Business Systems Engineering

A guide to combining two powerful management techniques totransform any business organization into a masterpiece of businessefficiency. Lester Dean Thurow, Dean of MIT's Sloan School ofManagement, recently stated that benchmarking combined with processengineering will be the most important management technique of the1990s. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Gregory Watson describeshow top corporations worldwide have already successfullyimplemented that powerful cutting-edge technique--which he calls"business systems engineering"--to promote continuous improvement.More importantly, he clearly demonstrates how you can do the samein your organization.
* Introduces business systems engineering, a dynamic new approachto rethinking and redesigning business processes to achievedramatic improvements in quality, cost, service, speed, andmore
* Offers clear guidelines for using business systems engineeringtechniques to make your organization more dynamic, productive, andable to adapt to change in today's global marketplace
* Incorporates key aspects of TQM, business process improvement,policy deployment, industrial engineering, teamwork, problemsolving, and information technology into one holistic system
* Includes business systems engineering success stories, includingthose at Compaq, United Services Automobile Association andMotorola, as well as a survey of the effect of systems changeacross the global automobile industry Learning: The Root of Change.

Innovation Seeks Productivity.

FOUNDATION OF BUSINESS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING.

Definition of Business Systems Engineering.

Elements of Business Systems Engineering.

TOOLS OF BUSINESS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING.

Process Analysis Measures Performance.

Benchmarking Introduces New Perspectives.

Information Technology Provides Enablers.

Policy Deployment Fosters Teamwork.

APPLICATIONS OF BUSINESS SYSTEMS ENGINEERING.

Engineering Product Design: Creating Competitiveness in theAutomotive Industry.

Engineering Manufacturing Systems: The Bandit Line atMotorola.

Engineering Customers Service: The Compaq Response to the Attackby Dell.

Engineering the Office: A Paperless Factory at USAA.

MAKING IT HAPPEN.

Lessons Learned from Engineering Business Systems.

An Invitation to Engineer Your Business System.

Chapter Notes.

Reengineering Bibliography.

Index. About the author GREGORY H. WATSON is an independent businessadvisor to Fortune 500 senior management teams. He has been VicePresident of Quality at Xerox Corporation, Vice President ofBenchmarking at the American Productivity & Quality Center andDirector of Corporate Quality with Compaq Computer Corporation. Hisother books include Strategic Benchmarking, The BenchmarkingWorkbook, and A World of Quality: The Timeless Passport. In Business Systems Engineering, Gregory H. Watson describes how top corporations around the world have already successfully implemented that powerful cutting-edge technique to promote continuous improvement. More importantly, he shows you how you can do the same in your organization. Drawing on numerous success stories, including those of Compaq, United Services Automobile Association, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, and Xerox, he extrapolates a set of coherent guidelines that managers can follow to transform their organizations into streamlined models of business efficiency that are more dynamic, productive, and capable of quickly adapting to today’s ever-changing global business environment. While business systems engineering is driven by process reengineering and benchmarking, it also incorporates crucial aspects of TQM, business process improvement, policy deployment, industrial engineering, teamwork, problem solving, and information technology. As you read this fascinating and instructive book, you’ll recognize the influence and best of Tom Peters, Peter Senge and Taichi Ohno, Shoshana Zuboff, Margaret Wheatly, Edwards Deming, and Joseph Juran, and a host of luminaries from the world of business theory. And you will be inspired by Gregory Watson’s deftness in incorporating those ideas into a bold new approach to linking innovation with organizational restructuring and the rethinking and redesigning of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in quality, cost, service, speed, and every other critical measure of business performance. Leading ongoing organization-wide change is the greatest challenge facing top management today. Now Business Systems Engineering arms you with the most potent and versatile tool yet for meeting that challenge. A guide to combining two powerful management techniques to transform any business organization into a masterpiece of business efficiency. Lester Dean Thurow, Dean of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, recently stated that benchmarking combined with process engineering will be the most important management technique of the 1990s. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Gregory Watson describes how top corporations worldwide have already successfully implemented that powerful cutting-edge technique—which he calls "business systems engineering"—to promote continuous improvement. More importantly, he clearly demonstrates how you can do the same in your organization.

• Introduces business systems engineering, a dynamic new approach to rethinking and redesigning business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in quality, cost, service, speed, and more
• Offers clear guidelines for using business systems engineering techniques to make your organization more dynamic, productive, and able to adapt to change in today’s global marketplace
• Incorporates key aspects of TQM, business process improvement, policy deployment, industrial engineering, teamwork, problem solving, and information technology into one holistic system
• Includes business systems engineering success stories, including those at Compaq, United Services Automobile Association and Motorola, as well as a survey of the effect of systems change across the global automobile industry