新工業工程之研究

Abstract

近年來，由於時代潮流及產業環境的快速改變，全球競爭日趨激烈，企業面臨前所未有的挑戰，紛紛採取應變措施，例如組織精簡、策略聯盟、全面品質管埋、再生工程等。Davenport & Short(1990)在史隆管理評論撰文的「新工業工程：資訊科技及企業程序再設計」，提出「新工業工程」的論點，並指出未來工業工程所應走的方向-善加運用兩種的工具，即資訊科技及企業程序再設計。 工業工程相關文獻資料雖有涉及資訊科技的應用，但未曾有「新工業工程」的論點，即將資訊科技應用於「程序再設計」上，大多學者都是在Davenport & Short之後，才開始廣泛研究討論，這是「新工業工程」之「新意」。除此之外，「新工業工程」之最大特色在於發現工業工程學科的內容中沒有人探討資訊科技及企業程序再設計的結合，其最大貢獻在於提倡更寬廣、循環的資訊科技與企業程序再設計之觀念，創造新的組織轉型的方法，促進使工業工程的方法對組織作出更大的貢獻，進而使工業工程師有更大的發展空間。但其主要的限制在於若沒有好的企業策略，則進行企業程序再設計所獲得的成果有限。「新工業工程」以程序導向觀點進行企業改造，符合工業工程的方法注重程序的特色，事實上，類似的觀念與方法如再生工程，已經獲得許多企業認同，企業紛紛採用「程序改造」方式來進行組織的轉型。 「新工業工程」的任務重點不是以個人或組織功能部門的績效之最大化，而是跨部門活動作業與跨組織的績效之最大化。「新工業工程」擴大了工業工程師思考的範圍，改進工業社會的觀念與方法，創造資訊社會一種新的觀念與方法，將資訊科技結合於「程序再設計」上，提升企業的競爭力，並達成顧客滿意與因應環境的變遷。

In the recent years, most enterprises encountered more difficulties and challenges in their operations due to rapid changing world trend and business environment. As a result, it became more and more popular among companies that tried to cope with these situations and to be more competitive in the dynamic business world, such as organization downsizing, strategy alliance, TQM and reengineering, etc.. Davenport & Short had published "The New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Redesign (BPR)" at Sloan Management Review in 1990. They pointed out the view of the new IE, the future direction of IE, should explore the relationship between IT and BPR, apply both together. Although IT has been studied in traditional IE literature, the concept of new IE (i.e. application of IT to BPR) has not been widely discussed until Davenport & Short. The characteristic of the new IE is the combination of IT with BPR. The new IE contributed the broader and recursive view of IT and BPR on organizational transformation and paved the way for future development of IE. Nevertheless, a well-defined business strategy will be necessary for the success of BPR. The process- oriented view of the new IE bears the same characteristic as traditional IE. In fact, similar concepts and methods of the new IE, such as reengineering, have been adopted by a lot of companies for organizational transformation. The major objective of the new IE is to maximize interdepartmental activities and performance rather that to maximize performance of individuals or single department. By combining IT with BPR and providing the information society with a broader and newer view, the new IE can then help enterprises to enhance their competence and capacity to achieve customer satisfaction and to cope with environmental changes.