Dynamic process modeling for BPR: a computerized simulation approach

Abstract

Business Process Redesign (BPR) projects are considered to be high risk due to their high management complexity, enterprise wide impact, and steep project cost. This paper describes a technique that should reduce that risk by developing a systematic process redesign method that we call Dynamic Process Modeling (DPM). It integrates customer-oriented process modeling with computerized visual process simulation to promote better understanding of the required process and determine its performance through simulation of the proposed redesign alternatives prior to selection and implementation. We compare DPM with four other implementation-level process modeling methods using eight criteria to demonstrate its effectiveness in a real-world hospital BPR case. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.