"Re-engineering" and Michael Hammer

[Barry A. Popik]

     This was in the New York Times, 7 May 1999, Business Day, pg. C1, col.
2, in a story by Claudia H. Deutsch:

     But listen to Michael Hammer, the consultant in Cambridge, Mass., who
coined the term "re-engineering" and is the architect of the "process
organization," which turns corporate hierarchies on their ear.
(Only one ear for all those hierarchies?--ed.)

     Coined "re-engineering," huh?  A quick check of ProQuest shows
"re-engineering" back to at least 1978!  DOESN'T ANYONE CHECK??
     Michael Hammer authored these books:

REENGINEERING THE CORPORATION: A MANIFESTO FOR BUSINESS REVOLUTION (1993)
BEYOND REENGINEERING: HOW THE PROCESS-CENTERED ORGANIZATION IS CHANGING OUR
WORK AND LIVES (1996)

     A TIME magazine profile on 17 June 1996 credits Hammer's 1993 book for
coining "re-engineering."
     However, "re-engineering" appears in "Going Beyond the Buzzwords," BANK
SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY, December 1992.
     "Re-engineering" is also in "Required Reading: Technospeak: A Survival
Guide for Bankers," AMERICAN BANKER, 29 December 1992.
     There are other citations, but you get the point.  He didn't "coin" an
existing word!
     "The New York Times--Expect the World!"