Business Process Improvement

Business Process Improvement (BPI) is a systematic approach to help any organization make significant changes in the way it does business. The organization may be a for-profit business, a non-profit organization, a government agency, or any other ongoing concern.

Related Topics:
Organization - Non-profit

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BPI works by:

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• Defining what the organization's strategic goals and purposes are (Who are we, what do we do, and why do we do it?)
• Determining what the organization's customers (or stakeholders) are (Who do we serve?)
• Aligning the business processes to meet the customer's requirements (How do we do it better?)

The goal of BPI is a radical change in the performance of an organization, rather than a series of incremental changes (compare TQM). Michael Hammer and James Champy popularized this radical model in their book ??Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution?? (1993). Hammer and Champy stated that the process was not meant to impose trivial changes, such as 10 percent improvements or 20 percent cost reductions, but was meant to be revolutionary (see breakthrough solution).

Related Topics:
Goal - Performance - TQM - Michael Hammer - James Champy - 1993 - Breakthrough solution

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Unfortunately, many businesses in the 1990s used the phrase "reengineering" as a euphemism for layoffs. Other organizations did not make radical changes in their business processes, did not make significant gains, and wrote the process off as a failure. Yet others have found that BPI is a valuable tool in a process of gradual change to a business.

Related Topics:
1990s - Reengineering

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Business Process Improvement: Principles of BPI ►