In this week’s Mini-Sode, Erick Sanchez gives us a EWM perspective on one of the biggest issues in IT industry: change management.
What’s the best answer to a team unwilling to change?
Should it be: more education? better recruiting? A matter of luck?
Either way, let’s hear Erick’s take on the subject!
Gene: So, I’ve conducted quite a few interviews at this organization, and one of the topics that keeps coming up time and time again is the concept of change management and how some people are willing to change with the technologies and others are not. Since I ask almost every guest this, I might as well pose you the question.
Gene: You previously gave the example of like trying to install a scanner and you received some friction with your staff. What has been your experience with change management and what are some your arguments to make the process go more smoothly, especially in the context of warehouse management and extended warehouse management?
Eric: Yeah, that’s a very important point.
Eric: In the past, this is probably 10 to 13 years ago, most of the implementation projects that I did during that time had a specific team for these change management activities. And this is very important because this change management team was responsible to communicate and education the necessary information to all the people in the plant. They were doing different sessions, not to tell people about how to be prepared for the change. No, no, no! It was just to tell the people, “Hey guys, a new system is coming. Please be aware on that. There will be new activities.” And that’s it.
Eric: So, all the people in those plants were very excited – waiting for the new system! Because they were talking about all the advantages, they were talking about all the new features or new functionalities. So, all the people in the plant or all the people in the warehouse got very excited. I remember they were saying, “You know, Eric, I am very excited to work with this new system because it will allow me to know exactly where my stock is, where my palettes are, etc! Now I will have new reports where I can see all my entire warehouse situation. Then I can give to my boss specific numbers or new reports to my boss. I am very excited to work with that new system!”
Eric: But as you mentioned, it is very important to do these change management activities with the announcements to maximize your teams usage out of them sooner!
Eric: I can tell you currently the things are changing. And when you implement the SAP system over the last few years, I can tell you from experience that there is no change management activities. There is no change management team to do these specific activities with the people in the plant or in the warehouse.
Eric: So, what I normally do – when I do this kind of training with a new system, with a new scanning solution and whatever inside the warehouse – I normally talk to the people and say, “Guys, I know this will probably add steps that you currently are not doing. I know that. But, the advantages are very, are very good. For starters, your boss won’t complain about you because everything you do will be tracked. So, if you do your specific steps, everything in the system will be reflected! Not only that, but every time your boss can see that you are doing your job properly!”
Eric: So, I am trying to do this kind of change management activities with the people, with my users.
Eric: When I am implementing warehouse management system and I want to teach the team about the physical inventory or the cycle count activities, right? I would say to the people, “You know, guys, with this new system, you can see – at any given time – the specific location where your material are. This will allow you find where specific materials are . So, you just need to go to the system, display this specific report and you can see if your material is there or not. Then you can try to find it physically via the specific label with this specific serial number. This will not only allow you to see if the item is physically there or not, but to also adjust your system and have more control of the process. Then you can minimize your losses regarding your material stocks!”
Eric: So, I normally do that. I am trying all the time to do this kind of change management activities with the people in the warehouse.
Eric: I can tell you that people normally take this information well. But, I agree that change management is difficult. But this is why I always suggest and even volunteer to do these kind of change management activities!
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