13.4 Technology in Support of the Elements of

Change

As I stated in my prior book Successfully Managing Change in Organizations: A Users Guide, technology is an enabler of the change process. Whether it is through the systems we employ or how we manage information for the user community, technology does nothing more than enable the change process to proceed. Conversely, lack of technology disables change early in the process. In this section, we will examine how technology impacts the change process by discussing its relation to the remaining elements of change.

Leadership

As we have learned, leadership is the key element of successful change efforts. However, for those in leadership positions to promote change in their respective organizations, they need technology in the form of software applications to assure the workforce is given the necessary tools to accomplish the task. They also need to be certain that the information to support these decisions is accurate and timely.

Suppose that as a leader of your organization you want to alter how your firm conducts maintenance. You want to move from a repair-based strategy to one focused on preventive and predictive maintenance. To do this without the proper technology and related information would be a monumental task. As a result, you make sure that not only do you have your work processes in order before you start, but also that systems are in place to support or enable these processes.

Work Process

Work process and technology go hand-in-hand. However, installing technology solutions and then trying to force the process to work with these solutions is placing the cart before the horse. To achieve successful change, you must have your work processes in place first. It is then far easier to find technology that supports the process. Installing technology first limits your options because you are trying to fit a process into a pre-existing frame work.

Another aspect of this discussion is equally important. Software is an enabler of the change process. It is not change. To be successful, you need a process in place that has buy-in from the organization. This holds true even if the process you put in place is manual or uses the current (and possibly flawed) software. In either case, once the organization has embraced the process in its own right, you can more easily bring in the technology that helps the process function.

The same idea applies to the information stored within the systems. First, the process must be in place to capture it and, second, the organization must believe in its validity. With these two conditions met, the organization will be much more open to using the information that the technology presents. Otherwise, it may dismiss the information as inaccurate, then return to the prior manual process for obtaining the information.

Structure

In the past, we often built our organizations around the function that it was to serve. Departments were located near those with whom they interfaced on a daily basis. Members of work groups or functions were all housed in the same building. Other methods were used so that the rule of “form follows function” could be maintained.

With the proper use of technology, these restrictions can be relaxed. Groups can have different structures simply because the work processes are automated by business systems; information is widely accessible. You no longer need to be near those whose information you need to access.

Group Learning

Groups simply can not learn without information. The technology used within your company has the potential to provide this information as well as make it accessible to the group learning process. Without the necessary information, groups will flounder during their learning process. In most instances group learning is about doing something, analyzing the results, and then developing alternate and improved processes and action plans for the future. Without technology to provide the groups with this timely information, they will most likely be unsuccessful.

For example:

How can you plan the execution of a maintenance job better for the future if you can’t access the planning and resulting execution information from past jobs?

How can you accurately predict failure if you don’t have a process and system in place to analyze information collected from past failures?

How can you properly and safely execute a job if you don’t have access to the information in the form of design specifications, hazards, etc.?

How can you predict future problems if you don’t have the tools to handle the complex analysis required? Examples of this type of technology include machinery vibration analysis, infrared thermography, pipeline thickness monitoring and calculation of remaining life, and many others.

Communication

Technology also helps with the communication of critical work information. Having this information at our finger tips improves our performance and the effectiveness and efficiency of the work. E-mail is a prime example of how technology supports change through communication. If not overdone, this system allows people to exchange information instantly and enables improved decision making across the entire operation.

Technology in the form of information also supports communication. Consider how information related to a maintenance job was handled in the past. You recognized that you needed information in order to plan a job. Next you needed to figure out where it could be obtained. You then contacted the people who had it in their office, went to see them, found the information, made a copy, and then returned to your planning effort. Not a pleasant picture. This type of effort was often required several times with several different people in the course of a job. In today’s world of technology, this communication of critical job information is far easier. If we handle our information and the integrity of the information correctly, we can gather information and answer our questions almost instantly.

Interrelationships

Interrelationships are also supported by technology. The applications that we use are, in many cases, multi-functional. As a result, groups of diverse individuals from different organizations must work together to provide technology – either new applications or upgrades to those that are already in place. In this way, we are able to leave our rigidly-defined functional department boundaries and work with others to deliver a product for the benefit of everyone.

Because technology is always being improved, your company can reasonably expect that any technological applications it installs will eventually need either upgrades or replacement. Software vendors regularly upgrade their products; it often pays to take advantage of these upgrades. Some vendors add additional functionality whereas others address problems with the existing application. In either case, your organization should pay for vendor support – usually a small yearly fee—and take advantage of these upgrades.

