The Essence and Role of Reengineering at Enterprises

The article aims at developing the essence of the concept of reengineering and highlighting its characteristics. Various approaches to the interpretation of this concept have been considered from a historical viewpoint. It has been found out that modern scientists consider this concept from different positions, e.g. as a conceptual and methodological approach, as philosophy of activity, as skills, as a method of business management, as a concept of change, as a method of restructuring, as a tool for business efficiency, as a process, as a type and sphere of professional activity, etc. At the same time, taking into account the instruments of morphological analysis; identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches to understand the meaning of "reengineering"; as well as studying practical experience; and finally, drawing general conclusions from scientific research on this issue have allowed the author to substantiate the expediency of interpreting reengineering as a direction of management activities aimed at restructuring business processes at an enterprise radically to achieve the established efficiency criteria. The main business components have been identified and characterized, in relation to and in the context of which the need to use reengineering instruments can be considered. The prevailing components of reengineering in the activity of enterprises have been analyzed. To specify the essence of the "reengineering" concept, its characteristic features are highlighted, namely: the individual nature of work and services performed (provided) within it; dependence of the content and nature of reengineering on the features of business entity; significant influence of the competence of business entities responsible for reengineering on its effectiveness; coverage by reengineering of both traditional and innovative business processes; an opportunity for business entities to solve a wide range of problems through using reengineering; the difficulty of establishing clear and unambiguous criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of reengineering in the initial stages of its implementation; the temporary nature of the relationship between the parties involved in the reengineering project implementation; relative separation of reengineering from the current production and economic activities of a company; the possibility of applying reengineering to various business processes at an enterprise; the necessity to make initial investments in the performance of work (services) within an reengineering project.