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Abstract
The principles applicable in process engineering are the same whether the enterprise is in the private or public sector. Comparisons to counterparts working with major private sector organizations indicate that many of the opportunities and challenges are the same. During the industrial revolution, the important thing for public sector organizations was not to mimic private-sector incentive schemes, it was to apply mass-production techniques. A majority of activities in today's enterprises are not essential in producing value to the customer and the responsiveness of organizations as measured by their cycle time can be easily cut by a significant factor. The impediments to achieving such changes are not due to presence or absence of the profit motive per se, but rather to the presence of organizational leadership, the ability to question basic principles, the willingness of employees to think out of the box, and the aspiration not merely to improve old systems incrementally, but with a combination of ambition and hubris to attempt a radical departure from the past.