The TQM Magazine

The application of business process reengineering in the UK

Charles Tennant Yi-Chieh Wu
Article information:
To cite this document:
Charles Tennant Yi-Chieh Wu, (2005),"The application of business process reengineering in the UK", The
TQM Magazine, Vol. 17 Iss 6 pp. 537 - 545
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09544780510627633
Downloaded on: 21 June 2015, At: 18:27 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 19 other documents.
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 2839 times since 2006*
Users who downloaded this article also downloaded:
Peter O’Neill, Amrik S. Sohal, (1998),"Business process reengineering: application and success - an
Australian study", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 18 Iss 9/10 pp.
832-864 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443579810225487
Hartini Ahmad, Arthur Francis, Mohamed Zairi, (2007),"Business process reengineering: critical success
factors in higher education", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 13 Iss 3 pp. 451-469 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/14637150710752344
Neda Abdolvand, Amir Albadvi, Zahra Ferdowsi, (2008),"Assessing readiness for business
process reengineering", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 14 Iss 4 pp. 497-511 http://
dx.doi.org/10.1108/14637150810888046

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:263496 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for
Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines
are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company
manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as
providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee
on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive
preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

 The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0954-478X.htm

RESEARCH AND CONCEPTS Business process

reengineering in
The application of business the UK
process reengineering in the UK
537
Charles Tennant and Yi-Chieh Wu
Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this research was to identify the key factors for success of business
process reengineering (BPR) applications in the UK-based companies.
Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey was used to gather primary research
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

data from the UK-based companies that have applied BPR to investigate the triggers for BPR, identify
the main barriers, and enable the authors’ to propose key factors for success.
Findings – The survey found that the main reasons for applying the technique were external
competitive pressures, internal cost reduction, and productivity improvements. The main barriers to
successful implementation were reported as tactical short-term solution driven approaches, which
inadequately considered the people issues, and an over reliance on IT-based technology. It is proposed
that the factors for success include adopting a strategic approach, which prioritises business processes
for BPR projects. This should include the establishment of appropriate company-wide targets and
measures that emphasise continuous improvement for the long term. Finally, management needs to
motivate and involve employees as a key enabler by removing their fears that BPR is really a
“downsizing” exercise, and emphasising improved co-ordination of people and technology.
Research limitations/implications – The research has limitations in that the respondent
companies are UK-based and therefore the internationalisation of the findings requires further
validity.
Practical implications – The discussion and conclusions from this work are made in a practical
manner.
Originality/value – Some useful primary data from the UK industry which makes the work original
and of value to both academics and practising managers.
Keywords Business process re-engineering, Process management, United Kingdom,
Continuous improvement
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The TQM explosion of the 1980s led to the realisation that over 90 per cent of the
possibilities for quality improvement belonged to the system or process (Deming,
1986). Furthermore, the concept of business process improvement (BPI) encouraged
businesses to consider company-wide processes rather than focus on production
processes only, which for an average product accounts for less than 10 per cent of the
product value (Harrington, 1991). This led to the conception of business process
reengineering (BPR) to promote “the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of
business processes to bring about dramatic improvements in performance” (Hammer
and Champy, 1993). Subsequent research has led to the emergence of numerous The TQM Magazine
Vol. 17 No. 6, 2005
alternative definitions and concepts of BPR, and identification of the associated pp. 537-545
implementation difficulties (Davenport and Short, 1990; Petrozzo and Stepper, 1994; q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0954-478X
Guimaraes and Bond, 1996; Carr and Johansson, 1995). However, the overall theme of DOI 10.1108/09544780510627633
 TQM BPR remains the quest for improvement through quick and substantial gains in
17,6 organisational performance by starting from scratch in designing the core business
process (Attaran and Wood, 1999). This has led to BPR being promoted as one of the
major modern techniques of change management within organisations.
While the promises from BPR implementation seem impressive, the potential
problems are numerous and very wide. In fact, it has been claimed that up to 70 per
538 cent of all reengineering initiatives fail to deliver results and that approximately a
quarter of 300 reengineering projects in the USA did not achieve their goals (Hammer
and Champy, 1993; Cafasso, 1993). Therefore, this research was aimed at identifying
the motivation for, and barriers experienced with BPR projects in the UK-based
companies, to propose the key factors for success. This paper is based on a project
conducted at the Warwick Manufacturing Group and a summary of the initial results
previously presented (Wu, 2001; Tennant et al., 2002).
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

The popularisation of BPR

BPR applications
BPR has been popularised as one of the current major techniques of change
management within organisations, and companies that have implemented
reengineering successfully have reported that the benefits they gained included –
quality and productivity improvement, production cycle time reduction, more profits
and improved customer satisfaction. A previous survey of 180 US companies and 100
European companies reported that three-quarters of them had already engaged in
significant reengineering efforts (Verespej, 1995). Furthermore, it was concluded that
companies were applying BPR because either:
.
they had identified that they were in deep trouble;
.
they were not in trouble yet but could see major problems ahead; and
.
they were in peak condition but wanted to further improve.
Initially, successful examples of successful BPR were reported, including an American
insurance and financial services company, which gained more than $50 million a year
from the new process, which reduced the time to process new contracts by turning the
number of quotes into closed deals (Hammer and Stanton, 1994). A second American
insurance company raised labour productivity by 20 per cent within 15 months, by
redesigning claims processing (Stewart, 1993).

