When should an organization choose to reengineer a process instead of improving it incrementally?
While continuous improvement focuses on small, ongoing changes, there are situations where incremental tweaks are insufficient, and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) becomes necessary.
Indicators for Reengineering:
Major Performance Gaps: KPIs consistently underperform despite multiple improvement attempts.
Customer Complaints Persist: Frustration levels are high and unchanged even after updates.
Technological Disruption: New tech solutions make the current process obsolete.
Regulatory Changes: New compliance requirements that the old process can’t accommodate.
Merger or Structural Change: Entire organizational workflows need integration or overhaul.
Characteristics of Reengineering:
Starts from a blank slate (“What if we redesigned from scratch?”).
May involve rethinking goals, technology, roles, and delivery models.
Aimed at radical improvement—not marginal gains.
Typically larger in scope, more complex, and riskier.
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