Change: How do Companies Keep Up with Evolving Requirements?

No one can avoid change. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere and can be overwhelming. It’s inevitable, which, for companies across the globe, is the one thing that doesn’t change. There are always businesses prepared to handle change better than the rest. But change isn’t just a cause to which you react. It’s also an effect for which to strive. In the technology, manufacturing, and service industries, the playing field is constantly changing, which can present many difficulties. As the needs of the consumer, the market, and your company grow, you’ll need to implement change to thrive. How else do you expect to compete with other business enterprises?

Evolving to meet new demands is important to Six Sigma too. Corporations and enterprises all over the world use Six Sigma methodology to effect change and improve their processes. We dedicate ourselves to delivering the best Six Sigma advice available, and to unifying the disparate bodies of Six Sigma knowledge. Six Sigma can help your company change too. In this article, we examine the question: How do companies keep up with evolving requirements?

Why is Change Necessary?

When thinking about changing anything, it’s necessary to analyze the need itself. There are many factors that influence change, such as the core reasoning behind it. What is prompting the change? Similarly, what are the effects of the proposed changes? Also, how will they be implemented in your specific business environment? These three ideas are the bedrocks of understanding why the need for change arises. The need will differ for each organization, but some of the driving factors behind change include increased profits, corporate expansion and competition, new technologies, and process improvement.

New Technologies

New and more innovative technologies are produced every day. You’ll get left behind if you can’t keep up. When you install a new computer system, ensure your employee training covers how to operate it. Similarly, any new manufacturing equipment is as good as useless if your employees don’t know how to use it. On the other hand, your business has much to benefit from changing technologies, including greater efficiency, better customer service, and minimal customer resistance. Six Sigma and Kaizen are all about continuous improvement, and incorporating new technologies into your company is a great way to achieve such a culture. Technology can be a great advantage to your company, which is why embracing any changes to the market will set you up for success.

Process Improvement

Anyone who knows anything about Six Sigma will know something about process improvement. One of the primary driving factors behind changes to your organization, process improvement can be undertaken for a plethora of reasons. You might be falling behind in the market or suffering from defective products. As such, you might wish to implement new production processes altogether with Six Sigma. Doing so will help to increase efficiency and eliminate none-value-adding process stages. Similarly, process improvement can help identify where waste has accumulated so that you can expunge it.

Corporate Expansion and Competition

Eventually, every organization has to grow to meet evolving requirements from its customers and the market. But expansion is also a tactical change with which to outdo your opponents, so you can take control of the market. As your business increases in size, your operations will have to adapt if you want to succeed. Your interests might also change, branching out into completely disparate areas to gain a foothold in different markets. Moreover, your marketing strategy and company images are essential to your success. If you want to drum up business, your company needs to compete not just with the cost of services but on an aesthetic level too.

Just look at the world’s most famous company McDonald’s. Originally a small, single-restaurant business, they weren’t likely to succeed that way. But ever since they started franchising back in the 50s, their interests and image have expanded, along with their profits, and McDonald’s has taken over the world. A little-known fact: while they’re known for their restaurants, McDonald’s is additionally one of the largest real estate companies in the world.

However, casting your net too wide will also leave your deliverables spread too thin. Focusing on your core competencies, that is your most successful products and services, will see you don’t lose direction. Every company wants to grow so they can reap the benefits that come with expansion. But straying from the heart of what you do will bring you problems rather than gains.

How to Deal with and Manage Change

Talking about change is one thing, but putting ideas into action is another. We’ve already spoken about the reasons for proposed changes, but now let’s look at the effects of and environment for change in greater detail. Understanding organization and process are important if you’re going to keep up with changing demands and evolving requirements. As we know, businesses are constantly overhauling every aspect of their organization. Employee attitudes should be cultivated to view the changes as positive ones. That way, you will minimize employee resistance as you move further along.

Equally, management might propose changes that appear unrelated to the company’s overall aims. This can be confusing for employees, which leads to sluggish production, if not complete paralysis. As such, you should cultivate a positive, compliant work ethic that educates your employees about the benefits of any proposed changes. That way, there’ll be no doubts about the organization’s strategic vision.

Processes

Similarly, your processes also factor into maintaining and driving change. What are your current process stages? How will any changes affect your processes? Remember, your leadership’s decision-making, business strategies and responsiveness all affect the success of change implementation. We recommend looking closely at the proposed change to see if it is consistent with your priorities. Does your management have those priorities in mind? Six Sigma and Lean are powerful agents with which to change your processes for the better. They are far more effective than typical development processes. Instead of being designed for repeatability and standardized flow, change, of course, goes against these ideas. If you want to make strides in your company, if you want to maximize your chances of success, adaptability is important. But responsiveness and openness to change are imperative.

Environment and Resources

Are your company environment and culture compliable? Open and closed environments will affect change differently. Open environments tend to have higher turnovers for employees while striving for continual improvement and knowledge acquisition. Close environments will be more stable with decreased competition, but slower to embrace change. Management styles can have equally great effects on change, as hands-on leadership succeeds in implementing change more often than more passive management. Equally, the team approach to change, as in Six Sigma and Lean, is highly effective. Management, again, is essential to overseeing team-based change implementation as the results will be less than groundbreaking if only a few of you are pulling your weight.

As for resources, it’s important to have more than enough at your disposal. Running a good business demands preparation for any eventuality. If you aren’t ready to act on opportunities or to keep yourself afloat when things get hard, you’re likely to fail. Scalable resources ensure you can keep up with customer demand when things get busy. They can also help keep costs down when demand is low.

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