The principle that affirms " the only permanent thing is change " is applicable to everything, this phrase of Heraclitus has a lot of implicit meaning, taking into account the current times of change, where we observe the vertiginous scientific and industrial progress, in less than a hundred years we spent from having a society that moved on the back of a mule to the steam train and then to the internal combustion engine in automobiles, then we made a quantum leap; from this point, in the past half century we began space exploration. We observe how in the 20th century the advances in all areas of knowledge were amazing, and according to what many scientists say, we have not seen anything yet, advances in science and technology will leave us astonished, what we saw yesterday as science fiction, tomorrow will be a reality.
In this context we observe a positive trend represented by the growth of knowledge and technological development; Consequently, as a result of the commercial dynamics in the world, different tools, philosophies and strategies have emerged to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of companies; This is where a tool makes its appearance that seeks to make administrative work more efficient, providing a total redesign of the processes to provide improvements in the organization in terms of costs, quality, service and speed, all aimed at customer satisfaction. about Reengineering. It should be noted that reengineering is applicable to the administration of: business, culture, politics, sports, among others. Organizations have used this tool with great success to optimize work and improve competitiveness.
REENGINEERING CONCEPTS
Reengineering comes from the conjunction of two words on the one hand "Engineering", which has different meanings:
- It is the profession or work carried out by the engineer It is the application of the physical and mathematical sciences to the invention or improvement It is the improvement and use of industrial technique It is the set of studies that allow determining the most desirable orientations, the best conception, the optimal conditions of profitability in the most suitable materials and procedures for the realization of a certain work. It is the application of the technique, based on scientific principles to master or channel the forces of nature. set of knowledge and techniques that allow the application of scientific knowledge to the use of matter and energy sources, through inventions or constructions useful for man. (Morris and Brandon 1994).
And on the other hand, the word "re" can indicate the rethinking of the processes, their correction and improvement. Reengineering then is, the review of these processes, in order to make them much more effective, is to do more with fewer resources. (Peppard, and Rowland, 1998).
Michael Hammer is credited with creating the term reengineering and defines it as the fundamental revision and radical redesign of processes to achieve spectacular improvements in critical performance measures (Hammer and Champy, 1994); In other words, we can say that it is the fundamental change to get to the base of the organization's problems; A radical change that must occur in order to obtain spectacular results through the study of the new production processes that will make the organization more fruitful, it goes from a stage of specialization to one of generalization.
For Lefcovich, Reengineering «It constitutes a recreation and reconfiguration of the activities and processes of the company, which implies re-creating and radically configuring it or the company's systems in order to achieve significant increases, and in a short period of time, in terms of profitability, productivity, response time, and quality, which implies obtaining competitive advantages. (Lefcovich, 2004); In her work, the author establishes that «Reengineering cannot be separated from the beliefs, values, culture and habits of the workers. A good game in favor of the positive achievement of the changes in the organization has to do with that environment in which the worker is immersed; and know how to deal with the staff of an organization in this regard,it is more valid than immersing oneself in structural plans with new proposals ”(Lefcovich, 2004).
Artiles and Cansino tell us that “process reengineering is a method that facilitates the redesign of work processes and the implementation of new designs, it is aimed at making work produce its main benefit and obtain competitive advantages. It also means positioning and repositioning and is aimed at a high-level vision whose set of interests and applications complement its main guidelines, achieving higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness at less cost ”(Artiles, 1998).
For Daniel Morris and Joel Brandon, Reengineering "is an approach to plan and control change, business reengineering means redesigning business processes and then implementing them". In their work they manage to create a manual that is used by all those who want to implement this new tool in their organization.
BACKGROUND OF REENGINEERING
The first major process innovations took place a long time ago, and were as much a product of creativity as of need. Thus we have, after Taylor's industrial organization, the reinvention of processes devised by Henry Ford, and the recreation of processes in the Toyota company.
In reality, reengineering is the product of the imperative need of American companies to regain lost ground in terms of competitiveness against Japan in the first place, and against South Korea and Taiwan in a second place. Originated in the United States under the values of Western civilization, Michael Hammer, at the beginning of the 1990s, was the man associated with its creation, formulating an approach and techniques for its practice.
The 1993 edition of the book "Reengineering the Corporation" sought to improve the performance of companies by showing managers how they could revolutionize their key or essential operational processes to achieve management excellence. Subsequently, technological advances in telecomputing, together with robotics and flexible manufacturing concepts, have accelerated reengineering and innovation processes.
Reengineering is not a matter of making incremental or marginal improvements, but of taking giant leaps in performance. What matters in reengineering is how we want to organize work today, given the demands of today's markets and the potential of their technology.