BPR approaches
Previous research has recommended that to be successful BPR should focus on
achieving the empowerment of people and the application of appropriate enabling
technology (Attaran, 2000). Therefore, a reengineering programme should contain the
phases shown in Table I (Barber and Weston, 1998).

BPR implementation problems

Many companies that have undertaken BPR have suffered major implementation
problems that have caused them to abandon their initial efforts with little or no positive
results. The causal factors of typical BPR failures include the difficulties associated
with supporting reengineering efforts through concentrating on the technology side
and arriving at a redesigned process that becomes obsolete in the extended business

Phase
Strategic analysis
Business analysis
Business process analysis
Business process design
Business process implementation
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)
Business process
Description
reengineering in
Identifying a vision or mission which will support the UK
the development of a the business strategy
Rethinking the existing operational process within
the context of the business strategy
Identifying what an organisation does to fulfil its 539
strategic and operational goals
Concentrating on how to achieve the strategies
defined in the business process analysis phase
The deployment of resources to meet both the
strategies defined from the business process analysis Table I.
phase and the detailed requirements generated Typical phases of a BPR
during the design phase programme

process (Guimaraes and Bond, 1996). Technical solutions have tended to include IT
systems such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), IT outsourcing, internet,
e-business, and electronic data interchange (EDI). Yet, the high cost of new information
systems in most large organisations is reported as a major impediment to achieving
immediate benefits.
Also, many companies seek solutions without understanding future performance
goals. This is further compounded when companies struggle to create an environment
for successful reengineering that adequately addresses the people issues, which leads
to fear and confrontation as employees find it difficult to accept completely new
processes. Therefore, top management need to be aware of and develop strategies for
dealing with the following issues (Motwani et al., 1998):
.
BPR should be a deliberately planned effort;
.
the customer should be the focus of BPR efforts;
.
recognise the targets of reengineering;
.
use a proper approach to manage change; and
.
integrate leadership, the reengineering team, technology and methodology.

Research methodology
Questionnaire survey
A questionnaire survey was used to gather primary research data from the UK-based
companies that have applied BPR to investigate the triggers for BPR, identify the main
barriers, and enable the authors’ to propose key factors for success. To ensure a common
understanding, and hence compatibility between the responses received, a brief
introduction, which included a definition of BPR was included in the questionnaire.
Open and closed questions were designed to determine issues relating to the length of
implementation, benefits expected, and the importance of people and technology.

Respondent companies
A response rate of 21 per cent was achieved from a population of 300 companies from
various manufacturing and service business sectors such as: mining and gas, banking
and finance, transport services, chemicals, beverages and tobacco, construction,
retailing, paper, healthcare, insurance and communication. The company size was
 TQM banded in employee numbers as: up to 500 (23 per cent), 500-1,000 (12 per cent),
1,000-2,500 (32 per cent), 2,500-5,000 (18 per cent) and over 5,000 (15 per cent).
17,6
Results
Main triggers for initiating BPR
The main triggers for initiating a BPR project are shown in Figure 1 as competitive
540 pressures, intense need to reduce costs, acquisitions, and managing change. Poor
customer satisfaction, marketing opportunities, and dramatic loss of market share
were also included as important motivators but they were not the prime reasons.

Goals and objectives for BPR

Figure 2 shows that a wide range of different goals and objectives were included within
the BPR plan. Cost reduction, productivity, emphasise value-added, focus on results
and objectives rank highly, which supports the findings shown in Figure 1. Also,
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

Figure 1.
The triggers for applying
BPR

Figure 2.
Goals and objectives
included in BPR
 motivation and effectiveness of people rates high, which suggests that the companies Business process
have made a link between BPR and people issues. It was surprising to see that reengineering in
shortened product development times did not rate highly, as previous research has
identified reengineering the new product introduction process as an ideal candidate for the UK
BPR (Tennant and Roberts, 2001). Furthermore, only 48 per cent felt that their target
goals were realistic, which suggests that there is insufficient attention given to goal
setting in a strategic context. 541
Implementation time
Figure 2 shows the implementation time-frame for BPR projects where it was found
that 71 per cent of the companies expected an implementation time frame of less than
two years, suggesting that BPR is being applied as a tactical tool to address short-term
business imperatives, rather than to achieve strategic objectives. This trend is a
concern as previous research by Hill and Collins (1998) indicated that companies see
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

“BPR as an important part of their future strategy”. Yet, less than 10 per cent of the
companies reported that their BPR projects had an implementation strategy of five
years or more (Figure 3).