When the technology in use is multi-functional, you often need all of the affected functions to agree to any upgrades. This process can be handled on an as-needed basis, but I would like to recommend an alternate approach. Interrelationships are built over time. Similarly, software applications become an integral part of a business over this same extended time period. Therefore, an internal users group should be assembled to address the optimum use of the technology and develop the interrelationships needed to move the technology use forward. This group should have representatives from all sites (one spokesperson per site). All of the affected corporate functional areas such as materials management, accounting, and reliability should also be represented. Meeting on a frequent basis, this group can support optimal use of the tool and build relationships so that they can collectively position the company to stay current with the software.

Rewards

When one thinks of rewards, one usually thinks of a promotion, a pay raise, or even a bonus. The rewards that technology delivers are of a different sort: 1) software applications that support our work and 2) accurate information that, in the end, enables us to deliver quality reliability-focused decisions for the business. In the world of maintenance and reliability, these things are truly rewards, especially when you think about how work was accomplished in the past and the problems that arose from not having timely access to accurate information.

13.5 Technology and the Four Elements of Culture

At this point we have discussed how the element of technology fits in with the other seven elements of change. At broad view, everything would appear to be fine. You could assume that with the installation of the right technology, along with the entry and management of the information needed by maintenance and reliability, will provide a great deal of value for the user community. However, that is not always the case. All four elements of culture play a critical role in whether the broad view is reality when we get closer to the actual action. For this to occur, technology must enable and support the culture.

Organizational Values

New technology provides direct support for an organization’s value system. It contains the information that those working within the system require to make the correct decisions, based on the values. In the world of reactive maintenance, when confronted with a repair, the value system is clear – fix the problem, fix it quickly, and get the equipment back on line. In this scenario, technology does not often play a critical role.

However, let us look at the proactive reliability-focused model. In this case, when faced with a repair decision, the value system requires a much different set of decisions, many of which require timely and accurate repair information. This information comes from the technological systems in place. The value system requires that decisions be made with this information.

Rites and Rituals

As we learned in Chapter 6, rituals are rules that guide our day-today behaviors in our jobs and rites are the events or ceremonies that reinforce the rituals. Technology has the ability to drastically change both the rituals and the rites.

For example, consider the implementation of a new computerized maintenance management system – the ultimate technological change for a maintenance organization. When this type of change takes place, the rituals that were in place to support the old process are replaced by new ones that support and are enhanced by the technology. This replacement has a serious impact on the organization and the culture, at both the technology level and within the maintenance process.

On the technology front, the software and the work processes (rituals) associated with it are new. Change brings a level of discomfort and, in turn, resistance. For these reasons, user involvement with the development of new rituals is always part of a successful change of technology. In addition, users are almost always involved in the selection process so that they have a level of buy-in with the final outcome. Further process and software training are always integrated with the effort and rollout of the new system. In these ways, the people whose rituals are being changed are connected to the development of the new set of rituals; they are given the opportunity to adapt to the new rituals by being involved during the entire process.

Because rites are directly reinforcing the rituals, they need to change as well with the installation of a new technology. For example:

A new maintenance system will most likely use improved planning and scheduling techniques. The former process of daily meetings with production to find out what work they wanted done during the day is no longer required. The same is true for the pat-on-the-back rite used for reactively responding to the crisis of the day.

The new system handles bills for equipment and material and also provides the needed parts. It will replace the need to seek out the storekeeper for the things we need to do our jobs (rituals) as well as the praise provided to the storekeeper (rite) for helping us get what we need.

A system provides reliability information about a piece of equipment on which we are working. The system replaces the need to ask reliability engineers to take time from their busy schedules to get it (ritual). It also replaces the process of requesting the information and the time it previously took to get it (rite).

The rituals are changed by virtue of the new technology being put in place. The rites are not so easily altered. They affect how we interact at a very personal level. Often, as in the case of the pat-on-the-back for a job well done, they change how we are recognized for the work that we do. Nevertheless, when you implement new technology, is it unsatisfactory simply to be content with the changes to the rituals and not address the rites. If you fail to take them into consideration, the culture will seek to re-establish a status quo at the level of rites and, even possibly, with the rituals themselves. If you think about this, the culture has its own power to undermine even the best implementation of technology.

Often these problems can be overcome at the ritual level by involving those who will be using the new technology. The rites can be handled in the same manner. We need to include “rite modification” as part of the work process redesign effort. This is something that is most often not even considered when we enter into projects designed to upgrade or replace technology. Using our examples above, we need to consider:

Establishing a daily planning meeting to replace the daily meeting with production to find out what broke down over night. At this planning meeting, production can provide recognition for following the plan versus reacting to emergencies.

Train the storekeepers to be systems experts in the area of bills of material. In this way, they will still provide significant value to the organization. However, the rite will be different; the reinforcement they get will be from using and training others in the technology versus knowing where the parts are on the shelf.

The same approach to the rites of the storekeepers can be applied to the reliability engineers. Instead of being the keeper of the information, they become the technology experts, training others in how to acquire the information they seek.