Theory and Methodology Putting soft OR methods to work: The case of the business improvement project at PowerGen Richard Ormerod * Warwick Business School, Warwick University, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK Received 1 March 1998; accepted 1 August 1998 Abstract In 1994 PowerGen, a UK electricity generating company, conducted a business improvement project. The project used a participative approach involving soft OR and systems thinking, an approach that was developed in earlier projects in food retailing and mining. The aim of the project was initially to conduct a benchmarking exercise and develop an information systems (IS) strategy. As the project progressed the emphasis moved to business process re- design and downsizing in the light of new perceptions of business prospects. The paper describes the design and im- plementation of the intervention, the evolution of the project, the problems encountered, and the outcome. Throughout it describes in some detail the interaction that took place. Although many improvements to current operations were identi®ed for implementation, it proved dicult to obtain agreement to a fundamental change in the organisational structure. Two years after the project ®nished a new organisation based on the project's analysis has been adopted. The case is discussed drawing on a number of recent theoretical themes that have emerged from the debate about the process of OR. Conclusions are drawn about the value of the methods used in the intervention, the practicalities of mixing several methods, and the future direction the research programme should take. Ó 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Process of OR; Systems; Business process redesign; Benchmarking; Energy 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to relate practical experience in the use of soft OR, systems thinking and other approaches in the Business Improve- ment Project (BIP) at PowerGen in 1994. It is the fourth in a series of papers relating such experience in dierent contexts. The ®rst paper reports on the development of an IS strategy in 1989 at Sains- bury's, a large food and grocery chain in the UK (Ormerod, 1995a). It describes how several soft OR and other methods were used in one part- icipative intervention. The second paper describes a ®eld trial in 1991 at Palabora, a copper mine in South Africa (Ormerod, 1998). The approach taken at Palabora was based on the participative approach developed for Sainsbury's. The management of both Sainsbury's and Palabora European Journal of Operational Research 118 (1999) 1±29 www.elsevier.com/locate/orms * Tel.: 44 1203 524 536; fax: 44 1203 524 539; e-mail: orsro@wbs.warwick.ac.uk 0377-2217/99/$ ± see front matter Ó 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 7 - 2 2 1 7 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 2 7 8 - 1