Perceptions and Understandings on the Need of Change: Viewpoints across Management Levels - New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies - page 237

The process of change must be adapted to the needs of customers and market. This
process should be disseminated by the entire company, and involving all the
collaborators to motivate them. Additionally, this should be developed with support of
managers during and after the change [12]. This involves risks [9]. This process is
more or less difficult according to the level concern of preparation of the company
(collaborators). This preparation must be well done and well conducted. To face the
natural resistance to change, collaborators must be trained, informed, involved and
feel themselves the necessity of change. To lead this process, persons who know,
understand and have a good capacity to communicate with employees should be
selected. These must be present when they need support, facilitating the
understandings of the employees' fears and doubts. Thus change becomes easier.

5 Final Remarks and Future Work

Independently of the company (A or B) and the interviewee work sector, they all
agreed that change is necessary, not only to improve the working environment but
also to satisfy the market needs and face competition. Every change has advantages
and disadvantages and implies some risks, with more or less resistance.
LP always involves change and because of that, to have a successful
implementation is important to prepare the companies to the LP implementation. One
of the main goals of LP implementation is to eliminate wastes and produce with less.
The waste of human effort is defined as one of the LP waste, and to reduce it, the way
people work must change by, for example, increasing their responsibility, motivation
and satisfaction [13].
According to the interviews conducted it was possible to verify that only Company
A had some knowledge about Lean Production, perhaps due to being a company with
over 40 years of experience in the market and with foreign capital. Both companies
agree on that they need change and that change must be a process that should be less
painful as possible to achieve the main goal: “more with less”. It is authors' believe
that to implement LP, a good methodology can be the best way to attain it. The
receptivity of the different management levels is a very important asset for a good LP
implementation.

Acknowledgments. The authors would like to express their acknowledgments to the
companies and to all the participants who accepted the challenge to collaborate in this
study. The authors are also grateful to national funds by FCT Strategic Project
PEst2015-2020, reference UID/CEC/00319/2013.

References

1. ATP, Associação Têxtil e Vestuário de Portugal (2014), http://www.atp.pt
2. ATP, Associação Têxtil e Vestuário de Portugal. Plano Estratégico Têxtil 2020 (2014),
http://www.atp