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Does Your Organisation Have the Change Capabilities to Embrace and Accept Industry 4.0?

As the world enters the fourth industrial revolution, technology and its capabilities are advancing at unprecedented rates. Automation of business processes, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and enterprise data integration are impacting organisations in various sectors and at all levels. These concepts and functions can enhance business models, drive efficiencies and improve productivity.

On a human level, they will have profound effects on how employees perform their job, service clients, engage with internal and external stakeholders and subsequently impact job satisfaction. Therefore, technological change should not be considered in isolation to the required human change to adapt to new technologies.

Industry 4.0. What is it?

Industry 4.0 is reinventing technology to be faster and smarter than ever before; a technological breakthrough provoking immediate action and compelling organisations to adapt or suffer the consequences. Industry 4.0 embodies the way technologies retain information and use it to analyse and share data with other machines, which then employ algorithms and automation, translating data into actions.

With the predictions that non-adapters of Industry 4.0 technologies could experience a 20 per cent decline today’s cash flow, this raises the critical question, is your organisation ready for these changes? Moreover, are your employees equipped with the right tools to manage these changes?

Change Management Unlocking Your Potential

To adapt, organisations are increasingly implementing automation in many aspects of the business, strongly incentivised by the prediction that by 2030, the front runners of automation could double their cash flow. In light of this, many organisations believe the solution is to hire companies responsible for technical execution to conduct training. While this investment is crucial to be an adaptor, this has a limited benefit without considering the human elements of change.

Not only do employees need to be equipped with the right technological skills for Industry 4.0, but employees also need to be equipped with the capabilities to embrace and accept the changes that their organisation will undergo. The inability to consider the human elements of change is a recipe for failure resulting in the company culture lacking the tools necessary to support the initiatives. To avoid wasted time, energy and money, TMS has developed three top tips to ensure your employees are equipped for your change.

 

How to Equip your Employees

1. STRATEGY

Do you and your staff understand the methodology and organisational capabilities? Have you identified the gaps? A change capability will typically include having a framework in place to guide the implementation of change, i.e. iADAPTE. You must also ensure the integration of change capability into organisational culture and values, i.e. the value of continuous improvement.

 

2. TACTIC

Do your employees know what tools and processes they can utilise to guide all levels of change? This can involve programs which focus on change management, and the integration of change management into learning and development programs. This should be accompanied by tools and resources to enable staff to implement change.

 

3. OPERATION

Do you have the tools that your staff can use day-to-day? Ensure you provide training to guide your change agents in their approach and activities. Toolkits are also an effective way to allow leaders to develop their capabilities. Toolkits include guides, tip sheets and presentation templates to assist leaders in running sessions with their teams.

 

It is critical to engage the employee’s hearts and minds to adapt their behaviour and thus, sustain the change effectively. Change Management initiatives for Industry 4.0 must consider the psychological factors to drive positive perceptions. Organisations can adopt Organisational Change Management initiatives which follow and consider the stages above, leading the people through the acceptance and eventually the commitment to change, after all,  “organisations do not adapt to change; the people do”.

 

With a specialisation in recruiting change managers in a technical space, TMS can help your organisation successfully implement your solutions to make your organisation Industry 4.0 foolproof. Contact us here to see how you can gain the acceptance of change from your employees.

 

Sources:
AlphaBeta Report on Artificial Intelligence 2017. AlphaBeta. Retrieved from https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3913147-AlphaBeta-report-on-artificial-intelligence.html#document/p2

Forces Of Change: Industry 4.0 2018. Deloitte. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/industry-4-0/overview.html

Market Trends: Voice as a UI on Consumer Devices — What Do Users Want? 2015. Gartner. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3021226

The State Of Industry 4.0 In Australia 2018. Sage Automation. Retrieved from https://www.sageautomation.com/blog/the-state-of-industry-4.0-in-australia

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TMS Consulting