SUPPLY CHAIN IMPROVEMENT

Assessing Readiness for Change trough Collaboration Evaluation

Olivier Zephir

, Emilie Chapotot

1,2

, Stéphanie Minel

1,2

LIPSI/ ESTIA - Technopôle Izarbel - 64 210 Bidart

IMS, UMR 5218 CNRS, Univ-Bordeaux1 – 33 405 Talence

Benoît Roussel

ERPI-ENSGSI, 8 Rue Bastien Lepage – B.P 647 – 54010 Nancy

Keywords: Process design, collaboration, readiness for change, product design, organisational change.

Abstract: Our goal here is to propose a practical model enabling the assessment of the readiness of cooperating

organisational agents to face technological change. The focus is on the quality of cooperation and

collaboration which we presume determines the agents’ readiness for change. Providing such a model

facilitates decision making in process design such as organisation design or product/services design. The

transformation feasibility of existing cooperation is determined through a collective operational

effectiveness evaluation. Lillian T. Eby et al. (2000) outlined that little empirical research has focused on

this phenomenon. Amenakis et al. (1993) have proposed a theory-based model where readiness for change

is perceived as similar to Lewin’s (1951) concept of unfreezing. According to this theory beliefs and

attitudes are core factors acting on organisational actors’ perception of the readiness for change. Readiness

for change relates to the employees’ abilities and perceptions to face and support a pending organisational

change. We consider the change in routines and practices of collaborating actors in interaction with the

degree of activity change. In an organizational system based on cooperation, the various actors interact

under a team spirit for a general interest and share a collective output. A certain degree of confidence and

comprehension between actors is inferred. When change affects a company, technological or structural,

organisational actors face change in roles, rules, methods, tools and habits. These transformations have an

effect on the quality of cooperation and the related performance. We propose hereunder a methodology to

measure the impact of change on activities accomplished trough cooperation. Our empirical research takes

place in an organisation adopting a new technology in the maintenance sector.

1 INTRODUCTION

During the diagnosis phase of an organisational

change, operating structures are analysed to evaluate

the impact of change on staff and departments.

When the concerned services are spotted, the

changing processes and activities related to

organisational roles and functions are defined. Our

investigations begin at this level. We define with

methods such as the cooperation evaluation scale

and information transformation level, the needed

knowledge, skills and coactions to fulfil a

transformed activity. Our aim is to capture the extent

to which current work practices are evolving and to

define the prerequisite skills, knowledge, practices

and tools to ensure compliance with corporate

procedures and process. Readiness for change which

is the organisation maturity to integrate new

practices is evaluated through the potential change

maturity model. We access the organisational

capability to incorporate new business processes and

mastering there possible evolutions.

We will first introduce the goal of the European

integrated SMMART project and detail the

innovative system use to improve the maintenance

process in aeronautic and transport industry.

Secondly, we will underline the potential changes

due to this new embedded system and demonstrate

the potential impact and the necessity to asses the

readiness for change. In the third part of the article,

we propose a “potential change capacity maturity

609

Zephir O., Chapotot E., Minel S. and Roussel B. (2007).

SUPPLY CHAIN IMPROVEMENT - Assessing Readiness for Change trough Collaboration Evaluation.

In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, pages 609-614

 SciTePress

Customer

Engine repair

Local repair centre

Logistic Traceabilit

Database

Satellite

Mobile

worke

Tags Reader

(Concentrator)

Doc.

CONFIG

Planning

Trouble

shooting

Collecting usage data

Industrial traceabilit

Provision of improved data

Components

repair

model” and explain for each levels of the model the

applied methodology.

2 SMMART EUROPEAN

PROJECT

This model is being developed within an integrated

European project entitled SMMART (System for

Mobile Maintenance Accessible in real Time)

regrouping industrial stakeholders form Aerospace,

road and maritime transport. This consortium

launched in November 2005 for a 3 year period is

constituted of 24 industrials and research centres

working on the development of RFID embedded

system. The project, submitted under the Framework

Programme 6 received contribution from the

European Community.

The aim of the project is to provide new technology

smart tags capable of operating and communicating

wirelessly in harsh environment of a vehicle’s

propulsion unit.

