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Business Structure

1. Introduction
Business process reengineering (BPR) has become a popular management tool for dealing with rapid technological and business change in today’s competitive environment. It refers to the “analysis and design of work flows and processes within and between organizations” [11]. Literature is replete with examples of how BPR has helped firms contain costs and achieve breakthrough performance in a variety of parameters like delivery times, customer service, and quality. For example, Motorola, when faced with higher defect percentages and longer cycle times, redesigned its parts and tooling process, simultaneously upgrading its manufacturing equipment, this decreased the total production cost by US$ 1 billion per year, and cut cycle time by half [21]. Through BPR, Bell Atlantic reduced the time to install new telecommunication circuits from 15 to 3 days, and cut labor costs from US$ 88 to 6 million [35]. Hallmark replaced its sequential product development with cross-functional teams and cut its new product introduction time on cards by over 75%. Ford reduced its accounts payable staff by 75% with BPR. Other often cited examples of successful BPR programs include Cigna RE, AT&T, Pacific Bell, and the IBM Credit Corporation. More such examples are discussed in [1, 2 and 36]. The much publicized initial success stories of BPR led to an explosive dissemination of the concept that resulted in the launch of several thousands of BPR projects. A study by CSC/Index [9] reported that 72% of the 224 firms it surveyed had initiated BPR programs. Another study by Deloitte and Touche consultants found that 85% of its 532 respondents were involved in BPR efforts. Surveys in the UK and Canada also indicated high level of interests in BPR [34 and 38]. Though many firms embraced BPR initiatives with great zeal, not many of them emerged successful in their efforts. Studies indicate that executives are disappointed with the results of BPR efforts [31] and that the failure...