Business re-engineering—a strategy-driven approach

Organizations across a wide range of industries are recognizing the potential of re-engineering to deliver discontinuous leaps in performance. The competitive climate, and the pace of change within and outside the firm are also encouraging a more co-ordinated and fundamental approach to the planning and design of business activity. Two main approaches to re- engineering have emerged. The first—known as Process Re- engineering—offers the opportunity to rethink and streamline individual processes. The second—termed Business Re- engineering—provides an approach to rethinking and redesigning the entire business behind a more focused, competence based competitive strategy. The central challenge in re-engineering is to understand where and how we can create value for both customers and shareholders. This requires us to ask fundamental questions about what we do, how we do it, whether it is necessary and how it can be improved. Achieving the benefits of re-engineering demands active commitment and participation from the chief executive downwards. The re-engineering process itself needs careful planning around a clear vision of longer term goals. There are also risks inherent in undertaking these far reaching and fundamental changes. To address the risks, manage the fears, uncertainties and doubts and yet maintain motivation in the organization, demands a commitment to change management on a scale which few executives will have experienced.     

Turnaround leadership core tensions during the company turnaround process

How leaders turn around declining performance is a significant issue for companies, their employees, their customers, their shareholders and, more generally, society. Leadership influence during times of change is well recognised in the literature; however, leadership during a turnaround is more complex and less understood. In-depth examinations of the role and activities of turnaround leaders have received insufficient attention in the literature to date. Specifically, studies have not investigated, in-depth, the tensions that leaders face during a turnaround process. To begin addressing this gap in the literature, we utilise case studies of four companies to examine the core tensions leaders experience, when they occur during the turnaround process and how they are managed. We frame our focus on leadership tensions in three prominent domains in the literature, leadership change, leadership assertiveness and strategic orientation. Our findings identify and detail the management of six core tensions that leaders experience across a five-stage turnaround process model. We conclude that effective turnaround leadership is less about particular skill sets or ‘types’ of leaders for different stages of the recovery process, and more about their ability to purposefully navigate and balance apparently conflicting activities within these tensions. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.     

Re-engineering high risk, high complexity industries through multiple level technological learning A case study of the world nuclear power industry

Applying lessons learned at the national, the utility, and the plant level, from selected segments of the world-wide nuclear power industry, might facilitate an environmentally acceptable renaissance of the U.S. nuclear power industry through re-engineering it. Elements of this learning from experience process can be found: (a) at the national level in Europe, Japan, and the U.S., (b) at the utility level in two New York State nuclear power utilities, Niagara Mohawk and New York Power Authority, the Tenessee Valley Authority, and Duke Power and Light in the U.S., in Ontario Hydro in Canada, and in the Electricité de France (EdF) in France, and (c) at the plant level in several of these utilities. At the core of all the continuous quality improvement and re-engineering programs, lies this twofold mission: (a) to insulate society from foreseeable and unacceptably high environmental risks, and (b) to continuously improve the design and management of nuclear technology (including nuclear waste management and environmental risk management systems) by learning, learning how to learn, and learning to learn-how-to-learn, both explicitly and tacitly, through feedback from individual and organizational experience.     

Turnaround: Recognizing decline and initiating intervention

Recognizing and admitting the severity of a firm's decline is a crucial first step for management. In planning intervention, a good manager needs to be aware that delaying recognition and necessary action could result in losing control to external agents during the turnaround phase. An examination of the cases of 22 firms shows that the mode of intervention between decline and turnaround requires delicate orchestration so as to avoid derailing the process of turnaround.     

Early involvement in the design chain—a case study from the computer industry

This work presents a case study of how a design chain, with more than three tiers of organisations (customer, manufacturer, and supplier), can involve its members in the early stages of the design and development process to meet their needs more effectively. A vertical design chain model, consisting of strategy, process and information levels, is adopted to elucidate how a computer company can provide for different customers and use various suppliers to create synergy within the design chain. The results of this study demonstrate that the re-engineering of cross organisation product design flow, product data management software applications and the integration of information from various parties are critical to the early involvement in a vertical design chain. Based on this case study, the proposed early involvement model can shorten the time taken to develop new products and considerably reduce the number of engineering changes for various manufacturers.     

