerized, it represents the automation of the knowledge component of a business, which is manifest through the business's quality operation, planning, and management With a successful database, the managers of a business can research the past, organize the present, and plan for the future."  (Michael M Gorman, "Database Management Systems: Understanding and Applying Database Technology", 1991)

"Replacing workers on their present jobs with machines is not the major function of automation. Its greater promise is its ability to do new things, to create new products, new services and new jobs, and to meet the increasing requirements of a growing population." (David Sarnoff)

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency." (Bill Gates)

"[...] the more efficient the automated system is, the more essential the human contribution that is needed to run the automation system. Humans are less involved in heavily automated systems, but their involvement becomes more critical." (Josh Kaufman)

"The more reliable the plant, the less opportunity there will be for the operator to practice direct intervention, and the more difficult will be the demands of the remaining tasks requiring operator intervention."(Josh Kaufman)