Avoiding Supply Chain Management Failure: Lessons from Business Process Re‐engineering

Abstract

Business Process Re‐engineering (BPR) appears to have had its 15 minutes of fame and is now viewed by many managers as an unqualified failure. It is important that managers realize that every concept has some merit and that lessons can be learned even from a failure. This paper reviews the similarities that exist between BPR and Supply Chain Management (SCM). These similarities allow supply chain practitioners to obtain valuable lessons from the mistakes associated with BPR implementation. These lessons are reviewed and their application to SCM is explained.