Why Is Change So Hard In China Manufacturing?
Change Management in Manufacturing bases. Why is change so hard in China Manufacturing when you don’t have a change plan?
Change Management
First let’s discuss what change management is:
Change is never easy, no change, in no matter which walks of life, it’s always hard. A good example of this is changing your lifestyle to exercise more.
It’s hard, it’s hard because you are set in your ways; habits, bad habits.
Habits are hard to break. Don’t worry, sitting there thinking you are fat and unhealthy. It’s not entirely your fault. We have neuron pathways in our mind that thoughts go down consistently.
Because if those constant treading of paths in the pathways these habits are engrained in our minds, those pathways are the path of least resistance, meaning that our thoughts are constantly transferred down these thought process gateways.
That’s why change is hard.
Change management simply put is the plan to change the behaviour, system or process.
How to Change
Having a structured change plan is the right way to ensure that you can accurately plan, develop and enact change.
It reduces stress and ensures the change initiatives have the desired outcome.
But you need to own the change strategy if you want it to succeed, you need to grab the situation by the balls, plan, act and change.
Why does this affect me?
You are sat there, thinking, ah what has any of that got to do with me? You are up there talking about neuron pathways in the brain and not going to the gym?
I want to change manufacturing processes not get off my ass and hit the gym.
Well, much like our slightly overwalked, overweight brains, manufacturing processes can also get engrained in the same bad habit pathways.
Meaning that the decisions that are in the manufacturing bases are probably set in their ways; engrained, and the most efficient, laziest way of doing a process has probably already been met.
This simply put, gives a very high resistance to change. Why? Because who wants to be told; stop what you are comfortable with and do these new processes?
Well?
Yeah, no one.
So when we have to implement a change, be it for a new product, a new service system or even process, then you need a strategy to implement it.
And that’s what we will be discussing in these series of blog posts.
So in this post, I will be outlining the strategy that you need to implement in (not JUST) Chinese manufacturing, but all offices, manufacturing systems and processes.
The Strategy
Raise awareness:
This sounds simple, but in reality, it’s far from it, you need to highlight why change is needed.
This is with data, don’t forget that your change will need to be directed to your stakeholders.
And if those stakeholders are senior management and above. Then you need to align your language, guess what that language is… MONEY. Put a value on your change, hopefully, your change is a cost-benefit to the organisation. Use it!
Leverage:
Look at how you can implement current training systems and skill-building systems to your advantage.
Leverage your organisational skill teaching services to embed the new systems, processes and teachings.
This can range widely; you won’t be teaching a line worker a new process to fit an exhaust in the same way you would be teaching an HR leader how to use new computer software for recruiting.
Integrate change with key stakeholders:
Ensure you have accurately communicated your change to the key stakeholders well before any change is enacted.
The reason why this is such an important aspect in change is no one likes to be met with a change they did not expect.
It’s hard to accommodate and it makes people feel undervalued.
Work with management:
Ensure that you are working with management to ensure that the change is driven, there are a few tactics that we will be discussing to ensure that this is understood.
Additionally, this is probably the biggest challenge you will have to overcome in your controlling of manufacturing plants in China, or anywhere if you are remotely driving the project.
Next steps
Over the next few blog posts, we will be discussing how change can be planned out with the above strategy in mind. How change is implemented in the largest and most complex of manufacturing environments and how we can learn from past mistakes made by very large organisations.
Do you want to change your manufacturing plans?
Merchsprout is a China source and supply company, through our design and supply chain management we can assess your design, use our China manufacturing facilities to gain a quotation, audit the facility and conduct quality control in China.
We can ensure that you can implement the changes you require on the product your customer wants at the cost you all deserve.
Follow us on Linked In here, get in touch with us here, and be sure to check out our other manufacturing blog topics here.
Why Is Change So Hard In China Manufacturing?
