Business Transformation
Contents:
- Introduction
- How to manage a Business Transformation Project
- How to Develop Business Transformation Training Materials & Conduct Workshops
Introduction
Business Transformation is about deploying new work systems in the form of software, processes, organizational changes, or physical changes to the enterprise. The degree to which this is successful depends on the readiness of a companies employees to adapt to the change. This will require a different set of skills not usually available in the typical organization. Most engineering / manufacturing companies refer to these skills as the “soft stuff”. It has been stressed many times that it is this area where deployment failures occur. There are many well documented case studies on this issue. Our business transformation online support can help you succeed in deploying new work systems right the first time. On line support is available in the following areas:
How to Manage a Business Transformation Project
Business Transformation approach
- How to Develop a transition strategy
- Providing a high level overview of change management
- Experiences from other companies (Case studies )
Cultural Readiness/Diagnosis
- Change Readiness overview
- How to develop a Change Readiness tool kit
- How to create an Organizational Change questionnaire
- How to perform a Cultural Assessment
- How to formally assessing a BPR initiative
- How to perform an Executive Commitment review
Assessing the business transformation Roadmap (direction)
- How to develop the Road map critical questions
- How to develop an effective road map
- How to perform a key stakeholder Analysis
The politics of Performing a major change Initiative
- How to avoid political minefields
- How to manage political conflict
- Lessons Learned from Organizational change programs
- How to use powerplay tools
- What are the unwritten rules of change?
Risk Management Approach
- Risk Management Overview
- How to develop a Risk Management Toolkit
Program Management
- How to use a Red Team Approach to building quality into the project
- Hoe to develop a BPR Governance
- Experiences of a Business Case
Communications
- How to develop a BPR Communications Framework
- How to develop a communications guide
- How to communicate messages & timing
- How to develop a communications toolkit
Measurement
- How to give a Performance Management Overview
- How to Identify Strategic Performance Measures
- Defining Performance Measures in a process environment.
How to Develop Business Transformation Training Materials & Conduct Workshops
Effective Organizational Teamwork
- How to managing meetings/workshops
- How to perform Problem Solving
- How to conduct decision making
- How to perform coaching
- How to conduct conflict resolution
- How to Provide constructive feedback
- What are good Listening Skills
- How to Measure team effectiveness
Change Agent Training
- What are the Skills for making a powerful contribution?
- How to perform basic change agent training
- How to perform change canagement orientation
- How to develop deployment planning guidelines
- How to Prepare to Implement change
- Defining the role of the internal consultant
- Defining the role of the external consultant
- How to develop an IPT charter roles and responsibilities
Facilitator Training
- How to define advanced Facilitator Skills/Tools
- Defining the job of the facilitator
- How to develop facilitator kick off games
- How to perform a facilitator Assessment
Process Re-Engineering Methods Workshops
- How to conduct a kick off meeting
- How to Develop a workplan
- How to establish mission & goals
- How to develop a communication workshop
- How to achieve Early wins in project execution
- How to Identify customer needs
- How to perform process costing
- How to conduct process flow & mapping
- How to conduct a performance Management workshop
- How to conduct a performance targets workshop
- How to perform problem solving workshop
- How to develop a process vision guide
- How to describe problem solving tools
- How to perform a future state visioning workshop
- How to develop a process re-design guide.
The above information and knowledge will only be of value if you use it in a deliberate way. We are available to coach you to use this knowledge in your organization. This will give you the leverage to achieve improvements through your own people.
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Implementing Using a Participative Approach
The most important part of the implementation of Enterprise Systems is people. It is their effort and commitment that will make a system work. It is for this reason that our approach is based upon the transfer of knowledge to your people. Working with management and staff, we can help you to educate your staff, positively reinforce their efforts, develop an implementation plan, and manage the project.
Education and Training
Education and training are critical to the successful implementation of Enterprise Systems. This spans from strategic workshops on the fundamentals of MRP II and ERP to the essential mechanics of each element. Not only does education provide employees with the knowledge and tools to do their job, but, done properly, it can reduce resistance to change. Our experience is that companies usually under-estimate the amount of education and training required. We can provide a series of workshops to address the business issues related to manufacturing systems implementation.
