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Change Management

How do changes become a competitive advantage for the company?

When striving for more efficiency, companies concentrate increasingly on their core competences and also count on external partnerships. Because the products have an increasing number of variants and disciplines, the coordination between all participants is increasingly complex. New concepts for collaboration in value-creation networks are urgently needed.

An elementary cross-sectional process within the company and in the collaboration with suppliers is the management of technical changes. Therefore, it is a matter of central importance.

From the change idea to the implementation in design, production and assembly

According to a McKinsey study, there is enormous potential for companies in change management: Between one-third and half of available technical capacities are typically bundled into change processes. If these are configured efficiently, the cycle time in product development can be reduced by up to 33%. That is the theoretical component.

How is it pursued in practice? Regardless of the sector and type of business, there major potential for improvement:

  • Structured change management takes place partly in a later phase of development, when, for example, prototypes or tools are commissioned
  • Interdepartmental organizational structures for the change management, such as a change manager and change board are missing - the development department makes the change coordination on the side
  • Not all relevant stakeholders are included in the evaluation of a change request; its use, consequences and costs, therefore, are not adequately transparent
  • The change process is rigid and implemented inefficiently, because there is no differentiation between simple and complex changes
  • Compared with the number of actual product and process improvements, avoidable intervention changers are necessary too often in companies

Change process - efficient, yet structured?

The quick and complete analysis of all consequence of a change request is the key to efficient processing. It should take place so that it is optimized in terms of time and effort. This requires complete and digital availability of all product specifications, as well as their dependencies on a central location. Then, part usage verification for all relevant assemblies and all specifications affected by the change are available to the change manager at the push of a button and without further inquiries.

However, not every change is equally elaborate or associated with risk. Approximately 80% are simple, non-critical changes in development without consequences for successor departments. This should be able to take place and implemented independently according to the clear rules of the designer - and do not involve the entire organization.

By contrast, complex changes involve all stakeholders with flexible ad hoc work flows in the evaluation and decision-making process. Only in this manner is a comprehensive picture of the effects provided and only in this manner can all aspects taken into account during the implementation.

Our solutions for agile change management

Our product cenitCONNECT Advanced Process Management (APM) supports your employees optimally in the implementation of interdisciplinary engineering change processes. APM is an intuitive application that relies on new web-based technologies by SAP. It offers intelligent functions that can be applied flexibly to achieve 6R compliance within the context of a change.

Depending on the specifics of the engineering change, this may produce a quick cycle with short assessment and decision-making phases. Complex engineering changes, however, will generate change cycles that automatically involve those decision-makers who can make an additional contribution.

Must companies go through it alone?

No. We do it together.

And this is our approach: Typically, we start a project by taking inventory. The CENIT digital process assessment identifies the concrete need for action and presents the potential benefits for your company. Then we develop a concept for the process-controlled change management on this basis - an ideal end-to-end change process. Because it applies to your company, we harmonize your company-specific requirements with standards that are relevant for audits - such as ISO 9001 ff. and VDA recommendation 4965.

In the process, we align the planned process modeling directly with the available functionalities of the IT systems in use. An additional focus for us: System-wide process control for your business processes in 3DEXPERIENCE and SAP. For this purpose, we develop a specific workflow extension with which we ensure a flexible, process-accompanying and system-wide process control system for all types of change objects.

If the processes and the IT solution modules that are in use are defined for this purpose, nothing stands in the way of an introduction. In order to ensure that this process is also smooth, we provide you with a customized introduction concept.

Can you rely on it? Without limitation.

Thanks to the extensive experience of CENIT with the introduction, configuration and networking of the 3DEXPERIENCE and SAP systems, we are also the ideal partner for concrete implementation of a company-wide, digital and process-driven change management. We can also do this for your company.

Your contact persons

Horst Heckhorn

Horst Heckhorn

Senior Vice President SAP Solutions

Martin Grunau

Martin Grunau

Senior Vice President Dassault Systèmes Solutions & COO Keonys

Get in touch with us