Motivating employees to feel part of the new ERP system
Simplifying training process to accelerate the adoption of the new system
Making it mandatory for managers to attend workshops.
Rationale
Transforming Bombardier Aerospace to a paperless company is not just transformation of the operation system of the company, but also the transformation of the business and a whole. The system will become more effective if employees are motivated to embrace, internalize, and own the project. The system will change the roles and responsibilities of many employees and some may even feel that their positions and jobs are threatened by the new system. Therefore, the system should be created in such a way that it is user-friendly and employees should be encouraged to use it to reduce the apathy towards the system. In addition, there should be continuous training and workshops on the new systems to familiarize the project in the company, which may make workers to feel comfortable using it.
There were some problems experienced by workers during the training process, which should not occur in other plants. There is a need to make training materials simple to understand by both trainers and trainees, who equally experienced some difficulties with the training materials prepared by consultants. The information contained in the training materials should not be too detailed to be understood by trainees, as majority may not be familiar with the terms and phrases used. Managers should also notice employees in time when to attend trainings and the purpose of training. Some employees were given short notice on the training sessions, which made them more confused.
The best way of ensuring that the ERP is designed according to the functional vision of the company is to actively involve employees and to make them own the project. It is the role of the management to disseminate project information to junior employees. However, when the management is reluctant to attend the workshops, the project team would find it hard to design appropriate system that is in line with the vision of the company. The project looks less important when senior managers are sending their juniors to represent them in the workshops. This is a serious project by the company and it should be taken seriously by both the company management and employees, which can be realized if managers are committed to the project.
Background
Project sponsor and project team complained that the business is reluctant in taking the ownership of the project. The problem was witnessed majorly in the design process where managers were reluctant in attending the design workshop. Some of the plants like Mirabel did not find it necessary to participate in the project. The Mirabel plant associated the project with the project team despite the fact that it was going to be the first plant to use the system. The system changed the roles and responsibilities of many employees. The training of end users was not well organized, as there was lack of adequate and effective training materials. Consequently, super users and trainees found it hard to use the training material because they were presented in graphs and table instead of screen shot of the system. In addition, the training materials were not in line with the objectives of the projects and they were also not user friendly. Many trainees found the training materials too complex to understand, which left them more confused.
References
Aubert, B, Bourdeau, S & Walker, B. (2012). Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale ERP Implementation. International Journal of Case Studies Management. Havard Business School of Publishing. Retrieved from
