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This chapter explores the effects of the digital global economy and the ways in which software requirements are constructed. From this perspective, digital transformation involves a type of reengineering, but one that is not limited to rethinking just how systems work together, rather the entire business itself. Digital transformation also affects the risks that organizations must take and has established a shrinking s-curve. Ultimately, this chapter emphasizes the need to engineer software without users and without traditional input sources. This approach presents analysts with a new challenge on how to design systems that may not have definitive and defined requirements, establishing the need for a new technique that uses an analytical risk model.

There are many deficiencies in the process of transfer, admissions and treatment of traditional pediatric care. According to BPR-based theory, we propose a new type of pediatric care management processes; it makes up for the limitations of traditional pediatric care, provides more comprehensive and specific care services, greatly enhances the care quality and efficiency, saves processing time and expands services. It is truly people-oriented, personalized service that makes care more systematic, standardized and scientific.

This article addresses the concepts of multidisciplinary projects focusing on the technological innovation recommended by the R&D Program of the Agencia Nacional de Energia Eletrica (Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency)–ANEEL, under which are subject all the Brazilian electrical utilities through the federal law 9.991/2000. The R&D Program provides the directions for the electrical energy research and development offering the criteria for the elaboration of the proposals of researches projects. Until recently the product development processes were not part of the electrical utility routine, what it becomes clear that it was necessary more knowledge about the whole research and development process what has showed the lack of the adequate methodological methods. This work presents the main points of a new approach as well as the study of the product development tools applied in the elaboration of the projects proposals. Therefore it is expected that this new approach brings a better R&D projects quality and consequently a significant reduction of the time, development and reengineering costs.

The Chapter illustrates an exemplary application of the tools proposed by IPPR to face product reengineering with a value-oriented approach. The case study regards the building of a new value profile for a professional blow dryer employed in the hairdressing industry. The sector is characterized by conservativeness, as well as the innovation of equipment presents a slow pace and mostly involves the maximization of established performances. The implementation of the IPPR roadmap for the third class of reengineering problems has led to the determination of two partially diverging value transitions synthesized by different product embodiments. The second alternative infringes to a certain extent the recommendations suggested by the New Value Proposition Guidelines. A conducted survey, involving some dozens of professionals, has revealed a considerable appreciation of the idea underpinning the first option and some criticism with regards to the second candidate value profile. The outcomes additionally show a possible market segmentation according to the kind of business and clientele of the respondents.

The Chapter presents the application of IPPR to a reengineering problem belonging to class 2, i.e. individuating the bottlenecks that generate loss of competitiveness. The case study concerns a branch of the Italian footwear industry which is represented by firms producing “accessible fashion” shoes. During the last years such a sector has experienced serious problems in preserving its competitiveness. The most critical factor has been identified as the timeliness in responding to a market demand characterized by rapidly mutating conditions. The aim of IPPR in such context was the individuation of proper reengineering actions allowing more dynamic business process resetting. The outcomes of the performed analysis suggest to reorganize the whole process according to quick response strategies. A verification through literature sources has confirmed the appropriateness of the provided indications.

The Chapter presents a discussion about the global achievements of IPPR. The proposed method represents an original contribution in terms of the tools for supporting both BPR and NPD tasks. More specifically, it suggests modeling techniques capable to represent the functioning of a business process linking the phases to the aspects of value supplied to the user. Novel assessment metrics have been defined aimed at identifying the process bottlenecks in terms of the ratio between generated customer satisfaction and involved resources. Furthermore, original guidelines have been identified to support the user in performing new value proposition tasks oriented towards the definition of new product profiles. The tests have confirmed reliability and consistency of the feedbacks provided by IPPR. Eventually, further studies have been planned to expand the potentialities and the reliability of the methodologies, among them some are included in ongoing research activities.

Goods are procured, produced and distributed to customers using supply chain networks (SCN) involving several facilities owned by a company, or a set of collaborating companies. These networks are engineered or reengineered through strategic decisions on the number, location, capacity, and mission of their production–distribution facilities. Decisions on the selection of suppliers, subcontractors, and 3PLs, and on the offers to make to product-markets, may also be involved.

The purpose of this paper is to give an in-depth insight for the development and improvement of concurrent engineering in several applications. In addition to that the conceptual model that includes the new application areas is developed and presented in simplified way so that the new practitioner in the field of concurrent engineering can understand easily. The methodology that is followed in this paper is review of concurrent engineering since the philosophy has started (80’s). The paper will start with historical background of CE, explains its general characteristics, different types of processes execution while doing overlapping and parallelism. Another area that will be covered is CE in relationship with other improvement principles and philosophies (like…supply chain, BPR, TQM) and etc. The challenges of CE are presented in this article to give a glance for managerial decision making purposes. Different perspectives towards CE and application areas is presented in a way that reader can understand in simplified but with clear objective in the implementation of CE. From the findings, though there are some challenges, still there are untapped application areas (like services) that could exploit the benefits of CE if it is considered with cautions and analyzed in advance using system dynamics.