A real option theoretic fuzzy evaluation model for enterprise resource planning investment

The high failure rate of ERP implementation is due to a common pitfall that ERP projects are often enacted as merely investment into installation of IT infrastructure, rather than systematic planning of operation changes, business process re-engineering and a paradigm shift for the operation and management. To manage ERP investment in a changing environment for high payoff, this paper adopts a real option theoretic method. Fuzzy payoff valuation is introduced to deal with uncertainties in order to minimize the risk of failure. The proposed ERP evaluation model is geared towards small and medium enterprises. A case study is presented to validate the proposed fuzzy real options. The results indicate the potential of modeling ERP investment as “Expand”, “Contain” and “Abandon” options in different scenarios. The fuzzy real option model bestows a novel ex-ante cost analysis for justifying ERP investment in the implementation cycle.     

From Knowledge Engineering to Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is seen by many to be a prerequisite for the successful organization, and one that relies heavily, though not exclusively, on a sound technological infrastructure. A major drawback, though, with current technology (e.g. Lotus Notes and www) is its focus on information management and communication rather than on knowledge itself. What knowledge management needs is tools and techniques that are more oriented towards knowledge – its creation, mapping, transfer and use. We show how many of the methods and tools used in the branch of artificial intelligence known as knowledge engineering can be adapted to provide such a knowledge-oriented technology, and lead to significant benefits for organizations. A number of case studies are presented which illustrate our points, including decision-making at Andersen Consulting and best practice at Rolls-Royce. A more elaborated use is shown in the context of business process re-engineering, where a new software tool kit called SPEDE is being applied and validated within the aerospace and automotive industries.     

Planning for a rapidly changing environment in SAS

The author describes how Scandinavian Airlines achieved a turnaround from unprofitability and loss of market share. The creation and development of a corporate culture revitalized personnel and initiated a new management role, business-oriented rather than administrative. Punctuality became a specific goal and won for SAS the reputation of being Europe's most punctual airline. The change process is likely to continue into the future and the new internal management systems will change to meet these needs.     

Business process re-engineering the supply chain

Common foundations which underlie thinking in the supply chain management (SCM), Business process re-engineering (BPR) and business process improvement (BPI) philosophies are highlighted. The view that BPR is a new concept is argued against by highlighting die work performed in other fields, namely SCM from the systems perspective. It is argued that those who have already implemented the SCM philosophy will have already travelled the same path as BPR and indeed re-engineered their own processes. Once businesses have integrated their supply chain the greatest benefits will have already been achieved, however system dynamics analysis does show significant on-cost differences dependent on the redesign strategy implemented. A generic structured model for SCM is enhanced through this comparison with BPR with the following characteristics being added; do not be afraid to be radical with respect to internal integration and continually search for step change improvement ideas which can be strategically phased in to positively impact the marketplace.     

Systems thinking and business process redesign: An application to the beer game

Managers are regrettably ignorant of the fact that their business organisations are ‘designable’. But recently, concepts such as business re-engineering and systems thinking, coupled with advances in methods of quantifying business systems, have enabled managers to scrutinise their business systems afresh.Ann van Ackere, Erik Reimer Larsen and John Morecroft use a well-known logistical system — the ‘beer game’ — to illustrate these re-engineering concepts and tools in a multi-stage production and distribution system involving a single brand of beer. This business game raises the fundamental question of why it is so difficult to match shipments and factory production to consumer demand.The authors conclude that such re-design concepts and tools can be applied successfully to full-scale business problems. Systems thinking, modelling and continuous time simulation can provide the framework for carrying the design process from mapping all the way through to redesign. The most effective CEOs of the future will be those who are competent to create corporate design in which employees are allowed to succeed.     

