17 Self assessment - A tool for business process reengineering A. Rolstadas Norwegian Institute of Technology, Department of Production and Quality Engineering R. Birkelands vei 2, 7034 Trondheim, Norway Telephone: + 47 73 59 38 00 Telefax: +47 73 59 71 17 E-mail: arolst@ protek. unit. no Abstract Industry experiences a changed competitive environment characterised by customer focus and global competition. To meet this situation manufacturing and development will have to be done globally as well. This is referred to as the virtual enterprise. In the virtual enterprise performance becomes a key issue. Measurement of performance must be based on an extended productivity definition where productivity is the ratio between value added and resources consumed. This definition requires a process oriented approach. In this the definition and identification of business processes is essential. These processes must be studied and reengineered. The study of business processes will include performance measurement. This can be done using the TOPP approach. TOPP is a research programme where amongst other a model for productivity studies is developed. This model comprises system variables, functions, cycles and management philosophies. Productivity studies can be done using the self assessment approach. This is either based on a questionnaire or on the definition and continuous evaluation of standard business processes. Keywords Production management, enterprise modelling, productivity, benchmarking. J. Browne et al. (eds.), Re-engineering the Enterprise © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1995