Expectation of change in business processes

Figure 4 shows that a wide variety of business processes as diverse as business
planning, technology management, advertising were expected to be changed as a result
of BPR. However, the priority processes tended to be concerned with front-end
business operations involving customer satisfaction such as sales order entry,
invoicing and billing, inventory management, and production scheduling.

People issues
When considering organisational and people issues, 78 per cent felt that these should
be dealt with concurrently with the BPR project. In fact, 67 per cent of the companies
felt that training was an important aspect to ensure that people could adapt to the new
processes, and claimed to carry this out, although 31 per cent admitted that their BPR
projects had resulted in laying off employees. Communications within a BPR project
were dealt with by company newsletters (22 per cent), routine meetings with managers
(24 per cent), workshops (18 per cent), one-to-one meetings (12 per cent), and letters to
customers (8 per cent). Figure 5 shows the organisational benefits of applying BPR,

Figure 3.
BPR implementation time
frame
 TQM
17,6

542

Figure 4.
Expectation of change in
business processes
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

Figure 5.
Organisational benefits
from applying BPR

which report productivity, profitability, and quality as high ratings, whereas labour
resources rates low by comparison.

The role of IT
The role of IT is generally involved with improving co-ordination and information access
across organisations, which allows more effective management of task interdependence.
Eight different ways to think about IT capabilities and their organisational impact
within a BPR project are shown in Table II (Davenport and Short, 1990).
The survey respondents supported this where 80 per cent felt that IT had a very
important role within BPR, particularly in terms of solution implementation. The main
IT tools used by the respondent companies in their BPR projects were reported as SAP,
data management, internet, and process planning.

Implementation difficulties
A number of wide-ranging implementation difficulties were reported, which included:
.
too much focus on new technology instead of business processes;
 Business process
IT capabilities Organisational benefits
reengineering in
Transactional To transform unstructured processes into routine the UK
transactions
Geographical To enable rapid transfer of information across large
distances, making processes independent of
geography 543
Automational To replace or reduce human labour in a process
Analytical To bring complex analytical methods to bear on a
process
Informational To bring vast amount of detailed information into a
process
Sequential To enable changes in the sequence of tasks in a
process, allowing multiple tasks to be worked on
simultaneously
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

Knowledge management To allow the capture and dissemination of Table II.

knowledge and expertise to improve the process IT capabilities and their
Disintermediation To connect two parties within a process that would organisational impact in
otherwise communicate through an intermediary a BPR project

.
IT infrastructure unable to support BPR;
.
business mistakes due to requirement for quick results;
.
lack of understanding of implementation and BPR projects became too large;
.
insufficient training to implement BPR; and
.
lack of management enthusiasm and company culture not ready for BPR.

Discussion
The implementation difficulties tend to suggest that insufficient time is expended at
the start of BPR projects to set strategic targets and plan accordingly. The focus on
achieving quick results by adopting IT-based solutions probably leads to the problems
of lack of integration, employee resistance, insufficient training, and ultimately people
resistance and low morale. Particularly, if people perceive the BPR project as a smoke
screen for downsizing through productivity improvements. Although, the companies
reported a high level of recognition of the people issues stating that they felt that these
should be dealt with concurrently, through mechanisms such as training and various
communication media, it is questionable whether this represents actual practice.
Companies also admitted that their BPR projects had resulted in headcount reductions,
which tends to correlate with their stated objectives of achieving short-term cost
reductions as a result of customer and competitive pressures, and fits with the
implementation time frames for BPR that were predominantly less than two years.
This suggests BPR is often seen as a tactical tool for addressing short-term business
problems high on the agenda of management, rather than the strategic issues of market
penetration, customer retention, and empowerment of people.