This system will enable the monitoring of usage and

maintenance data trough the life-cycle of critical

parts and provide secure end to end visibility of the

logistics supply chain (Figure 1). The project also

aims to establish normative referential in terms of

organisation, procedures and tools involving MRO

(Maintenance Repair & Overhaul) stakeholders from

manufacturers to operators, various regulation

bodies and insurance companies. This should

improve quality and traceability of maintenance

operations, and finally safety of vehicles operation.

The SMMART consortium incentives are meant to

enhance European leadership in the worldwide

MRO sector.

Investing in such research and development

activities compose a strategic stake for the transport

industry. According to MRO professionals the

worldwide commercial jet transport MRO market

for example is expected to grow at a pace

approaching 5 percent annually over the next five

years.

Figure 1: SMMART Concept Overview.

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

610

The issue is to decrease maintenance time in order to

maximise time in the air. The adoption of new tools

will transform the maintenance activity and the

relationship among MRO stakeholders. Business

process changes are expected and the corresponding

support tool being prepared as through the

developed potential change maturity model to ensure

the operational capability of the SMMART

technology.

2.1 SMMART Impacts on Product Life

Cycle

In the previous paragraph the goal of the European

SMMART project was described. The mixing of

technologies allows improving the management of

maintenance activities. Although the SMMART

project is dedicated to maintenance process, the

figure 2 shows the multiple impacts on the product

life cycle. The SMMART Project integrates a global

life cycle approach. As we can notice, there are

indirect impacts due to the new embedded

technology integration. We underline here the need

to evaluate the capacity to change for an

organisation. Our aim is to illustrate the potential

changes in design process and identify the impacts

on organisational actor’s capabilities.

For instance, we can identify two major changes

in the design process. The first one deals with the

transformations accompanying the technology

integration. The second one with changes introduced

by new information availability. We will develop

hereunder the potential changes involve by

SMMART project.

2.1.1 Potential Technical Changes

The gas engine is typically a mechanical product.

The implementation of RFID tags, wireless sensors,

and DCU (Data Control Unit) implies considering

the new engine as a mechatronic product. Catherin

(2006) defines the mechatronic as the simultaneous

usage of mechanical techniques, electronical,

automation, micro-computing and system analysis in

terms of products design and optimization of devices

and procedures. This mix of disciplines implies to

rethink the product conception and another design

logic adoption to design the new product. The

mechatronic product should be rethought not only on

> 30 YEARS

Design/Prototype

Production & industrial

Out of

Service

Varied Operational Cycles

including scheduled and

unscheduled maintenance

Production and

industrial repair, planning

Ò Resource

optimisation

Ò Spares availability

Ò Anticipated demand

Ô Stock levels of

spares

Indirect

Maintenance portion

Direc

Increase ratio available time/down time

Ô Cost per hour / km

Ô Required logistics resources

Ô Risk of human error

Ò Maintenance/repair efficiency (+30%)

Ò Reactivity in emergency situations

Ò Pre-normative MRO solutions

Ò Configuration control

Ò Ease of access to historical data

Ò Efficiency / user friendliness of IT tools

Ò Data collection safety

ÒQualification of technicians

ÒCorrect disposal of retired components

IMPACT OF

SMMART

PROJECT

Ò Life-cycle of

sub-assemblies/parts

Ò Availability

Ô Cost of ownership

due to an optimised

and

synthesised “return of

experience”

Design

Figure 2: SMMART a global life cycle approach.

SUPPLY CHAIN IMPROVEMENT - Assessing Readiness for Change trough Collaboration Evaluation

611

the technical aspect but also in the functioning life

cycle processes. Indeed, the mechatronic design

follows a concurrent engineering approach (Kusiak,

1991). These technical changes will generate a need

of tight collaboration between design actors.

Following a concurrent engineering approach

various professional corps participate to a common

objective in collaboration with life cycle actors in

the design activity.

Theses collaborations bring a need of

information flow identification. Thus, to map the

impacts on each organisational actors activity. We

describe in the next paragraph, other changes due to

the implementation of embedded technology

SMMART.

2.1.2 Potential Changes: Maintenance Usage

Data in Design Process

Considering the normal product lifecycle industrial

loop, we focus our study on the potential added-

value of the feedback from maintenance process to

design process.

The SMMART embedded technology enables to

have information about the functioning cycle of

engines in real time. This real time system will

provide more precise previsions enabling better

reactivity to anticipate and face the various failures.

