Achieving the Best Outcomes with Change Management

Disruption is the watchword for manufacturers these days - even without the global COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers constantly deal with supply chain interruptions, fluid customer demands, global economic pressures, and technology-driven competition, among other forces. How enterprises respond to these scenarios depends on how well they adapt to and manage change.

QAD's recent white paper, 'How Manufacturers Can Thrive in the New Age of Disruption, 3 Core Characteristics of an Adaptive Manufacturer' describes how adaptive enterprises are intelligent, innovative and agile. Change management plays a major role in helping those enterprises thrive.

Business Change Management

We know that business change management encompasses all of the activities required to understand, prepare for and implement new initiatives, specifically new or upgraded technology implementations. The primary objective of business change management is to manage people-related business risks during periods of business change. It is necessary so that enterprises will truly realize the benefits of the identified business change.

Enterprises implementing new or upgraded technology, like an ERP or EQMS solution, can start by answering high-level questions related to the change:

• Which change do we need to make?
• Why is the change needed?
• How will the change affect us?
• When do we need to change?
• Who will lead the change effort?
• How will we be successful?

When enterprises adhere to the following broad change management tips when implementing a new process or technology, they can achieve successful outcomes:

• Use a structured approach
• Make sure it is simple to use, communicate about and understand
• Start early in the project
• Consider the individual and the organization
• Create an effective communication plan

Above all, QAD knows that the major barometer of success is the level of involvement of executive leadership. The active and visible sponsorship of the management team is critical to success. Strong senior management support is a must.

Enabling Outcomes through Change Management

Creating an environment where change can occur successfully takes strategy building and planning. QAD has outlined a set of strategic steps to achieving successful outcomes with change management in the figure below.

QAD's Customer Engagement Program

QAD has developed its customer engagement program to guide enterprises as they implement new or upgraded ERP systems. The customer engagement program is a phased series of consultative meetings that includes:

• Discovery:Understand the customer's business objectives, challenges and priorities; evaluate the existing business process and its effectiveness in meeting the overall goals.
• Vision Workshop:Identify areas for optimization and recommend alternatives for realizing quicker gains.
• Roadmap:Work with the customer to create a detailed plan for the deployment of the agreed-upon set of recommendations, including resource requirements, change management and knowledge transfer.
• Q-Scans:Conduct short, focused assessments offering insight into gaining maximum benefits from the QAD implementation. QAD offers Q-Scans on a variety of topics, from process reviews, system performance and analytics, to compliance and upgrades.

The customer engagement program evaluates metrics against a suite of performance measurements called 'QAD Effective Enterprise Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).' The KPI framework includes hundreds of possible measurements of customer service, supplier performance, manufacturing efficiency, manufacturing schedule achievement, supply chain effectiveness, inventory effectiveness, asset utilization, financial compliance, industry compliance and IT effectiveness. The metrics that best measure the customer's performance against its goals are mapped to QAD solutions' functionality.

A Partner for Your Change Management Journey

From our decades of experience with manufacturers implementing new ERP technology and accompanying solutions, we know that there is a clear correlation between having a formal business change management program and delivering benefits within time and budget. Change management helps enterprises reduce risk during periods of change. We recommend that companies invest the time and effort in change management. QAD is your partner on the journey.