Page 58 - DCAP302_ENTERPRISE_RESOURCE_PLANNING

Enterprise Resource Planning

notes information

Business processes use information to tailor or complete their activities. Information, unlike
resources, is not consumed in the process - rather it is used as part of the transformation process.
In formation may come from external sources, from customers, from internal organizational
units and may even be the product of other processes.

Supply link to activity Business Process indicates that the information or object linked to the
process is not used up in the processing phase.

Example: Order templates may be used over and over to provide new orders of a certain
style - the templates are not altered or exhausted as part of this activity.

output

A business process will typically produce one or more outputs of value to the business, either
for internal use of to satisfy external requirements. An output may be a physical object (such as
a report or invoice), a transformation of raw resources into a new arrangement (a daily schedule
or roster) or an overall business result such as completing a customer order.

An output of one business process may feed into another process, either as a requested item or a
trigger to initiate new activities.

resource

A resource is an input to a business process, and, unlike information, is typically consumed
during the processing. For example, as each daily train service is run and actual recorded, the
service resource is ‘used up’ as far as the process of recording actual train times is concerned.
Supply link to activity Business Process. An input link indicates that the attached object or resource
is consumed in the processing procedure. As an example, as customer orders are processed they
are completed and signed off, and typically are used only once per unique resource (order).

Task How business processes use information to tailor or complete their activities?
Suggest

3.2 Business process re-engineering

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is an approach aiming at improvements by means
of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the business process that exist within and across
organizations. The key to BPR is for organizations to look at their business processes from a
“clean slate” perspective and determine how they can best construct these processes to improve
how they conduct business.

Business process re-engineering is also known as BPR, Business Process Redesign, Business
Transformation, or Business Process Change Management. It is the radical redesign of an
organization’s processes, especially its business processes. Rather than organizing a firm into
functional specialties (like production, accounting, marketing, etc.) and considering the tasks
that each function performs; complete processes from materials acquisition, to production, to
marketing and distribution should be considered. The firm should be reengineered into a series
of processes.

The main proponents of re-engineering were Michael Hammer and James A. Champy. In a
series of books including Re-engineering the Corporation, Re-engineering Management, and The

52 LoveLy professionaL university