There is a better way to reengineer business processes than that now in progress at most big organizations. It produces results in months, rather than years. It links process reforms tightly to competitive strategy, and thus delivers precisely the changes likely to provide the greatest benefit to the company as a whole. It fosters continuous rapid change among frontline employees. In short, it works.

Three simple steps underlie the new approach (Exhibit 1). First, diagnose the most critical problems and opportunities facing the company and sketch out a possible solution. Second, quickly, over a few months, translate the sketch of a solution into new work processes and systems; include new ways of working as well as new computer systems, and begin using both for real. If, for example, the problem at hand is inventory management, use the new process to manage a few products at several plants and warehouses. Given this real-world experience, determine where these new processes and systems succeed or fail, and quickly fix the failures. In other words: do it, then fix it. Third, scale up systems for rollout across the whole organization. Communicate the proven success...