Change Managment within Project Processes - a case study at Alfa Laval

Abstract: More and more corporations around the world is starting to work in project form and leaving their traditional function based way of organising themselves behind. This leads to new ways of driving and implementing changes and improvements. It requires another approach and this approach has to deal with the individual employee in a greater extend. Alfa Laval often questions how to make a project to a success story. Helping them making a project a success story is the methodology tool PROMAL containing several steps. Concept, system, et cetera is initially coming from an idea and continues according to PROMAL with a Feasibility phase, Pre Study phase, Implementation phase and finally a Closure phase. OD Supply is a function in the division of Operations that works cross functional and today they deal with two major interrelated issues, that can be called the Gap. ? The Gap derives from varies factors involving different parties in the project organisation. ? Through changed project management the factors can be dealt with more efficient and thereby minimising the Gap. The objectives in this thesis are to help OD Supply identifying and coping with the Gap. We have chosen to use an inductive approach. The reason for this is that the authors think it is more beneficial for the thesis to start with the OD Supply's view of the problem. We are going to start performing interviews and gathering empirical information, all to be able to get a fundamental view and perspective on the situation and circumstances in practice. The method used to analyse the gathered data is best described as a comparing analysis on the base of pattern matching. We have, based on a broad comparison of theory and our research, searched for similarities and differences and tried to draw conclusions and analyse the cause of the various results. We have decided to choose that Change Management is defined as the process of implementing change as efficiently as possible and letting the change reaching its full potential. To be able to do so we have choosen to describe Change Management with the help of three other aspects. These three aspects will be the cornerstones which will build up the foundation of our thesis and they are as follow; Project Management, Tools for efficient Project Management and Cooperation and Participation among the Project Managers. In the Theory chapter the authors present twelve different theories. Under the subcategory Project Management, four theories are presented. These are Project Organisation, Factors for successful Project Management, Different Project Management Styles and the Four Rooms of Change. Next subcategory, Tools for efficient Project Management, is broken down into Characteristics of a generic project model, Lean Production, Six Sigma and Lean Production vs. Six Sigma. Cooperation and Participation at a Project Management Unit is the final subcategory and contains Competence within a group, Idea Generation and Prioritizing, Follow up and feedback, and Competence development. In the Empirical chapter the authors present eleven different aspects. Under the subcategory Project Management, four aspects are discussed. These are Project Management at Alfa Laval, Project Managers view of PROMAL, the Steering Committee, and Project Recievers. Next subcategory, Tools for efficient Project Management, is broken down into PROMAL, Lean Six Sigma and PROMAL and DMAIC together as one. Cooperation and Participation at a Project Management Unit is the final subcategory and contains Efforts to increase the Cooperation and Participation, Generation and Prioritisation of Ideas, Follow up of Projects and Project Managers, and Competence development. In order to analyse the organisations that are benchmarked and to be able to compare them with OD Supply at Alfa Laval Lund, the authors has created a matrix describing the characteristics of the organisations, the Wildlife Matrix. The organisations which have been benchmarked are Alfa Laval OD PHE, Alfa Laval Tumba, Electrolux AB, Ericsson AB, Höganäs AB, IKEA, Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB, and Sony Ericsson. Differences occur when using methods for implementing various concepts, processes, strategies and methodologies and that these differences are deviations between strategy and practice that we define as the Gap. During our period of collecting information at Alfa Laval and other companies we have found where the Gap occurs. The factors that create the Gap is the interactions between Project Manager and the Steering Committee, lack of follow up, too slow speed in the projects and a need of a better competence development within OD Supply. In order to decrease, or even better eliminate, the Gap these factor is required to be handled. The authors have made a step model in how to manage the Gap and try to minimise it.