Case study$-2(5$ Marks$)$

An example of a company that appears to have successfully implemented a change is Ethicon Ltd$,$ a medical device company that manufactures sutures for medical applications. They had been undergoing restructuring for some years; at the time, the most recent announcement was that the research and development function was to move to Germany and the new focus of the UK site was to be manufacturing.

In managing change, Ehticon set up new in$-$house systems to refocus people$$s ideas on three main goals:

$$ To improve process cycle times

$$ To decrease costs

$$ To improve quality.

Throughout the change process, the company communicated well with employees and made them aware of the intentions and the benefits. A number of project managers were put in place to drive through change. Ethicon also introduced cross$-$functional teams that have broken down interdepartmental barriers and encouraged open forum discussions. They managed to involve the workers in the project and made them believe that there were gains to be made by changing the way they worked. This initiated change across the whole company. They also set in play a system of measurements against objectives in order to translate them into tangible business benefits. It is believed that one of the greatest achievements gained from this redesign project was the true sense of team working. The result was a measured increase in productivity levels. The new ways of working were that they would produce positive results and cost savings to the company to ensure that Ethicon remained competitive.

Questions

$1.$ How did management at Ehticon $$get it right$?$

$2.$ What particular aspects have encouraged the successful change?