Conclusions
This research of the UK-based companies has concluded that the main triggers for
applying BPR were reported as competitive pressures, cost reduction, and the
 TQM management of acquisitions. Customer satisfaction and increased market share were
17,6 not the prime reasons. The goals and objectives for the BPR projects seemed to support
the triggers, and in addition there was recognition of the need for improving the
motivation and effectiveness of employees.
A wide variety of business processes were expected to be changed as a result of the
BPR efforts, with the main emphasis being placed on the front-end areas of the
544 business such as sales order entry, invoicing and billing and inventory management,
which suggests a reliance on IT-based solutions. Furthermore, a high proportion of the
companies recognised the important role that IT plays in a BPR project, particularly in
the areas of data management, and factory management systems. However, a large
number of implementation difficulties were experienced, which included the trilogy of
technology integration, employee resistance to change and company culture.
A main conclusion of this research is that adopting robust strategic planning and
process management techniques to achieve the maximum benefits of BPR for the long
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

rather than short term can overcome the difficulties associated with BPR. All elements,
such as organisational structure, empowerment, training, IT systems, etc. should be
considered together, as it is not possible to modify just one element without
considering its influence on the others. Also, in order to improve business processes
successfully through IT enablers, effective communication, co-ordination and
understanding are required. Thus, before applying BPR to redesign processes,
managers should lead a strategy to improve organisational performance by:
.
prioritise business processes for BPR application based on strategic goals;
.
establishing appropriate company-wide targets and measures for BPR;
.
emphasising continuous improvement for the long rather then short term;
.
developing better communication channels based on self-assessment;
.
understanding the needs of employees rather than focusing on downsizing;
. developing appropriate reward systems for encouraging people involvement;
and
.
improved co-ordination of people and appropriate technologies.

References
Attaran, M. (2000), “Why does reengineering fail? A practical guide for successful
implementation”, Journal of Management Development, Vol. 19 No. 9, pp. 794-801.
Attaran, M. and Wood, G.G. (1999), “How to succeed at reengineering”, Management Decision,
Vol. 37 No. 10, pp. 752-7.
Barber, M.I. and Weston, R.H. (1998), “Scoping study on business process reengineering: towards
successful IT application”, International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 36 No. 3,
pp. 575-601.
Cafasso, R. (1993), “Rethinking reengineering”, Computer World, 15 March, pp. 103-5.
Carr, D.K. and Johansson, H.J. (1995), Best Practices in Reengineering, McGraw-Hill, New York,
NY.
Davenport, T.H. and Short, J.E. (1990), “The new industrial engineering: information technology
and business process redesign”, Sloan Management Review, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 11-27.
Deming, W.E. (1986), Out of the Crisis, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
 Guimaraes, T. and Bond, W. (1996), “Empirically assessing the impact of BPR on manufacturing Business process
firms”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 16 No. 8,
pp. 5-28. reengineering in
Hammer, M. and Champy, J. (1993), Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business the UK
Revolution, Harper Business, New York, NY.
Hammer, M. and Stanton, S.A. (1994), The Reengineering Revolution: The Handbook, Harper
Collins, London. 545
Harrington, H.J. (1991), Business Process Improvement: The Breakthrough Strategy for Total
Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.
Hill, F.M. and Collins, L.K. (1998), “The positioning of BPR and TQM in long-term organisational
change strategies”, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 438-46.
Motwani, J., Kumar, A. and Jiang, J. (1998), “Business process reengineering: a theoretical
framework and an integrated model”, International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, Vol. 18 Nos 9/10, pp. 964-77.
Downloaded by University of Mississippi At 18:27 21 June 2015 (PT)

Petrozzo, D.P. and Stepper, J.C. (1994), Successful Reengineering, Van Nostrand Reinhold,
New York, NY.
Stewart, T. (1993), “Reengineering the hot new management tool”, Fortune, 23 August, pp. 41-8.
Tennant, C. and Roberts, P. (2001), “A faster way to create better products”, International Journal
of Project Management, Vol. 19, pp. 353-62.
Tennant, C., Warwood, S. and Wu, Y.C. (2002), “The application of business process
reengineering in the UK: a study of the key factors for success”, paper presented at the
18th National Conference on Manufacturing Research, Leeds Metropolitan University,
Leeds, 10-12 September.
Verespej, M. (1995), “Reengineering isn’t going away”, Industry Week, 20 February, p. 42.
Wu, Y.C. (2001), “The application of business process reengineering in the UK: a study of issues
relating to human resource management and IT systems”, MSc project dissertation,
Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry.

(Charles Tennant is a Principal Fellow at Warwick Manufacturing Group, School of Engineering,

University of Warwick, UK. He was employed in the automotive industry for 15 years, latterly as
a vehicle programme Chief Engineer at Land Rover, prior to joining the University in 1999. At
Warwick he specialises in strategic quality management and new product introduction process
applications in various industrial sectors, and has published papers in this field. He also lectures
on, and supervises Master’s and Doctoral research degree projects in Europe, India, South Africa
and the Far East.
Yi-Chieh Wu obtained an MSc degree in Engineering Business Management (EBM) during
2000-2001, at Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, UK. Her MSc dissertation
was “The Application of Business Process Reengineering in the UK: A Study of Issues Relating
to Human Resource Management and IT Systems” (supervised by Dr Tennant), and was the
basis from which this paper was derived.)