Hocking, Alan C. with Peng Sea Lee, "Systems Thinking and Business Process Re-design: A Case for Combining Techniques", 1994
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This paper describes a consultancy project where the main aim was for the client to learn about systems thinking (ST) through an application in the area of business process re-design (BPR). Over a two week period, systems thinking was applied in variety of contexts: exploring the interfaces between business processes; re-designing a single process; and structuring a chronic problem relating to the client’s budgeting process. It was found that systems thinking performed differently depending on the problem context within which it was being applied. Systems thinking performed well when applied to specific and chronic problems, but less so when used to explore business processes where no particular problem had been identified. Blending systems thinking with other problem-structuring techniques, however, created an integrated and powerful method for re-designing a business process. Four ways are describes in which systems thinking was applied during the project and pays particular attention to the way a range of techniques was used to re-design a business process.