Business Process Reengineering (BPR) versus Six Sigma

 Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Six Sigma are both methodologies used to improve organizational performance, but they approach this objective differently.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

BPR is a strategic approach that involves fundamentally rethinking and radically redesigning a business process to achieve dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and speed. BPR aims not to improve existing processes but to re-invent them. This can sometimes mean starting from scratch, which can involve high risks and radical changes to systems and employee roles.

BPR may involve:

• Removing unnecessary processes
• Automating certain tasks
• Restructuring departments or teams
• Implementing new technology to improve process efficiency

Six Sigma

On the other hand, Six Sigma is a structured, data-driven approach to process improvement to reduce defects to a level of six standard deviations (sigma) from the mean, which equates to 3.4 defects per million opportunities. Motorola initially developed the approach, and it was later championed by companies like GE.

The Six Sigma methodology uses two sub-methodologies:

• DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) for improving existing processes
• DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify) for creating new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels.

Unlike BPR, Six Sigma focuses on incremental improvements to existing processes rather than radical changes. It employs statistical analysis to identify the causes of errors and then seeks to reduce or eliminate those causes.

In summary, the main differences between BPR and Six Sigma are:

1. Objective: BPR seeks radical change and fundamental rethinking of processes, while Six Sigma focuses on incremental improvement of existing processes.
2. Risk: BPR involves high risks as it may require a complete redesign, while Six Sigma is less risky as it focuses on small, manageable changes.
3. Focus: BPR tends to focus on processes and systems as a whole, while Six Sigma emphasizes statistical analysis and reduction of variation and defects.
4. Implementation: BPR is more disruptive as it often requires significant changes to the organization structure, roles, and technology, whereas Six Sigma is less disruptive and typically involves smaller changes within the existing setup.

In practice, organizations often use these methodologies together. For example, they may use BPR to redesign a process fundamentally and then apply Six Sigma to optimize the redesigned process.