What does "business process reengineering" aim to achieve?

Business process reengineering focuses on achieving a radical redesign of business processes to enhance performance and efficiency. This approach typically seeks to rethink and fundamentally transform the way work is done within an organization to achieve dramatic improvements in critical areas such as cost, quality, service, and speed.

By starting with a clean slate, organizations can eliminate outdated practices and inefficiencies, leading to more streamlined operations. For example, instead of just making small adjustments, it encourages breaking down existing processes and rebuilding them in ways that take full advantage of modern technologies and management practices. This can result in significant changes that better align processes with business goals and customer needs, rather than merely tweaking existing workflows.

This is a key distinction when contrasting with other approaches like incremental improvements, which focus on gradual changes rather than a comprehensive overhaul. As a result, the essence of business process reengineering is not just about making things better but about making significant changes that can fundamentally alter how an organization operates.