Thus improving customer satisfaction linked to

reparation effectiveness. In the scope of developing

predictive maintenance the product failures data are

merged and redesigned possibilities are considered

to improve product reliability. This operation

demands a tight collaboration between the

maintenance stakeholders and design actors to

identify the causes of events and evaluate the

threshold to launch redesign campaign. The

SMMART system brings new information in the

current process and implies new activities, new

collaboration and cooperation. To reach the

integration of this innovative system, we need to

map the impacts on each process and identify the

concerned organisational stakeholders. This

investigation will enable defining the need resources

and support for the changed activities to stabilize.

In the two previous paragraphs, we have

highlighted the needs and the potential impact

related to the SMMART technology

implementation. In the following part, we explain

the proposed model for readiness to change

assessment.

3 POTENTIAL CHANGE

MATURITY MODEL

The model organised in 3 levels is designed to

access the potential change and the organisational

readiness to theses change. It is a practical tool to

determine the prerequisites for processing from

current state to an improve level of organisational

state. Through each level a specific component of

change is tackled by a set of assessments. Level 1 is

the initial stage where the focus is the Change

Impact Mapping on system level and on team and

individual level. At this stage the As-Is

organisational state is captured through interviews

and the impacts of programmed change on processes

and organisational structure is determined. Level 2

integrates 3 models evaluating the transformation of,

information, collaboration and coordination between

the As-Is state and the To-Be state. At this stage a

consolidated picture of the programmed change

impacts (TO-Be state) on the As-Is activity structure

can be defined. The level 3 consist in measuring the

necessary technical and human resources to

transform an As-Is operating scheme. By the means

of simulations and incremental adjustments the

necessary efforts to improve the ongoing activity can

be set. Theses 3 steps allow to diagnose the

organisational variables that will evolve, the extent

to which they will change and the organisational

capacity to successfully introduce those

transformations. The figure 1 describes our

methodology to systematise potential change

identification and change capability evaluation.

3.1 Impact Mapping

It is the first step where the impacts of the

programmed change is characterised on the

organisational activity. Through interviews the

impacted processes and core competencies are

determined. Core competencies as defined by

(Hammel et al., 1990) are those capabilities that are

critical to a business, it embodies an organisation’s

collective learning, the know how of coordinating

diverse production skills and integrating multiple

technologies.

When the impacted core competencies are

revealed, the link can be made to identify the teams

and the individual competencies impacted. This step

is crucial to fix the As Is state, it fixes the body of

organisational knowledge and competencies that is

concern by the change.

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

612

The impacted process analysis reveals the related

capability that is supported by the knowledge, skills

and abilities employed by organisational actors to

achieve the process goals and objectives. This level

allows identifying “who” the organisational roles

and functions and “what” competencies or tools,

impacted.

3.2 As-Is V/S to BE

When the As-Is situation is set the To-Be one is

designed considering all the impacted stakeholders

in the various concerned processes. The Minel’s

(2003) Cooperative Evaluation Scale (CES) is

applied to characterise the level of collaboration

between 2 professions involved in a same activity.

Useldinger’s (2002) model defining as a six point

Likert scale different levels of information is

readapted to express the level of information change

in an activity. Our investigation consists in the

mapping of collaborating professions in the spotted

impacted activities. We first carry an “As-Is”

collaboration situation, to evaluate the level of

cooperation before the change. Characterising the

degree of cooperation allows defining targets related

to change implementation. That is, when considering

2 professional corps collaborating, to determine if

the same cooperative level is to be kept after change

implementation or if it needs to be optimised. The

Minel’s (2003) CES considers 6 levels of

collaboration, described by the level of knowledge

shared by two interacting actors. The levels are as

follows: 0 stands for no knowledge shared, 1 for

common vocabulary, 2. Knowledge of concepts, 3.

Knowledge of methods, 4. Master of domain, and 5

for expert of domain. Empirical studies show that in

order to attain collaboration between two different

professions, the level 3 of the CES is required to

share a common vision of how to integrate the

constrains of the other in ones own goals. Above this

level, actors’ specialised skills affect the

cooperation. Under this level, cooperation is not

efficient and can be improved. When the result of

the “As Is” cooperation state is figured out, it has to

be linked to the evaluation of the information

changing state. This is carried out by using

Useldinger’s (2002) model where six level of

information are defined as follows: Signal, data,

information, knowledge, Skills and know-how. The

model is similar to a 6 point Likert scale

characterising (under a hierarchy) the different

levels of information throughout different

formalized schemes. The collaborating actors have

to define in common the level of information

Level 3

Effort for change

evaluation

Simulation of new

structured

coordinated

activity system

Performance

evaluation and

adjustments

Level 2

(As-Is v/s To Be)

Collaboration

transformation

evaluation model

S.Minel

Information

transformation

evaluation scale of

Useldinger

Graphic review of

transformed

coordination

Level 1

Impacts mapping

on processes

Identification

of impacted core

competencies

Identification of

impacted team

and individual

competencies

Figure 2: Potential change capability maturity model (O.Zephir 2006).

