MSM 6200 Module 4 Written Assignment: Planning and Preparing the Robot Pilot Example

Three Phases and a Gate: Planning and Preparing the Warehouse Change

Student Name

Master of Science in Management, Thomas Edison State University

MSM-6200: Leading Strategic Change

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Three Phases and a Gate: Planning and Preparing the Warehouse Change

Objectives

Choosing an Approach

Hayes (2022) contrasts top-down, directive approaches with participative ones and argues that the choice depends on urgency, the nature of the problem and the people affected. Our client's deadline argues for speed, but our turnover problem argues for participation, since pickers who feel imposed upon will leave. The plan combines both: leaders set the objectives and deadline, while pickers and supervisors shape how each phase works. Hayes also notes that participation takes time, so the plan limits it to the questions where pickers' knowledge matters most: where items should sit, how training should run and how the pilot zone should flow. The phases follow the misfits that the congruence diagnosis identified (Nadler & Tushman, 1980).

Three Phases

Reslotting comes first because it costs little, shows results quickly and does not threaten anyone's job. It also tests whether the diagnosis was right.

Building Readiness

Rafferty et al. (2013) treat readiness as a set of beliefs, that the change is needed, that the organization is able to make it and that it will benefit the people involved, which form in individuals, in groups and across the organization. The plan addresses each. The need is shown with the client's cutoff data, shared on the floor. Capability is shown by the reslotting results. Benefit is shown by the pay redesign and the promise that the pilot will not cost any picker a job.

Preparing Systems and People

IT will test the robots' connection to the warehouse management system in a weekend trial before the pilot. Supervisors will receive two days of training in running a mixed zone. A weekly fifteen-minute meeting on each shift will report progress and collect problems. Supervisors will also practice answering the questions pickers are likely to ask about jobs, so the message is consistent across shifts.

Budget

The plan's costs are modest until the third phase. Reslotting requires about 300 labor hours, scheduled on weekends at overtime rates, roughly $14,000. The training redesign costs about $22,000 in trainer time and paid training days, offset if retention reaches its target, since each picker who leaves within ninety days costs an estimated $4,000 to replace. The robot pilot is leased from the vendor for $9,500 a month, so the six months of phase three cost $57,000 and commit us to nothing beyond the pilot. Leasing rather than buying is part of the plan's logic: it keeps the decision gate real, because walking away from a lease is possible in a way that walking away from a $1.8 million purchase is not.

The Decision Gate

At month nine, a review will decide whether to expand robots to other zones, based on four measures: cutoff performance in the pilot zone, picker retention there, accuracy and pickers' own ratings of working with the robots. The six pickers on the pilot team will present their view at the review.

Conclusion

The plan converts the diagnosis into measurable objectives, a participative approach, three phases with owners and a gate before expansion. Starting with reslotting builds readiness for the harder phases.

References

Hayes, J. (2022). The theory and practice of change management (6th ed.). Bloomsbury.

Nadler, D. A., & Tushman, M. L. (1980). A model for diagnosing organizational behavior. Organizational Dynamics, 9(2), 35-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(80)90039-X

Rafferty, A. E., Jimmieson, N. L., & Armenakis, A. A. (2013). Change readiness: A multilevel review. Journal of Management, 39(1), 110-135. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206312457417