A chain restaurant’s meal creation is a complicated process including tasks, such as the concept proposing, ingredient specifications, evaluation, and presentation design. These tasks are often cooperatively accomplished by staffs in the headquarter and its branches. However, the decisions of meal creation need to refer to the related data (such as customer preferences and feedbacks) that are often not organized, controlled and shared properly using the current product information management (PIM) solutions. The paper overcomes the current PIM deficiency by reengineering the set meal design process and its integrated information management. Using the modularized bill-of-materials data management concept, we develop a decision support system for set meal design, called collaborative meal planning (CMP) system, to enhance the efficiency of the meal planning and design process. Finally, the design interactions between headquarter and branches are studied to show the benefits in applying CMP. In the first phase of the study, the current data exchange model is derived. In the second phase, the to-be CMP-based meal design process is developed. In order to evaluating the performance of the proposed models, the case of a Japanese high-end chain restaurant is used to demonstrate the to-be CMP model at works with superior results.

We present a lightweight approach for reengineering the human computer interaction (HCI) and/or interaction with other software systems. While interaction reengineering can be achieved by changing the source code and design (e.g., library replacement, refactoring, etc.) resulting in a different user interface (UI), we limit the discussion to interaction reengineering methods that do not involve changing the source code or internal design of the system. Instead, we focus on methods and techniques for wrapping and packaging the existing interaction layer to reproduce it in a different format, e.g., on a different platform or to integrate the legacy system services in another application possibly under a different architecture paradigm, e.g., service-oriented architectures (SOA).

The preceding chapters intended to provide details about all significant research components of the LEAPFROG project. The authors also tried to demonstrate that all research work had been undertaken on the basis of a sound analysis of preexisting scientific-technological state-of-the-art, industrial capacities, business models, market needs and their expected future trends as well as human factors such as available skills and qualifications or management procedures and cultures. Finally it should have emerged that despite their great scientific and technological diversity all four major research modules of the project fit into a holistic reengineering framework reflecting the real complexities and interdependencies of the different manufacturing stages and business processes along the textile-clothing value chain, in the sense of a true integrated industrial innovation concept.

Process management system for concurrent product development is one of the key technologies and its main functional modules include product development process modeling, process analysis, process optimization, process improvement, process reengineering, process execution, process monitoring, etc. The module of process modeling is the basis of process management system for concurrent product development. A review for product development process modeling including design structure matrix (DSM) is described. The DSM based method of process modeling for concurrent product development is presented on the basis of multiview process modeling. The bidirectional mapping relationship is set up between multi-level process modeling and DSM. The basic steps for process reengineering is presented based on DSM. The DSM based process modeling system is developed and a case is given.

There is a clear growth of interests today on the development and use of e-maintenance concepts for industrial facilities. This is particularly seen in the offshore oil and gas (O&G) production environment in the North Sea in relation to a major reengineering process termed ‘integrated operations’ (IO) that began in 2004–2005 as a new development scenario for the offshore industry (OLF 2003). Major challenges to conventional operations and maintenance (O&M) practice have been seen unavoidable under this new IO initiative. Subsequently, the industry began to develop some serious interests on novel and smart solutions for O&M. The developments began in 2005 seeking long-term changes to the conventional O&M practice. The change process has been relatively slow during the 2005–2006 period, but seemingly has gathered gradual and steady pace by now. This is a large-scale change, and hence the current plan is to realize fully functional e-operations e-maintenance status by the years 2012–2015 or so. Even though the integrated e-operations and e-maintenance applications in the North Sea are still at their inception, the learning process and the state of current knowledge can be very valuable for similar efforts in the development and implementation of novel solutions in other industries and /or regions in the world.

In the globalised economy, organisational structures and methods used in product development have changed. Companies and organisations have responded by reengineering involved processes, increasing the use of information and communication technologies. Although not new, innovative concepts are required to fully support the resulting distributed virtual product development process. Modern information systems provide the access to information as well as communication, but actual software tools do not integrate the changing circumstances, arising from working in an intercultural field. Global Engineering can create problems of misunderstandings in the product development process leading to a possible lack of information as well as knowledge circulation. Knowledge Integration in collaboration supports successful communication and cooperation. It also supports finding common grounds, processes, and project language. The aim of this paper is to advance knowledge integration in product development to tackle the new challenges in Global Engineering.

