Re-engineering

Probably the most influential thinker currently active in the quality management field is Michael Hammer (Hammer, 1996). Hammer approaches the idea of the optimization of a total organizational system through what he calls business processes. For example, an organization might have a process which is called a customer order. That process of an order being, lets say, sold, placed, taken from stock, wrapped, delivered, installed and billed crosses several departments, each of which hands over to the next one like a baton in a relay race; each of which has its own hierarchies, internal controls, reward structures and management styles. TQM thinking has approached this problem in many cases by describing the flow as one of internal customer service you think of the next department as a customer, and strive to give them great service. Hammer, on the other hand, suggests that the baton will inevitably be dropped, misplaced and delayed so the challenge is to get rid of the baton, and organize on process lines not department lines. If the organization fits its processes, it will function more closely to a theoretical optimum. A process-designed organization might have a single department called order fulfilment with a single unified mission, hierarchy, culture and so on. Thus through what has become known as business process reengineering (BPR), Hammer urges organizations not to automate or improve sub-process handovers, but to find and get rid of the ones which add no real value a question which must be asked thoroughly, rigorously and with no regard for history and tradition and simplify the organization on process lines. Automation of poorly designed processes to speed them up, Hammer argues, simply gives you bad processes which come together badly more quickly. Hammer launched his ideas with what has become a famous phrase among BPR adherents Do not automate obliterate! To summarize: TQM looks at whole organization outputs and seeks to optimize their efficiency and effectiveness. To do so, it looks at whole system design and operations. One TQM approach looks at organizing for internal customer service, where departments hand over to the next as if to an external customer. Another looks to align the organization behind a values system and let its members good sense and good intent do the work. A third looks at radical redesign of organizations along process lines (BPR).