Emerging Trends in Engineering and Technology

Continuous Improvement through BPR in Software Development and Usage A CASE STUDY OF BHEL

Introduction
Business Process Reengineering means not only change -but dramatic change. What constitutes dramatic change is the overhaul of organizational structures, management systems, employee responsibilities and the use of information technology.
It was introduced by Dr.Michael Hammer in 1990s This paper presents the re-engineering work done at BHEL(Trichy) using BPR strategy in the software development and maintenance process as a CASE STUDY. It involves migration from COBOL to ORACLE based Client Server system Successful BPR can result in enormous reductions in cost or cycle time. It can also potentially create substantial improvements in quality, customer service, or other business objectives
An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

What is BPR?
"Business Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance, such as cost, quality, service, and speed." -- Dr. Michael Hammer
An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

Common Steps in BPR

Project Phases Required For Successful BPR: Phase 1: Begin Organizational Change Phase 2: Build the Reengineering Organization Phase 3: Identify BPR Opportunities Phase 4: Understand the Existing Process Phase 5: Reengineer the Process
An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Hardware set up
First decentralized computer system (PDP11) established in 1986 Unix based Multiprocessor system introduced in 1990 HCL Magnum

Problems faced
Existence of information islands with fragmented systems Cobol based systems was huge and difficult to maintain User has access to lot of data but he is not getting the information he wants. Integration exists only in paper. Usage of variety of software packages in a module Accountability down the line is poor. Currency of data is poor. Difficult to get adhoc reports and to answer queries

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Hardware set up
Client server Technology with RDBMS introduced in 1997 with HP 9000 unix server Try Business process reengineering Exploit new software capabilities Upgrade the computer system to Client Server Technology with RDBMS Oracle Improve data integration Empower working staff

The Solution

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

BPR Objectives
Cost Reduction ( Mainly operating cost can be drastically cut by reducing cycle time of processes and by eliminating unwanted steps) Time and space shrinkage (Cutting processing time from weeks to days and eliminating unwanted intermediate outputs) Quality enhancement(By eliminating errors,exercizing various controls which becomes amenable due to BPR) Work Life enrichment(By eliminating dull steps in jobs by introducing creativity and by introducing new things to learn) Profit improvement

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Steps in BPR
Develop Business Vision and Process objectives Identify processes to be reengineered Understand and measure existing process
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CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy) Strategy Study the existing system(Around 500 COBOL programs and Job Modules with no systematic documentation) Evolve the system design from first principles(Then only we can expect dramatic results). Development of Data Model(ER Diagram) after Business Data Analysis(Mapping from Flat file System to Relational Data Model). Batch to online conversion(COBOL to ORACLE) Eliminate many steps in the existing system which are unnecessary(Merging tables dealing with same entity etc)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Development of Interactive forms

Study For data capture at source and populating and changing the database content(Using front end tool Developer 2000 Many cobol programs map into a single form- The program logic is converted as triggers and PL/SQL Procedures) Incorporation of Business Rules Eg Income tax and recovery calculation in Bills(Database triggers and PL/SQL procedures)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Development of Interactive forms

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Development of Interactive forms

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

SYSTEM SIMPLIFICATION AND RE-ENGINEERING THROUGH ORACLE IMPLEMENTATION RE-ENGINEERING Many computer process and intermediate steps eliminated while migrating from COBOL to ORACLE Redundant data storage avoided Business Rules rewritten RE-ENGINEERING EXAMPLES Faster Generation of other area indents due to automatic area code identification at DU absorption Rate Schedule eligibility check while loading a supplier On line DC posting, Bill Processing and DCN processing keeps always AD data current. Acceptance of the bill based on multiple rates Extra Rate acceptance based on original Vs extra rate schedule matrix Bill error is corrected if the same is due to DC error by simultaneous attack on error Terminal date shown in different reports are taken from single source

SYSTEM SIMPLIFICATION
Monitoring of critical DUs simplified due to exception reports in different sorting order DCN incorporation system simplified due to online implementation of IOM system Integrated hold up with non match tonnage statement has helped to identify critical items by clearing which maximum matching can be obtained. Many user friendly enquiries have been developed which provides integrated An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data information.
Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment

CASE STUDY Ancilliary Development Computer System BHEL(Trichy)

Conclusion
The computer system successfully migrated from COBOL to ORACLE using BPR strategy. Information islands bridged(Eg DBLINK facilty and distributed database approach) Online System introduced due to which the information has become current and the same is easily accessible by all users. People are empowered and life style changed with job enrichment. (Other examples of BPR are computerized Railway reservation and Banking operations say easy passbook entry any time) We can cope up with the shock due to technology change.

An Institutionally Secure Integrated Data Environment