Our Approach
To Succesfully Improve Your Business
Working with us
How we Work
At BoostPLM, we will work alongside you as consultants. Once there is a clear vision – and an understanding of what is needed to achieve it – we will deliver by working within your framework, using your planning tools and keeping to your schedules.
We have specialists with experience across Engineering and Operations and understand the necessity of being able to address the needs across the different divisions in your company.
Our commitment
The world is changing, the focus of your organisation will evolve, and your strategy will have to adapt along the way.
BoostPLM will work alongside you to ensure that your PLM and Industry 4.0 solution suit your company’s changing needs.
Embrace
Organisational Change
And Succeed
Managing change
Releasing the potential in a manufacturing company requires a complex change of processes, systems and behaviour.
It is our experience that small, continuous improvements yield better and sustainable results than large leaps. Incremental agile improvements also provide high value to the business.
Irrespective of whether the changes are small or large, changing the way an organisation works takes time and requires a sustained effort.
Employees at every level have to buy-in and adapt to the new system, and with a concerted effort to get everybody on to the same page, the results will be clear for all to see.
We strive to make sure that everyone involved get a comprehensive understanding of why change is happening and how it will affect them.
Step by step
A simple explanation of what needs to happen in a changing organisation was developed by Kurt Lewin more than 80 years ago and is known as the Unfreeze – Change – Refreeze model.
Lewin used the analogy of changing the shape of a block of ice from a cube to a cone: The only way to get a cone from a block of ice is to melt the ice, pour the resulting water into a cone-shaped mould and then refreeze the water.
Looking at change as a process with distinct steps has proven useful. However, we believe in the magic of many small steps rather than giant leaps because small steps make it easier for people to accommodate the changes and to adapt the process along the way.
That’s why our Lewin model is a loop (see below).
Unfreeze
Any organisation in need of a substantial change must first accept that this change is necessary.
This is easier if the organisation is already challenged by the market, and much harder if the status quo seems to be working well.
Most people don’t like change, and some won’t benefit from it. That’s why the case for change has to be made properly.
Change
Refreeze
Once the changes are successfully implemented, it is time to refreeze.
This will show that the changes are final and can be trusted. The refreeze re-introduces stability and structure.
Take it step by step, and repeat
The Iterations of Change
For each step we focus on four main elements: Data, Process, Behaviour and System.
Data
Cleansing and adding the right, high-quality data is vital to succeed.
If data quality is low, or if people struggle to locate the right data, it is unlikely that employees will use the system as intended.
People
People are not machines, and if someone has been doing something that has worked well for years, they may not feel the need to change it – or they may not agree with the changes.
In our experience, people often trust undercover Excel-sheets and Access databases (that are not visible in any process diagram) more than the official systems.
This is why it is essential to address behaviour to make sure that you get the full benefit of changing the system.
We will get your employees on board with the change to ensure that everything is implemented and the new workflow is established properly.
Process
Usually, the first step is to map existing processes and information flows. To do this, we talk to everyone, including people on the floor, to make sure we know what people need in terms of information and software to do their job.
Following on, we draft the new streamlined process using a minimum of handovers and automating the information flow as much as possible.
Then roles and responsibilities are mapped out, and this may suggest changes to the organisational structures requiring management buy-in.
System
Alongside the drafting of the process, we configure the necessary IT systems.
Obviously, we will use the systems out-of-box when possible, but many systems have been designed for simple use and with little focus on efficiency.
Often, it is comparatively easy to custom-make a configuration to improve efficiency dramatically. We do that in-house.
