reengineering

Hammer and Champy (1993, 2001) define reengineering, or business reengineering, as ""the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed."" (2001, pp 35).

Three ""C's"" dominate today's business environment -- customers have taken charge, competition intensifies, and change becomes constant. These dominant factors have obsoleted previously successful business structures and operations. Reengineering is called for to rebuild the activities of the firm, focusing those activities on creating and providing more value than ever before while eliminating wasteful activities.

The most important concept to grasp in reengineering is ""process"" ... making one's processes the heart of one's organization. (2001, pp 239-240).

Reengineering creates and organizational environment in which hierarchy is diminished, workers are more skilled, and structures are more flexible. The emphasis in this environment is on work, not on administration. Learning how to work and to manage in such an organization is a critical requirement for harvesting the benefits of reengineering. (2001, pp 245). Following that, change drives reengineering to be a regular activity.