April
1999 QUESTION 5 Total Marks: 20 Marks |
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| (a) | Explain what is meant by the term business
process re-engineering (BPR). Give an example of BPR.
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[3] |
| (b) | Identify and briefly explain the three phenomena
motivating organizations into BPR.
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[6] |
| (c) | A critic of BPR might describe it as 'just another management fad', a mere repacking of earlier business philosophies such as | [4] |
| (i) Just-In-Time (JIT) product, which is about producing the right amount of a product at the time that it is required, aiming to reduce the size of inventories; | ||
| (ii) Total Quality Management (TQM), which is about installing mechanisms to measure quality, thereby aiming to improve it; | ||
| (iii) Fast Cycle Response (FCR), which is about responding quickly to customers, aiming to improve customer satisfaction; and | ||
| (iv) Simultaneous Engineering (SE), which is
about making marketing, research and development and product work together and in
parallel, aiming to reduce time from concept to mark for a new product. Answer such a criticism, by showing how BPR differs from each of these philosophies.
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| (d) | Outline five main steps for BPR.
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[5] |
| (e) | Explain what is meant by the terms software re-engineering. What distinguishes software re-engineering from business process re-engineering? | [2] |