TQM vs. BPR

摘要

What's the difference between total quality management (TQM) and business process reengineering (BPR)? Though the terms themselves aren't heard much anymore, many organizations still use the tools in these programs to make changes. Both embrace the same ideas and goals for organizational improvements. Both encourage employee empowerment, teamwork, quality, change and focus on the customer. What differs, though, is the means each program employs for achieving improvements. TQM is a management system that aims at long-term continuous improvements in customer satisfaction and real costs. BPR, on the other hand, is the rapid and radical redesign of strategic processes to optimize the workflow and productivity in an organization. The changes that take place during BPR are fast and drastic. Its advocates argue no gain is derived from adding antilock brakes to a horse and buggy. The goal is to demolish old processes to clear the way for new ones. TQM advocates, on the other hand, say the TQM philosophy supports a building block approach to improvement projects and does not resemble the clean slate approach associated with BPR projects. Even some BPR supporters argue the clean slate approach is a myth and is not practical in most organizations.