Define and Provide a Real Example of Business Process Reengineering.

Chapter 1. Define and provide a real example of Business Process Reengineering.

“Business Process Re-engineering is the need to become lean to remain competitive in the global economy. The economic recession in the 1990s pushed companies to seek innovations in the processes by which they run their operations” (Jacob p19).

An example I can think of for BPR can be simply described in a fast food establishment where quick service is everything. In order for customers to be served in a short amount of time, a fast food chain must analyze every area of their food-serving processes to eliminate any steps that waste time. The affected area will then be in observation to better streamline the use of resources for faster production.  

Chapter 2. Identify an operations and supply chain-related “disruption” that recently impacted a company.

I was able to find a significant supply chain and operations disruption through supplychaindigest.com. The children’s toy giant Mattel suffered an enormous recall of millions of toys they outsourced to be made in China in 2007. The defect on the product was serious. Lead paint had been used to coat each toy and Mattel went under heavy scrutiny. Many American companies began to shy away from offshore suppliers.

A few ideas come to mind to have prevented this event. First, specific instructions on the type of materials that Mattel allowed for their products had to been established. If their process was simply disregarded, then a quality assurance procedure should have been in place.

http://www.scdigest.com/assets/FirstThoughts/09-05-07.php