Three forces, separately and in combination, are driving companies to penetrate deeper and deeper into territory: customers, competition, and change. According to Hammer and Champy, the Three C's: Consumers, Competition and Change, are the trends that are causing these changes. The "3 Cs" are:
- CLIENTS. - Supply increases and diversifies at a faster rate than demand. COMPETITION. - Before, national companies shared the local market, but the competitive pressure becomes more intense. CHANGE. - Shortening in the life cycle of products.
DRIVERS OF REENGINEERING
Michael hammer
Michael Hammer - Reengineering
Michael Hammer was born on April 13, 1948 in Maryland, United States and died September 3, 2008 Hade at 60 years of age. He was married to Phyllis Thurm Hammer with whom he had four children. He is the author of "Corporation Reengineering", "The Reengineering Revolution" and "Beyond Reengineering." Their publications were placed on the best-seller list worldwide.
He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he would later become a professor here, obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1968, a master's degree in electrical engineering in 1970, and a doctorate in computer science in 1973; in this house of studies he taught computer science.
Hammer's first book was "Reengineering" written together with James Champy, it was published in 1993, this book appeared at a time when American manufacturing was losing ground to Japan in terms of the production of automobiles and appliances, promoted the idea of simplify and reorganize the departments of the company.
It prompted companies to rethink how to operate and manage to abandon old structures in favor of teamwork.
The book was a catalyst for American entrepreneurs to make changes in their operations, productions, and processes. It also inspired the new generation of managers to work in companies to rethink how to run their business and make it competitive.
James champion
James Champy - Reengineering
James Champy is a leading authority on management issues related to business reengineering, organizational change, and corporate renewal. He acts as a consultant for high-level executives of multinational companies seeking to improve the performance of their businesses, as well as advising the management teams of emerging companies. He is also involved in the governance of several major educational institutions.
Champy's focus is on helping leaders achieve results across four distinct but overlapping areas: business strategy, operations, organizational development, and information technology.
He was President Emeritus, for the consulting area of Dell Services. He was previously President of Consulting and Head of Strategy for Perot Systems from 1996 to 2009. But was acquired by Dell in November 2009.
James Champy is one of the "fathers" of business reengineering processes, he has been the main speaker chosen by IBM for the seminar "Reengineering of business management" held in Madrid. James Champy, author of the book "Reengineering Management" and Chairman and CEO of CSC Index, has highlighted the fear and skepticism that reengineering processes raise, the main objective of which is to change the way corporations work. James Champy has also highlighted the importance of communications in these processes that allow creating more competitive virtual companies, with better jobs, although in a smaller number.
For James Champy, business reengineering is "a process focused on changing the way a company works in order to radically increase the speed, cost, quality and market share of corporations." Basically, "companies that really reengineer create better jobs, even if they have to reduce the number of them." However, what usually happens is that there is a confusion of terms and reengineering is identified with downsizing (reduction of personnel). "It is important for companies and managers to realize that there is a big difference between downsizing and a change in the nature of the way you work, which is what reengineering does."
Champy does not attribute the skepticism that reengineering projects arouse to the latter, but to the fact that “most of the companies are not doing reengineering but downsizing and this leaves companies with fewer employees who have to do more work.
PRINCIPLES OF REENGINEERING
Companies must bear in mind the following considerations when implementing a reengineering process:
- Organize around results and not tasks. That a person carry out all the steps of a process, to achieve an objective or result and not just a task. That the process is designed by those who are going to use the product of the same. Technology leads to automate processes and eliminate inter -phases and links. Include the work of information processing in the actual work that produces it Consider geographically dispersed resources as if they were centralized Achieve efficiency and innovation in communications Link parallel activities instead of integrating their results Forging links between functions and coordinating while activities are taking place Place the decision in the place where the work is done and incorporate control into that process. Those who do the work must make the decisions.Restructure to compress the pyramidal organization flat.
FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMER
Those activities that do not contribute to satisfying the client's needs should be minimized. Sellers no longer rule, consumers do. Now consumers can ask the seller what they want, when they want it, how they want it and in some cases even how much they are willing to pay and in what way. Today customers tell providers what they want, when they want it, and when they will pay. Customers are no longer satisfied with what they find, as they currently have multiple options to meet their needs. Clients have placed themselves in an advantageous position, in part because of access to more information.
Before, competition was simple and almost any company that could enter the market and offer an acceptable product at a good price would be able to sell. Now there is not only more competition but they compete in different ways. Modern technology has introduced new ways of competing and new competition, the Internet for example. Therefore, you have to be attentive to this in order to face it and be prepared for this new type of competition. The role of the administration will be to support those who are directly in contact with the customer, it will also be sought that employees are capable of performing more than one kind of work, more than a single role. It will be sought that the employee in some way has contact with the client;the information will be available in such a way that you can answer the customer's questions at all times.
