This presentation undertakes to review a change/transition that is believed will add value to a manufacturing firm. The transition/change objective is to reengineer manufacturing processes and increase general flow of work as well as the organization’s productivity. Basically, the change will involve a shift from human labour usage to the implementation of robotics in the whole manufacturing process of the company. The core objective however is to reduce manual human labour and to increase work flow and productivity.
The adoption of robotics in the organization is the only sure way to attaining its vision and mission. Currently, the organization has issues with lean manufacturing. The machine tending application as well as material handling is simply manual. Vast numbers of operators are needed to help in the relocation of processed parts to the next process. This increases the company’s production costs besides consuming a lot of time. According to the organization’s objectives, these problems can only be solved by adopting robotics in the production process so that it realizes lean manufacturing. The rationale for adopting robotics is supported as follows:
As opposed to manual labour, robotics has no wait time for the operators. Basically, wait times will be absorbed in additional operations processing. Also, robots will have negligible if not zero down time for the production operations. This is likely to produce lower production loss when compared to manual. Unlike the manual production, adoptions promises consistency in production rate, work breaks and less errors. The company will as well have lower scrap parts as robots assure maximum degree of accuracy once its tasks are optimized. Therefore, for multiple productions, well coordinated motion, and optimum cycle times, the company is sure likely to have lean manufacturing hence increase general flow of work as well as the organization’s productivity.
The greatest personal challenge to achieving this objective is communicating the change itself. Being in a junior managerial position, it is difficult to undertake full communication to strategic managers the need and rationale for robotics adoption. The greatest organizational challenge, however, is downsizing, acquisitions, resources alignment and general restructuring. The organizational inertia and lack of enough capital outlay may hinder the whole process as well.
The change/transition should be managed by, first, creating a company’s vision of the future. This vision will focus on its energy. The company’s leadership should identify the problem they are trying to solve (Durant 3). They should be in a position to categorically state the problem that must be righted. Then, leadership should honestly, objectively and accurately give a snapshot of the situation as it is currently. To state current situation, insiders like managers and employees as well as outsiders, such as customers should be involved. Afterwards, leadership should define their ultimate objectives or overarching goals within a given time frame (Tobak 1).
What needs to be changed to meet the overarching goals or objectives are then identified. This could total resource realignment or restructuring or reorganization of the company’s activities. At this point, critical decisions are made via assessing risks involved before arriving at the plan. Lastly, leadership should then state the processes to employ to normalize the situation. However, the whole process should involve open communication of facts. Employees need to understand why the need for change is necessary and thus buy into the change program.
If the objective is achieved, the organization is likely to benefit from lean manufacturing. The value added can be measured in time wastage level, downtime costs, and the number of scrap parts produced for every complete production.
The change process will be sustained by continuous change management. Effective measurement system will be put in place to help track the progress. Basically, virtual display of results to employees will be done to enable every employee track his/her progress. Rewards program that reinforces the desired behavior should be put in place to sustain the change (Durant 5).
Works cited
Durant, M. W. Managing Organizational Change. Credit Research Foundation. 1999. Web. 22 Feb, 2012.
Applied manufacturing technologies Inc. Role of robots in lean manufacturing. 2007. Web. 22 Feb, 2012.
Tobak, S. How to Manage Organizational Change. 2009. Web. 22 Feb, 2012.
