Business Process Reengineering Examples – Understand and Learn from them

Do you know what business process reengineering is?

It’s the radical reconsideration of a business process to achieve dramatic improvement in cost, quality, service and speed performance. Business process reengineering is the analysis and redesign of company processes. Check out some business process reengineering examples below.

You should observe some points when implementing business process reengineering, such as:

• A change of focus from management to the customer
• Managers must give power to their team’s
• Focus on results
• It’s not positive to score points, but to lead and teach
• Simple and optimized processes are better than complicated and intricate processes
• If a process continually doesn’t work, it’s time to come up with a new one, looking to the future.
• Always identify goals and purposes
• Keep the company mission in mind

Only by following these recommendations will business process reengineering work as expected.

Now that you understand what Business Process Reengineering is, let’s look at some examples and case studies.

Also see: What is process reengineering methodology?

Business process reengineering examples: BPR that works

There’s nothing better than tried and true BPR examples to really understand the subject. With this in mind, we’ve separated some business process reengineering examples that have been successful.

Business process reengineering examples: Fast food company

An example of business process reengineering that we can cite is that of a fast food company.

Completely redesigning the delivery of products can give you unexpected results. In this type of restaurant, the process goes like all others, the customer orders, the order goes to the kitchen, which prepares the meal and then delivers to the consumer.

Business process analysts realized that it would be more advantageous if the meal portions were previously prepared in a separate center, and delivered to the restaurants daily.

When the customer orders, staff place everything together and deliver it. This is a complete change in the process, resulting in greater control, fewer accidents, greater employee satisfaction, and increased ability to focus on customer needs, all without losing quality.

CURIOSITY: The next time you go to a hamburger fastfood restaurant, note that your cup is always placed in the center of the tray, reducing the risk of it falling over.

To relax before you check out the next Business Process Reengineering case study, watch this fun video:

Business process reengineering examples: company selling commemorative cards

In a company that offers products such as Christmas, anniversary, commemorative cards, etc., renewing the stock and changing the design of the cards is constantly fundamental.

On average, it takes three months for new items to reach the shelves. Across market research, it’s possible to realize that there would ideally be new products every month.

At first glance, it’s easy to say that the delay was at the production stage. When analyzing and mapping the process, it’s verified that the creation stage was the most time consuming.

Oftentimes the creative team receives the concept and several employees begin to perform the same task (duplicate actions), or an idea takes days to get off the paper. With this information, we can redesign the process completely, defining a cross-functional team from concept and creation, with incredible results in speed, costs and effectiveness.

This is an example of business process reengineering that shows the importance of studying the process and then modifying it.

Also see: Process mapping examples.

Process reengineering is about finding new solutions to old processes, check out this video because, often, we’re unable to see obvious process change solutions:

Business process reengineering examples: Creation, application and proofreading

One of the most distressing tasks for teachers and students, whether in universities or schools, is test creation, their use by students and subsequent marking.

One of the great problems teachers face is the student’s writing, which is often unintelligible, brought on by the students’ weariness to write by hand.

The solution? The application of evidence through electronic forms in notebooks where students can type, as well as having access to other tools that assist in their answers, such as spreadsheets.

To prevent students from querying improperly, these devices don’t have a wi-fi or internet enabled connection. They’re simple (and low-cost) devices in which the students upload the tests via pen-drive and then the teacher collects them. The teacher then connects the data to a system that helps them correct the tests (without needing to interpret the writing), share comments with students, access performance statistics, and access a database of questions that helps to develop the tests.    

See this infographic that summarizes the steps of Business Process Reengineering in a schematic way:

Source: Synconics

Business process reengineering examples: Creative Quartets

The process of creation in advertising agencies is divided, in brief, into 6 stages:

1. The customer service team interviews the customer and passes the information to the planning team
2. The planning team makes the necessary studies. Then develops strategy and delivers the request for the creation of pieces for the creative pair (editor and designer)
3. After developing the requested pieces the creative pair alongside the planning and customer service teams carry out a presentation meeting. Eventual adjustments are then made to the campaign
4. Customer service presents the campaign to the customer, often in conjunction with the creative pairing and planning team. Then receives customer feedback
5. The process resumes, if the client requests adjustments or disapproves of the campaign

You should’ve noticed that these processes have four agents: the creative pair, a customer service professional, and a planning agent.

Conflicts between creation, planning and customer service are very common. Customer service complain of deadlines and not understanding the scope as much as the others. Creatives and planning, defend their points of view and claim that they’re doing the correct work and that customer service must convince clients of this.

To end this conflict in teamwork, an agency has developed creative quartets in which the 4 professionals work in their area of expertise, but divide a table and everyone are jointly abreast of all steps from the process, from the initial briefing to receiving customer feedback.

With this closeness, it became easier for each one to understand the difficulties of the others, generating a synergy that made this process much more productive and agile, becoming an example of successful process reengineering.

Know more: Definition of process management

Check out this schematic chart with important information on Business Process Reengineering:

Source: Business process reengineering

Business process reengineering examples: Cereal products

The process of transforming food into cereal products begins on the farm with the harvest. This is followed by primary processing, packing and transportation to the processing plants (depending on the grain).

This large company analyzed its process and discovered a serious logistical problem. It lost almost 20% of the grains harvested during transportation from farms to the factories, located near the biggest consumption centers, due to the precariousness of the roads.

After a study, this Business Process Reengineering case came to the conclusion that it would be more profitable to move the factories nearer to the farms. Afterwards, they transport final products to large centers with much fewer losses.

The old factory sheds were transformed into distribution centers, helping to reduce the impact of the initial investment, they already had docks and other ready-made logistics infrastructure.

Know more: Watch this video with more in-depth details on what is Business Process Reengineering, take advantage of it now:

Business process reengineering examples: Non-integrated system

It might also be that your company has a disconnected system. This forces each team member or customer to go through several departments and people to solve a problem.

People lose information, they constantly repeat data, which frustrates everyone. You can solve this by a general change in the company’s system. Integrate systems with effective software that makes all information clear and available.

These are just a few business process reengineering examples, and how BPR can help companies with problems. Business Process Reengineering case studies, like these, are key to being inspired and provoking thoughts of innovative solutions for your business.

It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t make changes before mapping and modeling processes. For this, HEFLO is the best tool in the market, which allows you to understand exactly what your company needs.

Now that you’ve read about Business Process Reengineering examples, also check out examples of how to reduce costs in your company and get onto it now!