BPR METHODS APPLIED TO A MANUFACTURER IN THE DOMOTICS SECTOR

This paper describes a company reorganization plan developed using business process reengineering (bpr) in a major enterprise operating in the domotics sector, whose core business is the manufacture of cooker top extractor hoods. In the BPR process, our attention focused on two processes that, for reasons specific to the company in question, had been pinpointed as high-priority, i.e. the design and mass production of new products and production programming. The work-up can be summarized in four main points, as follows: - Delphi analysis in order to obtain individual opinions; - complete analysis of the company’s situation “As-Is” and preparation of IDEF0 diagrams describing the business processes; - proposal of changes to the high-priority processes requiring reorganization and implementation of the new “To Be” diagrams; - implementation of the new management and organizational solutions; The outcome of the As-Is phase can be translated into the definition of: a) functional relations describing the current situation, that correlate the activities forming the process in question and pinpoint the inputs, outputs, controls and resources characteristic of each activity; b) random and/or temporal sequences of the stages comprising each activity; c) performance and cost measurements; d) lists of bottlenecks and superfluous activities. After completing the analysis of the company’s activities, the new network of activities was designed using the “To-Be” models. The aims of the redesign of the flow of activities were as follows: 1) to eliminate any activities that do not add value to the product/service in a manner perceptible to the customer; 2) to rationalize the essential activities, seeking to eliminate bottlenecks and reconsider the organization of actions that generate delays; 3) to make the process more flexible and adaptable, concentrating where necessary on the handling of “exceptions to the rule”; 4) to prevent the risk of errors and returns, both by ensuring the adequacy of information and by involving the end-user of the service beforehand; 5) to learn from examples of excellence, copying solutions that have already been tried and tested, and have proved effective. An Object − StateTransition approach was used to generate the new “To-Be” models, focusing our attention on the objects (inputs, outputs, controls and resources) and on how they change during the processes. The action taken on the company’s organizational structure generated a series of important changes in its internal hierarchy, the reference roles and the responsibilities of the people involved.