An organisation’s maturity in asset management practices and processes can be determined through the application of an asset management audit. The main objective of this study was to develop and validate an asset management auditing methodology. This methodology includes the development of a program for asset management improvement and the application of business process re-engineering (BPR) as a tool to realise the improvement opportunities identified through the audit. The application of an asset management audit, according to the developed methodology, can create a “roadmap” to Asset Management improvement. By optimising the asset management practices and processes, a positive contribution can be made to the profitability of any business enterprise.

Business process reengineering (BPR) in Chapter 10 was specifically discussed in relation to legacy applications. This chapter provides further methods on actually replacing legacy systems as part of the redesign for a new system. That is, rather than create legacy links, replace the old application with the new system altogether. This approach can often be an attractive alternative because a packaged solution might indeed contain many of the features and functions of the legacy. The object-oriented (OO) paradigm is again the way to accomplish this analysis, particularly using the essential components that were outlined in Chapter 10. The essential components first require the establishment of the core business requirements and then the mapping of the functionality of the organization or business unit to these components.

The study of eProcurement at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals is not a review of technology—a misconception that many readers could reasonably make. The success at Leeds is a business process reengineering project that has used technology at the heart of the process to make the business work.

Because of increased competitive pressure on cost and innovation, combined simultaneously with the external dynamics of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in general, the combined design and production processes in industrial organizations have never attracted more attention in the context of reengineering, organizational change and/or development efforts in general. The application of 3D virtual reality holds promise as one of the most interesting means of support efforts related to transforming design and production. In this chapter, we will investigate how 3D virtual reality technology can contribute to a much needed redefinition of the way we perceive design and production and how we work with design and production in industrial firms.

Knowledge management is currently considered as a key issue within organisations. Knowledge management is crucial in all design activities, since a designer often relies on his or others’ experience to solve a new problem. This paper presents a tool for design knowledge management, focused on knowledge capture and reuse. Design knowledge is stored in process traces, which represent the successive steps leading to the solution (as opposed to just the solution). The tool is generic: it is independent both from the design method and from the application domain, thanks to the combined use of meta-modelling and case-based reasoning. We describe the tool and its application to a real Business Process Reengineering case.

This paper explains how ontologies can be used in order to assist process oriented knowledge acquisition (KA). It explains what ontologies are and how they can be applied within the context of process oriented KA tasks such as Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) initiatives and the construction of company Intranets or knowledge repositories. In particular it explains the rationale behind the development of an ontology based methodology that accompanies the "Process Knowledge Editor" KA tool. The work described is part of the SPEDE project which aims to create a Structured Process Elicitation and Demonstration Environment.

In this paper we present an initial overview of SHAMASH, a process modeling tool for Business Process Reengineering. The main features that differentiate it from most current related tools are its ability to define and use organisation standards, and make automatic model simulation and optimisation of them. SHAMASH is a knowledge based system, and we include a discussion on how knowledge acquisition it should be possible, furthemore we introduce a high level description of architecture and other importants modules of the system.

The principles of socio-technical thinking have had a major impact on the practice related to the design of organisations and their technology for the last fifty years. The importance of mutual ignment of the social and technical systems in organisations, structuring of work in self-autonomous teams and participation of stakeholder groups in change activities is well acknowledged. However, relatively few organisational change projects today are run under the “socio-technical flag”. Instead, new concepts and methodologies are being used as guiding principles for organisational change activities and the development of information systems. More commonly used labels for organisational change projects today are business process reengineering (BPR) and total quality management (TQM). Similarly, activities related to the design and development of information systems are now conducted under the headings of software engineering or participatory design.

This paper reviews a set of some important issues related to process management, process modelling, Business Process Reengineering (BRP), and information management and visualisation. It is a new philosophy based on a concurrent approach to systems analysis, modelling and design. Furthermore, a few of the important information-based challenges and opportunities for the incoming information society are briefly discussed.

Electronic business solutions are believed to improve a company’s operations. The success of such solution depends on: first, the reengineering of current business processes, and second, acceptance by people who are expected to use it. In this paper we present an e-commerce system that was designed and successfully deployed in the Polish division of a big, international corporation.

Engineers have developed several techniques, based on software engineering, for practising software evolution. However, software evolution has yet to reach its full potential because, to a large extent, these techniques are not integrated. While technologies such as “reengineering”, the “evolutionary” paradigm, and “reverse engineering” make significant contributions to the field, they are difficult to use together in an effective way.

One of the most difficult, yet crucial, tasks in any project of reengineering or extension of a legacy system is to understand the system and to recover the original requirements. To develop an effective method of requirements recovery for legacy information systems, the AMBOLS project proposes a semiotic framework. In complement to other conventional methods of systems engineering, two semiotic methods, Semantic Analysis and Norm Analysis, have been adopted for elicitation, derivation and representation of users’ requirements. The AMBOLS method recovers the requirements by analysing the normative behaviour of the legacy system in its context, and observing and modelling the interactions of its users.

