Few things about Change management

Implementing process automation isn’t just about a matter of new equipment installation: it’s a change of how entrepreneurs conduct business and how do they operate. It’s part of the human condition to resist change, as people resist habits for how they do things based upon experience the desire to get things done with the minimum of confusion, time and potential for failure. By implementing process automation people may not trust how the new system gets things done, may feel they have less control over their activities, may try to work around the new system. These are few things that can be done to ensure that people will commit and will get involved in a new project. Address the threat: be very transparent, honest and clear about the goals, the objectives and the implication of the new project with everyone in the company. Picking the right manager or management team to lead the project and the process automation efforts. People involved must be quick learner, understand the business, have the authority for key decisions, have an interdisciplinary approach required by any process automation projects that by definition are crossing departments boundaries. Buy-in staff: involve staff as much as possible in the decision making process and create channels to allow employees to communicate needs, issues, ideas for improving the production process. Training is the ongoing process that involves staff and managers at all levels, which helps to get the required degree of confidence in the new system before it goes live. Get rid of slow learner, of not malleable people, of staff which won’t be skilled enough to make the transition: letting this staff to remain around can harm the moral and can lead to negativity. Don’t look back and after switching to the new system, remove permanently the old system from your infrastructure.