SUPPLY CHAIN IMPROVEMENT - Assessing Readiness for Change trough Collaboration Evaluation

613

changing in their activities. Defining that, allows

evaluating to what extent the activity is changing,

from the form of data or structure to competencies

and know-how. Having those information

collaborating actors are able to redefine their

common activities, and also to state the needed

resources, effort and support they need to

collaborate under a new operating scheme. A similar

evaluation is applied to evaluate coordination

evolution from the As-Is to the To-Be situation there

is no particular method applied here, but and

indication on each described collaboration activity.

3.3 Effort for Change Evaluation

This last step is design to indicate for each

transformed activity spotted in the level two, the

necessary human and technical resources to deliver a

constant process. Once the extent to which activity is

being transformed is fixed, as referred in CMM

models, simulations are programmed to evaluate the

needed documentation, management and control to

reach continuous process improvement through

readjustments. The prerequisite skills, knowledge,

practices and tools to ensure compliance with the

corporate procedures and process are fixed at this

level. We estimate that readiness for change is

reached when technical and human capability is

estimated in relation to a define service level with

improvement possibilities. Readiness means here the

organisational capacity to incorporate new business

processes and mastering there possible evolution.

Referring to ADESI Specific Action (2004) we

consider that the ability to answer to actual industrial

stakes such as constant change, an integration of

methods considering both human and technological

dimensions is crucial.

4 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE

WORKS

We have resumed in this article the potential change

that the SMMART project can generate in the

maintenance activity. The main issue for MRO

organisations is to decrease maintenance time so as

to maximize operation time. The SMMART concept

is a technological enabler that has to be integrated in

existing organisations to improve proactive

maintenance capabilities. The organisational impacts

are plural regrouping maintenance logistics and

design process. We proposed a potential change

capability maturity model which provides a practical

framework to estimate the change project

progression. Our next issue is to elaborate a strong

simulation method so as provide reliable human

capability evaluation. We still have to set the

adequate method base on empirical researches

analysis and strong theory evaluation. Our main

focus trough this article was to present a practical

model enabling the evaluation of technological

change impacts on human and technical structure for

new technology introduction. Our investigations aim

at conciliating human and technical factors for

optimal process design.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Lionel Lautier from Turbomeca and Juan

Izeta Yurrita from MIK MCC for their contributions.

This Work has been carried out within the

SMMART (System for Mobile Maintenance

Accessible in Real Time) project that received

funding from the European Community FP6.

REFERENCES

ADESI., 2004, “ Aide à la décision pour l’évaluation socio

technique des systèmes industriels Réseau thématique

pluridisciplinaire 47 du CNRS”.

Armenakis, A.A., Harris S G., Mossholder K. W., 1993,

“Creating Readiness for organisational change”,

Human Relation, 46, 681-703.

Catherin J.Y., 2006 “De la mécanique à la mécatronique :

risques ou opportunités pour l’industrie ?”, EMM

2006, Saint-Etienne.

Hammel G., Prahalad C K., 1990, “The core competence

of the corporation”, Harvard Business Review.

Kusiak A. and Wang J., 1991 “Concurrent Engineering:

simplification of the design process”, CAPE ’91

Integration Aspects, p297-304, Bordeaux.

Lillian T. Eby et al., 2000, “Perceptions of organizational

readiness for change: Factors related to employees'

reactions to the implementation of team-based

selling”, Human relation, Vol 53, No. 3, 419-442

Tavistock Institute.

Minel S., 2003, “ Démarche de conception collaborative et

proposition d’outils de transfert de données métiers”,

Thèse de L’ENSAM Paris.

Useldinger K., 2002, “ Contribution à l’analyse du

comportement du décideur face aux systèmes d’aide à

la décision”, Thèse en science de gestion, Université

de Nancy.

ICEIS 2007 - International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems

614