Abstract
This paper introduces a method that facilitates the effective implementation of capable business processes. The capability of a business process is defined to be its ability to satisfy customers’ expectations by using available resources as efficiently as possible and to be adaptive to changes in external and internal requirements. In the paper it is discussed “how companies could be helped to develop and implement capable business processes”.
The proposed process assessment method combines hard system analysis techniques with participation of employees. It facilitates skills for productive communication, examines system structure, analyses system interrelationships and allows employees to participate in process redesign and implementation. The method has been developed during the EUREKA TIME GUIDE project (EU 11579). In Finland the project included eight pilot companies where the method has been tested.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
References
Argyris, C. (1970) Intervention Theory and Method: A Behavioral Science View. Addison-Wesley, Publishing Company, Social Science and Administration Series, USA.
Bashein, B. and Markus, M. L. and Riley, P. (1994) Preconditions for BPR Success and How to Prevent Failures. Information Systems Management, Spring, pp. 98–110.
Burke, W. and Litwin (1992) A Casual Model of Organizational Performance and Change. Journal ofManagement, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 523–545.
Checkland, P. (1981) Systems Thinking, Systems Practice. John Wiley & Sons, UK.
Childe, S and Maull, R. and Mills, B. (1996) UK Experiences in Business Process Re-engineering; A Scoping study for the Innovative Manufacturing Initiative. Research Report for Grant No. GR/K67328, School of Computing, University of Plymouth.
Coyle, R. (1977) Management System Dynamics. John Wiley & Sons, UK.
Davenport, T. (1993) Process Innovation: Re-engineering Work trough Information Technology, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Davenport, T. (1995) Business Process Re-engineering: Where It’s Been, Where It’s Going. In Grover, V and Kettinger, W. (eds.) Business Process Change: Re-engineering Concepts, Methods and Technologies. Harrisburg, PA: Idea Group Publishing.
Forrester, J. (1975) Collected Papers of Jay W. Forrester. Wright-Allen Press Inc., Massachusetts.
French, W. and Bell, C. (1995) Organization Development: Behavioral Science Interventions for Organization Improvement, Fifth Edition, Prentice-Hall Inc., USA.
Garvin, D. (1993) Building Learning Organization. Harvard Business Review, July-August, pp. 78–91.
Grover, V. and Jeong, S. and Kettinger, W. and Teng, J. (1995) The Implementation of Business Process Re-engineering. Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 109–144.
Guimaraes, T. and Bond, W. (1996) Empirically Assessing the Impact of BPR on Manufacturing Firms, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 16, No. 8, pp. 5–28.
Hall, E. and Rosenthal, J. and Wade, J. (1994) How to Make Re-engineering Really Work. The McKinsey Quarterly, No. 2, pp. 107–128.
Hammer, M. and Champy, J. (1993) Re-engineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. Harper Collins Publisher Inc., USA.
Harrington, H J. (1991) Business Process Improvement. Quality Press, McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York.
Kettinger, W. and Grover, V. (1995) Toward a Theory of Business Process Change Management. Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 9–30.
Laakso, T. (1997) Performance Evaluation and Process Interventions — A Method for Business Process Development. Acta Polytechnica Scandinavica, Mathematics and Computer Series, No. 86, The Finnish Academy of Technology, Espoo, Finland.
Laakso, T., Kleinhans, S., Smeds, R. and Doumeingts, G. (1996) Embedding the management of evolution into strategic learning. Ninth International Working Seminar on Production Economics, Innsbruck, Austria, February 19–23, 1996, 19 p.
Majchrzak, A. and Wang, Q. (1996) Breaking the Functional Mind-Set in Process
Organizations. Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp. 93–99. Oakland, J. (1993) Total Quality Management; The Route to Improving
Performance. Second edition, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd, Oxford, UK.
Rummler, G. and Brache, A. (1990) Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organization Chart. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Senge, P. (1990) The Leader’s New Work: Building Learning Organizations. Sloan Management Review, Fall, pp. 7–23.
Senge, P. and Roberts, C. and Ross, R. and Smith, B. and Kleiner, A. (1994) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd, London, UK.
Smith, A. (1982) Management Systems: Analyses and Applications. The Dryden Press, Japan
Stoddard, D. and Jarvenpaa, S. (1995) Business Process Redesign: Tactics for Managing Radical Change. Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 81–107.
Turner, R (1995) Process Management: The Versatile Approach to Achieving Quality in Project Based Organizations. Journal of General Management, Vol. 21, No. 1, Autumn, pp. 47–61.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Laakso, T. (1997). Process Assessment Method — an approach for business process development. In: Plonka, F., Olling, G. (eds) Computer Applications in Production and Engineering. CAPE 1997. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35291-6_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35291-6_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4833-8
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-35291-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive