Field testing of the proposed predictors of BPR success in manufacturing firms

Abstract

Abstract Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has been touted as necessary for dramatic improvements in organizational competitiveness. In practice, there have been successful and unsuccessful cases; thus, there is a need for systematic and rigorous assessment of the factors deemed important to project success. This paper defines success in three ways: goals and objectives accomplished by the project, benefits derived from the project, and the project's impact on company performance. Based on survey results, recommendations are made on the factors that are important to success and that minimize the risk of failure. Contact persons at the companies participating in this study were internal auditing directors and comptrollers (collectively called IAs here). Questionnaires were mailed to the IAs of 586 randomly selected manufacturing organizations. The usable sample of 135 questionnaires represented a 22% response rate. In general, the surveys showed that organizations are not emphasizing some of the most important activities and task recommended in the BPR literature, such as changes to customer/market-related business processes, the value-added element of every business activity, and applying the right innovative technology. Based on the findings as a whole, top managers should not engage in BPR before ensuring the presence of the important success factors. While the findings are based on manufacturing companies, the results may be generalizable to other industrial sectors.