How is business process re-engineering different from incrementally improving a process?

Business process re-engineering (BPR) involves a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve significant improvements in performance, such as cost, quality, and service. In contrast, incremental improvement focuses on making small, continuous enhancements to existing processes without radically changing their structure. While BPR seeks to overhaul processes for dramatic results, incremental improvements aim for gradual progress and efficiency gains. Thus, BPR is often more transformative, while incremental improvements are more evolutionary.