Performance Measurement
People must work towards specific objectives. Therefore, performance measures must be clearly defined for key aspects of business processes impacted by the systems. We can assist in developing performance measures which can be used to monitor success in terms of the benefits used for justifying the investment.
Implementation Planning
Identifying the right project manager and assembling the team members are critical to successful implementation. To get their commitment to the project, they must believe that the goals and objectives of the project are realistic. Therefore, it is they who must develop the implementation plan. We can work with your project team to:
- Identify and understand technical issues that must be addressed
- Determine the required activities and resources
- Estimate completion dates for the activities
Project Management
A common element to all Enterprise System implementations is that people must change the way they work. Resistance, poor communication, turf guarding, low commitment, and non-supportive behavior are significant causes of implementation failure. These must be overcome through effective project management. We can work with your steering committee and project manager to address the following human aspects of Enterprise System implementations:
- Organizational design
- Project communication
- team building
- Conflict resolution
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Components of Enterprise Systems
Enterprise Systems have many components. Deciding which components are appropriate for your company requires an understanding of both business and technical issues. We have the experience to help you with this decision. The following diagram illustrates the components and scope of a very comprehensive Enterprise System. You must consider which components are required to meet your needs.
The heart of most Enterprise Systems is Manufacturing Resource Planning or Enterprise Resource Planning (often referred to as MRP II). MRP II is an integrated planning and control system which simulates the manufacturing process to provide management with decision information critical to effective utilization of materials, manpower and facilities.
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Selecting and Developing the Best System
Choosing the best Enterprise System for your company is no easy task. It requires an up-front investment of time and effort. Often companies fail to make this investment for the sake of expediency, or to save selection costs. This usually results in systems which are not well suited for the company, late, ineffective, and over budget. There are four basic steps which can help avoid this situation. We have the experience to help you perform each of them right.
System Strategy
Planning for Enterprise Systems must begin with the company’s strategic plan. We can work with you to assess:
- The impact of introducing Enterprise Systems into your business environment
- Where Enterprise Systems support achievement of your strategic plan
- Which systems are appropriate for your company, based on our knowledge of recent trends, computer hardware, and available software packages.
The output of this process is a conceptual system design, identifying which of the components (illustrated above) are required by your company.
Define Needs
Commitment at all levels of an organization is fundamental to success. Therefore, it is important that your people are involved at an early stage. Using the conceptual design of your system as a framework, we can work with your management and staff to develop the details of your company’s needs. This process involves:
- Obtaining agreement on the nature of your key business processes
- Identifying activities supporting key business processes
- Determining the functionality required to support activities
The output of this process is a statement of the company’s critical needs, expressed in clear and specific terms.
Acquisition
We can help you structure a request for proposal (RFP) detailing your requirements to appropriate software vendors. It will ensure that a clear response is made to each of your requirements. We can then train your team on how to evaluate and choose the best match using a structured methodology to evaluate vendors and their software. In addition, we can advise you on how to negotiate the best contract terms with a vendor.
Detailed System Design
Since every company is different, it is likely that no software system will meet all your requirements exactly. You may need to have modifications made to the software of develop compensating controls and procedures. We can assist your company in both areas by helping you to specify and test vendor software modifications and providing skills training and coaching for people to develop policies and procedures.
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Manufacturing Systems Within a Quality Context.
Companies can find that manual and computerized systems alike do not effectively support the business processes. Symptoms of this situation include decreases in productivity, expediting, dwindling employee morale, and possible lower customer service. These symptoms may indicate the need for a new system. However, in many cases, they also indicate that a company does not have the capacity to monitor its processes to ensure that they are effective and properly executed. The purpose of any system is to enhance the performance of certain business processes. Effective quality management can ensure that business processes are continually improved to meet needs. By focusing on their customers, companies can ensure that their business processes evolve to help them become more competitive. AMGI has been providing a range of Enterprise Systems services to clients from various industry sectors always taking a pragmatic approach. This same experience, together with our quality management tools, ensure the necessary degree of culture change inherent to a successful manufacturing system implementation.