Performance Decline and Turnaround in Public Organizations: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis*

Public sector performance is currently a significant issue for management practice and policy, and especially the turnaround of those organizations delivering less than acceptable results. Theories of organizational failure and turnaround derive largely from the business sector and require adaptation to the public service. The performance of public organizations is more complex to measure, is related to institutional norms, and the idea of ‘failure’ is problematic. Empirical findings from a real‐time, longitudinal study of poorly performing English local authorities are used to develop an initial theory of performance failure and turnaround suited to public organizations. The paper argues that the typical performance of public organizations over time is cyclical. Where cognition and leadership capability are absent, organizations fail to self‐initiate turnaround. In this situation authoritative external intervention is necessary. The strategies applied are principally concerned with building a leadership capability that engages senior politicians and managers in order to overcome inertia and collective action problems. The theory is presented in the form of seven propositions that provide a basis for further research across the public sector.     

The Implementation and Maintenance of a Behavioral Safety Process in a Petroleum Refinery

A values-centered and team-based behavioral safety process was implemented in a petroleum oil refinery. Employee teams defined the refinery's safety values and related practices, which were used to guide the process design and implementation. The process included (a) a safety assessment; (b) the clarification of safety-related values and related practices; (c) process design and executive overview; (d) safety-observation training; (e) feedback, recognition, and celebration; and (f) process maintenance. Data that span 20 years are presented to show the long-term impact on recordable incidents, lost-time cases, and direct costs of injuries. The implementation was associated with an 81% decrease in recordable incidents, a 79% decrease in lost-time cases, and a 97% savings in annual workers' compensation costs over an eight-year period. An interview with the vice president of the refinery is presented to highlight the process's influence on the refinery's safety culture.     

Models,methods and tools for interorganizational logistics operations

Enterprise modelling is today one of the key techniques to improve the performances of an enterprise. This paper first defines enterprise modelling techniques as compared to BPR techniques. Then the latest developments in GRAI methodology are presented. Finally, examples of industrial applications are presented for three methods: GIM (GRAI Integrated Method) for re-engineering, GIMSOFT for the choice of an ERP software package and ECOGRAI for the design and implementation of performance indicator system.     

A Lean transportation approach for improving emergency medical operations

Abstract

This paper extends the approach of Lean transportation to improve the performance of emergency medical processes (EMP) by adapting its main concepts into the main characteristics of the EMP environment. The paper is based on an inductive theory-building process initiated from a case study in the field of emergency medical services. The development of the suggested performance improvement approach triggered from an exhaustive analysis of a process involved and an exploratory review of the existing improvement approaches available. The process of concern can be described as a specialized transportation process, where human lives are at risk. Its characteristics led to a natural application of Lean transportation. The results include, a novel approach for improving the agility and efficient EMS processes. This is validated with an application for improving ambulance response times and turnaround times of the Red Cross operations located in Monterrey, Mexico. The approach proved to be an integrated scheme for identifying waste opportunities at a systems level. This characteristic is important to let operations management prioritize improvement efforts in a limited budget situation. This work suggests the application of the emerging Lean transportation approach for increasing the agility performance of EMS processes.     

基于抑制弧Petri网的移动商务过程建模及重构

针对引入无线信息技术的移动商务过程数学描述和过程重构问题,从信息的决策作用以及信息与实体区分入手,构建了一种颜色抑制弧时间Petri网过程模型.模型适于描述无线信息的决策作用对商务过程的影响,在分析Petri网信息获取组件以及相关子网串行、并行结构变化的基础上,提供一种过程重构方法,并评估分析过程绩效在时间方面的改进.用无线自动售货机物流配送过程重构实例验证了模型和方法的有效性.     