The customer focus involves knowing who the customers are, what their needs, desires and expectations are, what motivates them to do business with the company, what motivates them to continue negotiating, and how satisfied customers are. If the concept of quality is not focused on the customer, there is no basis to continue with the other pieces of the puzzle, there will always be a void in the core and it is most likely that the other pieces will not meet their objective.
CONFRONTATION OF RESULTS
Also known as Benchmarking (in English), it is a continuous and systematic process to evaluate the products, services and own work processes, with those of the organizations recognized for executing the best practices aimed at organizational improvement.
This tool speeds up the process and identifies and prioritizes the business areas that need improvement. In the same way, it allows establishing feasible and effective goals and objectives, while managing to sell and overcoming internal resistance to change. The main areas of impact of Benchmarking are:
- Customer satisfaction Setting relevant and achievable goals Developing accurate measures of productivity in the organization Adoption of best practices from industry and the corporate world.
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
The change process is done with the people; If there is no organizational culture open to change, there is no point in starting a reengineering process. The big change lies in the delegation of power or empowerment guaranteeing the employee that he will have at his disposal all the necessary elements (within the permissible margins for the job) to be able to make adequate decisions and thus provide a quality service to customers.
This empowerment not only affects the employee in contact with the client, but also the bosses and superiors since they change from the role of supervisors to the role of coaches (since they are working as a team). Special skills are required to bring about this cultural change. Since business reengineering is done from the top down, within the institutions (the first to carry out this cultural change should be the managers and board of directors) since they are the leaders of the change of culture and way of working, adapting to the changes approved by themselves.
Normally the greatest barrier to change is the resistance to change of the organization's employees, since for years or traditionally they have worked in a way that has been good for them, but not necessarily for the company.
That is why the commitment of leaders must be 100% with reengineering and leave behind customs. However, it has been proven that people are not averse to change in itself, but to the way in which change is made, since on many occasions there is a true lack of leadership and a poor delegation of responsibilities for change.
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
Rapid technological advances are generating real revolutions in the different telecommunications services. The digitization and compression of all possible content (voice, text, graphics, animation, video, audio, photography), and in general, information of any kind, are blurring the traditional borders between them, establishing an interactive multimedia.
Being in tune with the rhythm imposed by new technologies and trends, and applying reengineering processes, requires companies to make greater efforts to have human resources prepared for the new businesses that have begun to be proposed.
If a company is not willing to change the traditional way of thinking about how, when and why to incorporate new telecommunications technologies and services, it cannot reengineer. Thinking inductively, that is, first knowing the enormous potential of the solutions, tools and services offered by technology in its different areas, and then looking for an application, is another recommendation when applying reengineering. Reinventing or reengineering the business becomes, not a business fad as some believe, but an urgent need for many companies.
Its main characteristics and advantages are:
- IT can transform unstructured processes into routine transactions IT can replace or reduce human labor within the process IT can facilitate changes in the sequential tasks of a process, allowing the development of simultaneous activities IT can be used to connect two parts within a process process,in which the presence of a third entity would otherwise be necessary for the connection IT allows the integration of the functions of a business at all organizational levels Supports structures independent of the location and the organization Facilitates collaborative work Facilitates communication Customizes administration IT allows the capture and dissemination of knowledge and experiences to improve a process IT presents new strategic opportunities to evaluate the mission of an organization IT allows to replace operational personnel who develop repetitive activities related to data and information management IT allows to replace middle-level managers, whose role is to transmit information,which leads to simplify the number of hierarchical levels IT allows expanding the mental capacity of human resources, with the purpose of having a greater capacity to solve problems and make decisions IT allows more effective management practices that demand information that, due to its volume and treatment, they would hardly be obtained by mechanical or manual means
Information technology reengineering
It is very common to associate business process reengineering with information services. It is important to separate the concepts of computer systems and reengineering; Reengineering projects should be the responsibility of the CEOs, not the company's information services department. While reengineering is not an information technology affair, the business itself relies heavily on computers.
Therefore, the application of this technology in order to improve operability will generally be considered in reengineering projects, since, in practice, this type of project examines business processes in which it is common to discover new and best applications for computing and technology. Information technology is a factor at all levels of the change model, so the support of current technology and the design of a total corporate information architecture are in the process of reengineering change.
Internet reengineering
It is one of the operational reengineering, within the systems that consider immersion in the Internet network as an essential part of the reengineering of change to be implemented. The unexpected and surprising global growth of the internet, which went from being a phenomenon of universities and researchers to a booming business reality in full swing, which eliminates the differences between local communication, national and international long distance, and allows the possibility of telephone communication, it poses serious problems and opportunities for business management.
The reengineering of the current administrative work procedures is being ordered around the use of the company's own internet. The Intranet allows you to start using all Internet tools (mail, web, lists) as well as more modern services (voice over Internet, conferences,) in local and remote mode.
