Target Costing in Business Process Reengineering

Abstract

Recently, Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is discussed with great interest among Japanese companies. However, only a very small number of them, around 2%, actually tried to implement BPR and eventually obtained remarkable results. One of the reasons for the low acceptance of BPR in Japan is that it is perceived as being nothing particularly new. Although Japanese companies are very interested in the concept of BPR, most parts of this management approach are identified as being very similar to best practices common in Japanese companies. Another reason is that Japanese companies are also aware of the great difficulties caused by the implementation of BPR including the huge burden on the workforce it might entail. Moreover, Kaizen, one of the basic Japanese business philosophies, fosters gradual but continuous improvement of the management of business processes taking place within Japanese companies.