Keeping your employees and CMMS at peak efficiency without a fail is nigh impossible over long periods of time if you don’t consider change implementation strategies. Depending on the industry you operate in, as well as your business’ scale and output, certain changes and operational upgrades might be more than welcome.
According to the Institute for Public Relations, 96% of organizations reported some form of business transformation, with only 47% expecting the process to bear tangible fruit. In addition, an estimated 70% of change implementation fails outright due to employee resistance and an inability to find common ground between innovation and practicality.
That being said, successful change within your production pipeline, maintenance operations as well as a business model can indeed be implemented successfully with proper planning. Let’s look at the ways which ensure a successful change transition within your company, as well as the concrete benefits of doing so in 2020.
Why Change Management Matters
What does “change” represent in the context of CMMS and day-to-day maintenance operations? We can define “change” as a strategic decision to make a shift within your company which will effectively redefine how certain operations are executed. A change can represent either an upgrade to existing systems or a complete redesign and shift to a different toolset, platform or production methodology.
What makes change “management” important is the fact that downtime, loss of revenue and similar issues can arise during the process. Likewise, employees might look upon certain changes to maintenance, production or digitalization unfavorably, leading to lower retention and motivation within your employee roster.
To achieve the best of both worlds and implement meaningful change to your business while mitigating negative outcomes is what “change management” is all about. In light of industry innovation, pioneering trends and digital breakthroughs, change is not a luxury, but a necessity. As such, some of the concrete outcomes and advantages of implementing changes to your pipeline include:
- Ability to experiment, innovate and upgrade on existing production and maintenance models
- Employee enablement which leads to higher morale, accountability and retention rates
- Ability to introduce industry-wide trends and pioneer new technologies
- High return on initial time and resource investment post-change implementation
Managing Successful Change Implementation
Outline the Concept & Outcomes
In order to facilitate a seamless and painless transition from one state to another, the planned change implementation should be outlined in great detail. Every change within the maintenance pipeline or digital monitoring toolset should be done for a good reason, not simply out of curiosity or stagnation. Some of the items on your outline should thus include:
- A detailed reason for the planned change and how it will affect your company as a whole
- What the role of employees will be during the change and how they can pitch in to assist
- How the change will affect employees and their everyday activities post-implementation
- How long the process will take and whether or not there is failure risk involved
Outlining your change implementation prior to any concrete action is highly important as it will allow you to detect potential bottlenecks and improvement avenues early. Platforms such as Evernote, as well as online paper writing service reviews, will allow you to write, format and proofread your change implementation plan effectively.
Communicate the Change Initiative
When it comes to your coworkers, letting them know that a change is about to be implemented ahead of time is crucial for success. Whether for production, maintenance, or specific forms of daily CMMS use, employees whose positions and activities will be affected by the change should be notified.
In doing so, you will give them time to prepare for downtime and enable them to lend a hand in efficiently implementing the changes. Likewise, managerial staff, board members and even B2B stakeholders who will be affected by potential downtime should be aware of the transformation process taking place. Make sure that the parties affected by the change initiative have insight into its duration, outcomes, and potential errors to mitigate for any productivity loss.
Step by Step Approach
Depending on the scale at which you intend to implement said changes, certain failsafe precautions should be taken just in case. For example, if you intend to fully redefine your CMMS or introduce new tools for a department, the process should be done step by step.
Defining your implementation as a step-by-step process which handles the transformation carefully can make or break your attempt at changing your business model. Never attempt to implement change in a single day and without proper testing, employee training, data backups, and other failsafe mechanisms. This will ensure that even if your implemented change underperforms, you can quickly roll back and try a different innovation without lost time or resources.
Post-Implementation Employee Enablement
Once the change has effectively taken hold within your pipeline, employees should be enabled and given accountability over new systems and innovation. Never make changes which are “none of their concern”, as this can lead to extreme losses of time and resources if they mismanage a system. Likewise, employees whose job it is to use the new changes daily might come across bugs and development opportunities and offer valuable feedback.
Different enablement methodologies are available for employee training, including seminars, PDF tutorials, consultations with the team responsible for change implementation, etc. Make sure that everyone on your roster is aware of the changes which took place within your pipeline and it will effectively facilitate higher productivity.
Monitor & Reinvent the Process
Lastly, any change within your CMMS, production pipeline or digitalization can be subject to additional improvement over time. Make sure to change some time to generate valuable data and make sure to gauge your employees’ productivity and morale shortly afterward.
Give your employees the accountability they desire and ask them for thoughts and opinions on the newly-introduced changes. Small improvements and shifts can add a lot of momentum to your business model and enable further goodwill toward innovation and potential upgrades.
Making a Meaningful Change
As we’ve previously discussed, changes within a functional business model or CMMS should only be attempted if they bring tangible improvement to the table. It’s never worth it to risk potential downtime and loss of valuable resources for the sake of “shaking things up”.
Audit your business model, look for opportunities to grow and introduce change where it will make a drastic impact on the way you do things. Before you know it, you will have found a functioning change implementation system that suits your model and employee work ethics the best.