The Intranet concept is the appropriate way to approach corporate technology, since classical computing, oriented only to structured information (text files or databases), is not capable of responding to new challenges in a profitable and reliable way.
ORIENTATION TOWARDS PROCESSES
A process is a work activity that is logically related to produce a specific end result for an internal or external customer. The Management and its top-level management team must lead the Change Reengineering process to be able to define in the first instance the necessary business culture, with its mission, vision, shared values, key strategies and essential knowledge duly harmonized and obtaining the consensus of the staff of the company before proceeding to carry out the operational reengineering that implement the necessary change in continuity.
The so-called Structural or Operational Reengineering consists of implementing various reengineering, which analyzes and restructures the composition of the key and support processes of the organization, establishes a horizontal organization chart and trains staff in continuity in the necessary essential knowledge stipulated by the Management as regards to its cultural and strategic policy, in addition to incorporating the latest computer systems and ICT technologies that are emerging and are essential for the continuous improvement of business competitiveness.
Management reengineering
- Cultural Reengineering.- Analysis and study of corporate culture in terms of its management style, mission, vision and values. Presentation to staff and consensus on the change process Strategic Reengineering.- Definition of basic strategies and essential knowledge duly harmonized with the established business culture
Structural or operational reengineering
It really covers various sequences of the business restructuring process, with respect to the redesign of the value chain, a new organization of structures, training of personnel in continuity and incorporation of new information technologies and ICT communication and social networks on the Internet.
We can say then that there is a Reengineering of the Processes that carries out the analysis and restructuring of the composition of the key and support processes of the organization, Analysis of the value chain and establishment of more current and effective processes and the Redesign end of key and support processes.
CONCLUSION
Having carried out this research, there is a much clearer and broader vision of everything that the application of Reengineering entails in the different business lines and other sectors where it is applicable, since I have understood that it is not only about finding a way to reduce costs to increase profits but is also useful in the public sector so that said reductions generate better investments for the state.
Many companies have been subjected to increasingly strong market pressures, in response to this they have tried to reduce their costs to keep their product or the height of their services at a competitive level but, in general, these efforts have been limited to staff reductions, but now it is clear that these decisions in themselves do not constitute a Reengineering, since they have only reduced the payroll without going beyond what appears to be the problem. Reengineering is not buying computers to be fashionable or simply changing the color of the premises and the uniforms of the employees, it is radically redesigning what has been done to obtain extraordinary results. Companies must prepare to face the rapid technological and computer advancement, structure themselves to achieve it and continue to improve their positions, in fact after having achieved to improve their competitiveness, the next step is the continuity in the improvement of all business processes.
Reengineering specifies the responsibility of all the workers of an organization, because without the intellectual and cognitive hand of the staff of an organization, the result could not be seen to be inserted in a competitive environment…
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Alarcón González Juan Carlos (1998), Business Process Reengineering, FC editorial, Madrid, available at: http://www.cca.org.mx/cca/cursos/administracion/artra/produc/recursos/7.3.4/reingproce /reingenieria.htmAlbizu Eneka and Olazaran Mikel (2003), Process Reengineering, Printece Hall. MadridChampy James (1996), Reingenieria de la Direccion, Ediciones Díaz de Santos, SA., Available at: https://www.thinkingheads.com/conferenciantes/james-champy/G Gobierno del Estado de Veracruz (2005). Comprehensive Reengineering Program of the State Public Administration (Reform of the Government of Veracruz), available at: https://www.uv.mx/iiesca/files/2013/04/11CA201202.pdf Hammer Michael and Champy James (1994), Reengineering, Editorial Nava, Colombia. Available at: https://books.google.com.co/books?id=PdYa1vzOP3wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f = false Hernández Alarcón Mireya (2001). Process reengineering and its practical application. Johanson Henry J., Mc Hugo, Pandlebury John A., Wheeler William A. III (2003), Business Process Reengineering, Editorial Limusa, Mexico, Manganelli Raymond and Klein Mark (1995). How to reengineer. Editorial Nava. ColombiaMeléndez Reyes Humberto (2002), Business Reengineering Morris Daniel and Brandon Joel (1994). Reengineering. How to apply it successfully in business. McGraw-Hill Interamericana, Spain.Peppard, Joe and Rowland Phillip (1998). The essence of reengineering in business processes. Prentice Hall Hispanoamérica SA Mexico. Network of Scientific Journals of Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal; Information Sciences Vol. 42, No.3, September - December, pp. 29 - 37,2011Magazine of the Master in Business Administration of the Universidad Santo Tomás de Bucaramanga, ColombiaRevista Investigación Administrativa, January-June, year 30 No. 89 Instituto Politécnico Nacional.Sheer August W. (1999). Application of Integrated Information Systems Architecture to business processes in companies. Editorial Norma. Colombia
