Simulation Satyagraha, a successful strategy for business process reengineering

Organizations are now using modeling and simulation for business process reengineering projects. Business processes are unique and present special requirements for the tools and methodologies used, as compared to the tools and techniques used to model and simulate manufacturing processes. This paper outlines the differences between business and manufacturing processes and explains the special requirements of tools for business process redesign and their application methods. We present a simulation-based approach called Simulation Satyagraha. Satyagraha is a technique of political change pioneered by Mahatma Gandhi to induce the British Empire to free India, and later adapted by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his efforts at changing racial policies in the USA. Satyagraha roughly translates as "the force given rise to by the insistence on facts and conscience". Employing Satyagraha, one first obtains universal agreement on the facts of a situation, and then presents those facts in such a manner that calls upon the consciences of the interested players to abandon their personal stakes and commit to the change needed. Simulation models are a good vehicle for employing Satyagraha because simulation directly supports the two-step finesse implicit in the Satyagraha process.