The Effects of Verbal and Written Supervisory Feedback on Staff Compliance with Assigned Prompted Voiding in a Nursing Home

We examined the effects of staff performance feedback delivered by a supervisor verbally, and combined with written feedback on geriatric nursing assistants' (GNAs) completion of assigned prompted voiding. The goal of the staff management procedures was to increase the frequency of prompted voiding which would consequently maintain improvements in continence brought about on a specialized continence unit. The basic staff management system included GNA self-monitoring of their performance of prompted voiding, periodic supervisory monitoring, and verbal and graphic feedback provided to all GNAs on their performance. At a later time, the staff management program was modified to include letters of praise or disapproval sent bi-weekly to all GNAs based on their performance of the prompted voiding procedure. Also, a letter was sent to all GNAs every three months summarizing their performance during this period. These summary letters were placed in the GNAs' personnel file and used as part of their annual performance evaluation. Results suggest that, although individual verbal feedback alone resulted in acceptable maintenance of prompted voiding, the addition of written feedback produced significant improvements in the number of assigned prompted voiding completed. This study displays the utility and practicality of employing formalized staff management procedures in nursing homes.     

On the versatility of Little’s Law in operations management: a review and classification using vignettes

Abstract

Despite Little’s Law being considered as one of the ‘laws’ of operations management, evidence of its application in an empirical context is diverse and diffuse. Hence, this paper aims to identify, classify and consolidate published empirical applications of Little’s Law in a systematic manner to better understand its versatility. This paper undertakes a systematic literature review of the databases of the five main publishers of operations management journals and snowball sampling for additional papers. A final sample of 128 empirical journal articles is identified and categorized. Tactical, medium-term decisions relating to capacity dynamics and operations re-engineering are the most popular categories. To give further insights into versatility, vignettes for each category are developed. The review and vignettes confirm Little’s Law as a highly relevant paradigm to operations management decisions due to its empirical versatility across levels, sectors and time domains. The paper suggests four factors to underline the empirical versatility of Little’s Law in operations management: applicability, utility, simplicity and visibility.     

制造企业潜在服务价值创造及其流程再造——东方汽轮机厂案例研究

制造企业存在潜在的服务价值流并与显性价值活动是相互交融的,为了实现服务价值制造企业需要进行服务流程再造。首先,在传统管理模式向服务的价值结构转变过程中,制造企业要注意"推"和"拉"流程的结合;其次,制造企业需要设计和构建面向顾客的服务价值链;第三,制造企业必须将各环节"链"起来形成一个有机整体,实现"服务化"。最后,以我国一家国有大型发电设备制造企业——东方汽轮机厂为例,阐述了制造企业服务创新过程,探讨了其如何构建和再造服务价值流程。     

The effective use of computer resources

The distribution over time of jobs arriving for service at a computer installation will affect the turnaround time experienced by them, as does the sequence of service for jobs having arrived. However, if the pattern of delays due to congestion can be determined in advance, the submission times of jobs may be adjusted to increase the effectiveness of the system.A theoretical model is developed in which users relate the net value of their jobs to submission time and turnaround time and the organization imposes submission and sequencing rules to increase the net gain of the system. A simulation is used to illustrate specific system environments and evaluation methods.     

Transferring lean knowledge within multinational networks

Abstract

Transferring lean knowledge is crucial for multinational companies; however, it is very difficult. Nevertheless, our knowledge in the area is limited. This paper investigates (a) how lean knowledge is transferred within multinational networks and (b) the type of organizational context that supports it. We use four case studies with 18 interviews in our exploratory study. Our results indicate that companies use a sophisticated knowledge transfer system with a fine web of practices that serve to transfer both explicit and tacit knowledge. The revealed organizational contexts show different patterns of division of labour (and responsibilities) between a central lean office and the particular subsidiary’s lean office. Our findings highlight the importance of transfer coalition, which consists of the cooperation of lean experts and top management during the knowledge transfer process. Top managers play a key role with their weak inter-unit ties, and they provide guidance for lean efforts and allocate sufficient resources to them. Further findings show that the evolution of lean transitions is not linear, and each of our case companies has witnessed turnaround during their journey.