Measuring Improvements Due to Business Process Redesign and Technology Integration: A Macroergonomic Approach

Abstract

This paper describes a Case Study in which a “macroergonomic” approach (Hendrick and Kleiner, 2001) was used to redesign the process and implement technology in support of the process of implementing office space. A project involving a 25,000-square-foot renovation of existing space, with 120 workstations and 100 employees was used as the basis to test the redesigned process and technology implementation. We concurrently redesigned the personnel and technology subsystems (see DeGreene, 1973), as opposed to having a pre-defined technology application drive the solution (Hendrick, 1995). Using a participatory ergonomics approach, we involved the employees who would be affected by changes to their work process to understand and contribute to the re-design. Through structured interviews, interactive discussions and observations, we redesigned the process from; design and layout of workstations through installation of furniture. Using business process modeling and simulation software, we modeled the “before” and “after” processes, and collected detailed measures of time and cost improvements. We found significant process performance improvements in Wait Time, Re-Work of Errors, and Cost reductions.