An Enhanced Business Process Re-engineering Model for Supply Chain Management and a Case Study

Abstract To gain competitive advantage and achieve profitability, companies are globalizing at a phenomenal rate. Given that organizations are moving toward leaner and specialized units, and forming more alliances, supply chain management on a global scale has assumed greater importance. To facilitate these shifts, process improvement strategies are becoming commonplace. Information Technology (IT) enabled Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) results in substantial improvements in organizational effectiveness and efficiency, especially when applied to Supply Chain Management (SCM) processes. However, the existing BPR models that could help guide SCM process initiatives are limited in scope. As such, we introduce an 8- step SCM-BPR model based on existing BPR and SCM models and the best practices of BPR implementations. We initially validate our SCM-BPR model using a case study of a multinational enterprise headquartered in Hong Kong. This case study shows the impact of BPR on supply chain processes and how IT infrastructure enables business process redesign to create sustainable competitive advantage. We also draw some salient conclusions from the case study, which could provide guidelines to managers for "BPR in SCM" initiatives.

[1]  Enid Mumford,et al.  New treatments or old remedies: is business process reengineering really socio-technical design? , 1994, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[2]  William J. Kettinger,et al.  Business Process Change: A Study of Methodologies, Techniques, and Tools , 1997, MIS Q..

[3]  J. Carrillo.  Industry Clockspeed and the Pace of New Product Development , 2005 .

[4]  Don Tapscott,et al.  Paradigm shift: The new promise of information technology: Don Tapscott and Art Caston McGraw-Hill Inc., New York, 1993, 337 pp. £21.95 ISBN 0-07-062857-2 , 1992, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[5]  Peter Weill,et al.  The Implications of Information Technology Infrastructure for Business Process Redesign , 1999, MIS Q..

[6]  Janice E. Carrillo,et al.  Production , Manufacturing and Logistics Investing in product development and production capabilities : The crucial linkage between time-to-market and ramp-up time , 2005 .

[7]  Mohsen Attaran,et al.  Exploring the relationship between information technology and business process reengineering , 2004, Inf. Manag..

[8]  Delvin Grant,et al.  A wider view of business process reengineering , 2002, CACM.

[9]  Norma G. Sutcliffe,et al.  Leadership behavior and business process reengineering (BPR) outcomes: An empirical analysis of 30 BPR projects , 1999, Inf. Manag..

[10]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  PRECONDITIONS FOR BPR SUCCESS And How to Prevent Failures , 1994 .

[11]  Varun Grover,et al.  An empirical study of information technology enabled business process redesign and corporate competitive strategy , 1995 .

[12]  Robert Rosenbaum,et al.  Supply chain excellence : a handbook for dramatic improvement using the SCOR model , 2007 .

[13]  Mariëlle den Hengst,et al.  Collaborative Business Engineering: A Decade of Lessons from the Field , 2004, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[14]  M. Hammer,et al.  The superefficient company. , 2001, Harvard business review.

[15]  Rajiv Kohli,et al.  Towards developing a framework for measuring organizational impact of IT- enabled BPR: case studies of three firms , 2006, DATB.

[16]  Varun Grover,et al.  Information technology enabled business process redesign: An integrated planning framework , 1993 .

[17]  Keely L. Croxton,et al.  AN EVALUATION OF PROCESS‐ORIENTED SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORKS , 2005 .

[18]  Enid Mumford,et al.  Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution , 1995 .

[19]  Tasadduq A. Shervani,et al.  Marketing, Business Processes, and Shareholder Value: An Organizationally Embedded View of Marketing Activities and the Discipline of Marketing , 1999 .

[20]  Erik Brynjolfsson,et al.  The Matrix of Change: A Tool for Business Process Reengineering , 1996 .

[21]  Donna B. Stoddard,et al.  Interorganizational business process redesign: merging technological and process innovation , 1996, Proceedings of HICSS-29: 29th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[22]  D. Lambert,et al.  Supply Chain Management: Implementation Issues and Research Opportunities , 1998 .

[23]  Yacine Rezgui,et al.  Critique of existing business process re-engineering methodologies: The development and implementation of a new methodology , 2000, Bus. Process. Manag. J..