departments may see the results in diff erent ways.
There will always be people who are resistant to
change, so being realistic and fl exible is vital. Your
original idea may not be perfect, so listen to these
people and be prepared to change as you go on.
I’ve always tried to avoid being black and white –
‘this is how it’s going to be because I say so’. You
have to have an open and honest relationship with
your staff , and trust that they will deliver what
you’re trying to achieve.
I often think back to my very fi rst project,
when I had to go to the area manager and say ‘in
order to make the change I want, I’m going to
need to get everyone in at the weekend to take
them through the line and how I’m looking to
change things – but also, I want them to tell me
how everything works.’ Managers won’t know the
best ways of working on each line. I managed to
persuade two shifts-worth of people to come in,
on overtime, on a Saturday morning; the fact that
I did that meant they were taken on the journey
with me. There were, of course, people who said
that it was a waste of time and it would never work.
To those people, I asked for their input and their
suggestions. Good managers will always be open to
feedback. Every change manual will tell you about
the importance of communication – every time you
speak to someone, you’ll fi nd out something you
hadn’t thought about, which might be the secret to
making the whole change programme successful.
Of course, you then have to sustain the change.
Here, you have to go back and check – is the change
having the eff ect you had expected? Does anything
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 COVER STORY
Ford has
undergone a
raft of changes
during the
coronavirus
pandemic
“A good engineer doesn’t
necessarily make a good manager”
One company for whom change management is crucial is
Wakefi eld-based Tunley Engineering. Established in 2017 by
managing director, Dr. William Beer, the company o ers change
management support to engineering and manufacturing fi rms
all over the world.
In the current circumstances, many companies are
struggling with cashfl ow, especially if they are part of a long
supply chain and orders have dried up. This makes sustainable
change all the more important.
“Imagine a business is a table, and there’s a hole in the
middle of it,” says Beer. “Fixing it has to be sustainable. You
could get a consultant in, who would fi x the hole and leave
again. All that will happen, though, is that over time the
consultant’s repair job will wear away and the problem will
come back.”
Tunley Engineering works with companies to help them fi x
their own table, and then grow the size of it. “We want to help
them move from fi xing an immediate need to something more
strategic, and help that company grow from where they are to
where they could – and should – be,” says Beer.
Every company will have tried a number of change
management programmes, and every company will have seen
else need changing? I’ve led
many engineering projects, and
I always look at how they’re
doing now. There will always
be someone doing things that
I’d never thought of. It’s the
same when you restructure
a department. It can be a
stressful time, so we clearly set
out our vision and our hopes for
the way it will help the business
be successful.
MM: How many of the
changes you’ve made
during the pandemic will
remain once the world gets
back to normal?
WG: We have looked at the
impact remote working has had
on productivity, and it’s fair to
say we won’t be expecting our
offi ce staff to work fi ve days a
week in the offi ce. That is driven
by the needs of both employees
and the business. The only time
we need everyone together is
when we’re collaborating and
coming up with new ideas.
We recently tried remote
collaboration on a project and
realised it wasn’t going to work
how we wanted, so we all went
into the offi ce to
work on it in person. That
is something that will stick.
The employees in our factories
obviously have to physically be
on the shopfl oor to do their jobs,
but social distancing gave us a
perfect opportunity to look at
the way their workplace is set
out. We’ve been able to remove
so many redundant things and
improve fl ow around the site,
such as QR codes on phones to
replace clocking-in cards, which
have made us more effi cient.
COVID has made us even
more lean! It’s given us the kick
up the backside to get us to
try things we maybe otherwise
wouldn’t have done, and many
of the changes have brought
such huge improvements that
will be here to stay.
at least one fall by the wayside. Too often,
says Beer, this is because of complacency
– in particular from management. “A good
engineer will get promoted to being a manager,
but in many instances they become a very bad manager. Being
an engineer and being a manager are two very di erent things.
Someone who’s been an engineer for 20 years knows all the
processes inside out; when they become a manager, they don’t
want to change anything because they would no longer be an
expert in it. That can be a big reason for a lot of lethargy in an
engineering department – the managers want to remain experts
and don’t want to get found out for not knowing things.”
In these unprecedented times, though, successful change is
more important than ever. However, the current crisis shouldn’t
be the sole catalyst for change. “Right now, we’ve been hit
by an asteroid and it’s adapt or die,” says Beer. “What a dismal
excuse to start to change things. Why not change because
there’s a better solution? Too many companies will have
entered lockdown back in March and found that their digital set
up was not good enough to cope – a hard lesson to learn. Every
business should be looking to make sustainable improvements
as a matter of course so they can prosper in the future.”
www.manufacturingmanagement.co.uk 17
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