An Overview of Change Management within Manufacturing Environment

Abstract

Abstract. In this competitive world, where features like time to market, new technology and change management are the features that can affect the performance of New Product Development (NPD). Companies tend to use a conventional approach to NPD by assigning representatives from support functions to review and recommend changes as projects evolve. This approach has, in recent years, been questioned since it is a costly and time-consuming approach due to its iterative nature. It is argued that the change management process can reduced the negative effect and has the ability to support the functions of a supply chain to a greater extent and also earlier in the NPD process. This paper focuses on different change management techniques to support the required changes by management to integrate the NPD within supply chain (SC). IntroductionIt is well recognized that the NPD process not only enables management to coordinate the flow of new products efficiently, but also to assist in the ramp-up of sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, and other sales-related activities that support the commercialization of the product. Therefore, the traditional NPD functions must be coordinated with the support functions [1]. For this change aspect, new practices have emerged in the area of change management (CM) to address this lead-time issue. These practices include simulation and concurrent design. Simulation involves a multifunctional development team. This development team is highly structured and infused with greater responsibility and authority. However, concurrent design has mostly focused on internal collaboration while today's global competition may require for concurrent design to be a collaboration in the entire demand-supply chain, as it is an important key to success and profitability. The terms "design for manufacturing" and "design for supply chain" are quite often used to imply that the traditional NPD functions are aligned and coordinated with other main functions in the company and in the extended enterprise.