Business process reengineering is arguably the management paradigm of the decade. No other paradigm for organizational innovation and improvement has achieved a stronger presence and impact in corporate boardrooms around the world. In recent years reengineering has also moved away from the hype into real-world application, and there is now a vast pool of techniques and experience ready to be tapped by organizational-change advocates.This book provides an international showcase of reengineering in action, with contributions from more than forty experts spanning five continents. Besides prescriptions of concepts and tools, it presents case studies of public sector as well as private sector reengineering experience, and visions of the future of reengineering practice.

Cultural-historical activity theory is a powerful toolkit for social sciences. This book demonstrates how the Finnish school of developmental work research uses activity theory in the analysis and practical transformation of work, technology and organizations. Developmental work research is a longitudinal and interventionist approach. Researchers aim at generating, supporting and following cycles of expansive learning in the activity systems they study. The process opens up qualitatively new possibilities for creating use values and for developing the capabilities and agency of the practitioners and their clients. Critical dialogue and partnerships are built between the researchers and the organizations they study. In their 18 chapters, the 23 authors of the book give a broad sample of work done over a period of ten years in the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at University of Helsinki. The theoretical and methodological themes range from the polyphony of activity to relationships between history, ethnography and interventions. The empirical chapters range from the work of teachers and judges to collaboration between industrial enterprises. Yrjö Engeström is Professor of Adult Education and Director of the Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research at University of Helsinki. Joachim Lompscher (1932-2005) was Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at University of Potsdam. Georg Rückriem is Professor Emeritus of Education at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. Cover photo: Faces of the authors in the order of their chapters.

The availability of effective global communication facilities in the last decade has changed the business goals of many manufacturing enterprises. They need to remain competitive by developing products and processes which are specific to individual requirements, completely packaged and manufactured globally. Networks of enterprises are formed to operate across time and space with world-wide distributed functions such as manufacturing, sales, customer support, engineering, quality assurance, supply chain management and so on. Research and technology development need to address architectures, methodologies, models and tools supporting intra- and inter-enterprise operation and management. Throughout the life cycle of products and enterprises there is the requirement to transform information sourced from globally distributed offices and partners into knowledge for decision and action. Building on the success of previous DrrSM conferences (Tokyo 1993, Eindhoven 1996, Fort Worth 1998), the fourth International Conference on Design of Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing (DrrSM 2000) aims to: • Establish and manage the dynamics of virtual enterprises, define the information system requirements and develop solutions; • Develop and deploy information management in multi-cultural systems with universal applicability of the proposed architecture and solutions; • Develop enterprise integration architectures, methodologies and information infrastructure support for reconfigurable enterprises; • Explore information transformation into knowledge for decision and action by machine and skilful people; These objectives reflect changes of the business processes due to advancements of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the last couple of years.

Total Organizational Excellence derives some of its material from TQM, but extends and reorganises those principles around a new framework in which people and culture, business process re-engineering and benchmarking predominate.