In this chapter, we present a case study based on our experiences with reengineering legacy systems. The system’s technology typifies many data processing systems that were developed in the 1970s and remain in service today. This case study provides the foundation for two scenarios. Each scenario extends the case study with additional technical, business and organizational characteristics. Table 6.1 summarizes each scenario according to the characteristics of legacy systems which we introduced in Chapter 1.

BPR and object oriented technology are — and have been for the last few years, some of the two most important business and technical currents. However, it is often seen that applications developed independently for each business process result in “system architecture silos”. Therefore, the implementation of OO enterprise architectures brings ample business benefits in BPR environments such as: increased “enterprise conceptual integrity”, reusability, generativity, and increased business effectiveness (cost, quality, service or speed). However, the simultaneous implementation of OO architectures and BPR also demands many changes in the business organization, its software development organization and its enterprise architecture. In particular, it requires a workflow manager to be present in the system architecture. This paper briefly presents a “light” OO workflow management system for such an environment, and a brief description of a compatible: 1) a “business engineering” method, 2) a collection of business architecture patterns, and 3) a collection of software development patterns.

In mid 1996 the author and his research team started doing the case studies, which are described in Chapter 2 and in the following sections. At that time, the management of both companies surveyed was strongly of the opinion that the processes dealt with here should be improved. The wave of business process reengineering (BPR) was about at its peak. Project teams had been formed and there was much hope that new information technology would help to remove major inefficiencies soon. In initial meetings, the time frames needed for the implementation of improved procedures was estimated to be around 18 months. It is astonishing that this estimated time frame was the same for both the brewery (IB) and the lighting manufacturer (LLM), since the areas of optimization are of a very different nature.

The education field has become very competitive. This chapter describes some of the ways in which the Open University (OU) is using information technology (IT) to make radical changes in its operation, in order to provide high value distance education and maintain its competitiveness. It is finding new ways to improve the learning experience, to develop new material and to assess students’ performance. IT has been progressively used to make the OU a realistic alternative to traditional universities. The 1980s saw a huge growth in the use of personal computers (PCs) by students, particularly for simulation exercises in many subjects. In the late 1990s CD-ROM technology is enabling the bulk transmission of text, sound, interactive software, still and moving images. Even training in the use of the petrological microscope can be CD-ROM assisted. Communication networks are being used to re-orientate the role of lecturers and tutors, and enable students to form tutorial groups and carry out collaborative activities. Ultimately electronic communications will be used for the distribution of most course material. Finally, this chapter considers business process re-engineering (BPR) in the context of distance learning, aimed at achieving a more effective response to students’ needs and faster updating of learning material.

This paper describes a set of concepts by which an enterprise may be modeled. The purpose of the enterprise is defined by its vision, missions, goals and objectives. Business processes define the way in which this purpose is achieved. Resources are the things created and used to perform business processes, and organizations provide the framework within which business processes and resources are managed. This approach ensures that processes focus on achieving purpose through optimal management of available resources. The concepts have been implemented in Java to illustrate the feasibility of the approach.

The term business process reengineering has recently emerged as the most popular buzzword in the context of improving the competitiveness of enterprises in the increasingly competitive and complex environment of international markets [1]. Customer orientation of business processes has grown to be the primary focus for organizing operations—as opposed to the structures following the traditional tayloristic management theories. Departmental structures or individual job allocations require a revision in order to implement new structures and processes which assure maximum benefits to customers in terms of quality, cost or lead time.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is currently attracting immense interest in the management field as a means of achieving dramatic improvements in organisational productivity. It is widely seen as providing the blueprint for the future development of organisations in developed capitalist economies. Many of its features may be seen as similar to other influential models of organisational change such as the network organisation or the horizontal organisation.

Businesses have had a hard time adapting to and understanding the many new techniques for change that they have been offered. In order to sustain a high level of performance in non-homogenous markets, organisations are embracing radical changes in their organisational processes. Enterprises, and indeed whole industries, are developing new systems based on highly ambitious goal criteria, and are shifting their businesses from an activity-oriented strategy to a process-oriented one. The momentum is further enhanced by the fusion and availability of different technologies. This has inevitably required painful pruning, shedding and redefining; the act has caught the imagination, and embodied itself in the term “business process re-engineering” (BPR).

The Programming Research Group at Oxford University is participating in the ESPRIT project REDO. The project is targeted at the ReEngineering and reDOcumentation of COBOL and Fortran programs. The working consortium involves academic and industrial partners across Europe, under the overall management of Lloyd’s Register of Shipping in London. Three universities (Durham, Oxford and Limerick), five software products and services houses (Centrisa (Sp), CTC (Gr), ITS (Sp), Grumman (Ger), Marconi (UK)) and two large users of application codes (Electricite de France (Fr), Delft Hydraulics (Nth)) provide a lively spectrum of talents and activities.