Elery Pfeffer
President, Plataine 2004-2008
A few years back, after a particularly gluttonous holiday season, a good friend of mine decided to shed ten pounds off his weight. At First, I was doubtful, as my friend seemed grumpy but not any thinner. Six months later and twelve pounds lighter, I asked my friend how he was able to do it. This is what he said: “I didn’t pick the diet that promised the quickest or the most dramatic weight loss. I picked a diet I knew I could actually do and stuck to it”.
Trying to implement change in your factory on top of the existing mayhem is infinitely more complex than trying to hold yourself to a certain diet. Unfortunately, not implementing change of some sort is not an option for most manufacturers today. As one senior executive at a large manufacturer said to me: “The world is changing. We can either be a victim of this change or change with the world and survive. We choose the latter.”
Given that change is a must for survival, how do you survive the impact of change?
Start Small
In order to make change a success, it has to be adopted throughout the organization. Getting the buy-in of management and employees is essential. Just as a product has to be designed to be built, change has to be designed to be implemented.
Back in the 19th century, a group of scientist found out that if you put a frog in hot water, it will jump out immediately. However, if you put the frog in cold water and slowly heat it up, the frog will stay put. It’s easier to adapt to change if its gradual (and please don’t try the frog experiment). If you can start with small changes and increase them over time, you’d have a greater chance of success.
Remain Flexible
The world around us is changing faster than ever. What may seem the ultimate solution today may not look so great a few years down the road. Any change you implement today should be flexible enough to support and facilitate the next change.
In the 1980’s, US car manufacturers were fighting to fend off their Japanese competitors in the US market. One of the methods they used was implementing robots to reduce labor costs. When products and production lines changed, it came at a dear cost to some of these manufacturers. Their robots only knew how to do one thing. They could not adapt to the next change.
Communicate the Goals
Management guru Peter Drucker wrote: "It is not possible to be effective unless one first decides what one wants to accomplish." There are many methodologies for setting goals. We at Plataine use the SMART method to set our goals-- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.
As important as it is to set clear goals, it is even more important to communicate these goals to your staff, especially during a time of change. Telling people what the goals are and how they are measured will increase the chance of obtaining them. Lay out the plan and steps on the way to reaching the goal.
Involve your employees from the very beginning, and let them know that their concerns are being heard and considered as part of the process. Explaining how the change will increase personal, departmental and company performance will motivate employees to adopt it.
Measure
Measuring performance will hold people accountable for staying on track. In his first year as mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani implemented COMPSTAT, a system that compiled crime statistics daily, and conducted meetings twice a week to determine who was accountable for the crime rates. The NYPD was able to achieve the greatest reduction in crime in modern history.
Moreover, the very act of measuring carries its own merits. In 1920’s, GE (then the largest producer of light bulbs) funded an illumination study in a factory called The Hawthorne Works, located in Cicero, Illinois. The engineers were trying to find the optimal level of illumination to improve workers’ productivity. To their surprise, any change in illumination, no matter which way, triggered higher levels of productivity. After further studies, they realized that measuring itself had the positive effect on productively, as workers were trying harder just because they knew they were measured. This became known the Hawthorne effect.
How can software help you implement change?
Software cannot make change happen, but it can provide a strong supporting framework. First of all, software will change as quickly as pressing the Save button on a new design (CAD/CAM/PLM), process or policy (ERP/MES). Moreover, by making new information available to everyone with a click of a mouse, software helps train your staff. Software can embody industry best practices. It can help enforce new policies. It can also help you measure your factory performance by collecting and analyzing data. And finally, software can help you make better decisions by providing you with the right information at the right time.
At the end of the day, though, software is just another management tool. It can be an effective tool, but it’s up to the executives and managers to provide the leadership and set the goals that determine how the software is implemented (and not let the software dictate how the business is run). After all, as managers, we are the ones that are accountable for the results.
