Business process re-engineering — the route to integrating TQM into the business strategy

Abstract

In several large organisations in which total quality management (TQM) has been used successfully to effect change, the senior management did not focus on formal structures and systems, but set up process management teams to solve real business or organisation problems. The key to success in this area is to align the employees of the business, their roles and responsibilities with the organisation and its processes. This is the core of business process re-engineering (BPR) or total quality alignment. When an organisation focuses on its key processes, that is the activities and tasks themselves, rather than on abstract issues such as ‘culture’ and ‘participation’, then the change process can begin in earnest.