Programme Master of Science in Process Plant Management

Code MKKL1513

Module Human Factor in Industry

Prepared by Name Veronica Shahlani A/P Arulanthu

Student ID MKK151044
Mobile 016-2790394
E-mail veronica.arul90@hotmail.com
Prepared for Professor Dr. Idrus

Dateline 12 / 12 / 2015
 ASSIGNMENT MKKL 1513

Title:
With reference to the organization life cycle model, describe a major change
initiative in your company/organization. What strategies/approaches were used
to manage the major factors influencing the change in your
company/organization?

By: Veronica Shahlani A/P Arulanthu

MKKL 151044
 Change is evitable in an organization. People change due to maturity and occupying
better position. The change also occurs for survival, when demands of customer changes.
Apart from that, organization growth, as well as changes in environment also gives an impact
to the organization directly or indirectly. This is mainly due to the change of perception or
commonly known as “point of view” of the participants that are undergoing the changes.

In my working area, Top Glove Sdn. Bhd, being the largest glove manufacturer in
Asia, changes occurs very consistently in our industry. Some of the reasons for the changes
could be due to opening of new factories whereby there is a change in management and
introduction of new products into the market, where the monopoly of the products changes.
These changes directly affects the participants, in this case the stakeholders, shareholders and
staffs in various ways. The change in management gives three basic changes whereby the
task in managing changes, the professional approach changes and the knowledge varies.
Thus, the participant tends to resist not just because they want to be resistance, it may also be
due to unable to understand the concept of the change.

One example of major changes that took place in my company was change in
customer demands. In general, gloves are to meet certain specification relating to ISO,
EN455 or ASTM standards. However, there are other specialties that some customers require
such as permeability to chemical used in heavy industrial chemical and medical devices. In
current global industrialization, the European Nation had announced that all common glove
supplied in the country should meet basic food handling requirement. This situation will
result in approximately 75% of customers’ needs to meet this requirement in their product.
This is an external change that took place, which is not within our control. From management
point of view, this change is due to globalization that is taking place and this will be an
opportunity for the industry to gain profit by meeting the customer’s requirement. However,
the operation staffs fails to understand the situation and tends to rebel due to constraints faced
by individual department.

In glove manufacturing business, food handling requirement is only requested by

certain customers whereby special formulation and process control is conducted, which is not
economical and costly. However, the change in the customer demand has challenged the
company both technically and financially. As the manufacturer, firstly we identified the
factors influencing the change and explain to all departments the exact market situation. One
of the main reasons for the change was due to the environment, the enforcement of the
European Government that all supplies to meet basic food handling requirement. The other
factor that could also be a reason for the change was customer orientation, probably the
country are concern on the hygiene condition during food handling and the minimum
availability of the product in their market. This could have also lead to some casualty cases
in the European Countries due to food poisoning. Thus, it was important as manufacturer; we
understand the change and convey the message to the operation floor so that they get to see
the “big picture” as much as we do.

As things changes in the organization, many departments involved tends to resist

because of the constraints faced by individual factories. Some of the factors for this resistance
were due the limitation in process control and resources availability. Not only that, the threat
to expertise in the product caused insecurity to individual factories, to balance the profit
margin against the manufacturing cost also played a reason for the resistance. Thus, some
individuals were able to embrace the change with open mind, for the betterment of the factory
while some try to cope with it. On the other hand, some individuals try to avoid it by not
giving the required commitment.

In order to satisfy customer’s request and maintain the good relationship, the
company have taken certain approaches with reference to the organization cycle. This step
was important for the management to ensure all parties gives commitment to the development
of the company. During the Entrepreneurial Stage, the company’s approach was to provide
basic education on this project. All chemist and engineers were given the freedom to explore
and develop the formulations and process control within their factories and its capacity.
Creativity presented and improvement plans conducted were rewarded and full
encouragement was given to ensure participation from all parties takes place consistently and
with commitment.

The next step was to communicate and share the information. As we are reaching the
collectivity stage, a leader was appointed to provide guidance or a clear direction in term of
what is next step or how to overcome the constraints encountered. Bi-weekly meeting was
organized for all factories to share and endorse information and studies conducted by
respective department. Various method and theories were shared and explained, including
constraints faced and process control method. This process was time consuming as different
factories consist of different line design which requires different control method. Again here,
the management approach was to encourage participation and involvement at all stages to
ensure staffs understand the concepts and move together in the same direction as per the
management.

The managements continue their effort by facilitating the process, meaning to control
the process parameters and formulation to attain standardization in all factories. All factories
are made to try process control for various parameters to settle in to standardization that
meets the best or lowest manufacturing cost. During this formalization stage, the management
supported the team by conducting internal audit based on the parameters declared. This
includes the testing of the ability of the glove to meet the requirement for food handling and
line validation. Apart from that, line cleanliness record and cleaning tools were also
inspected. The management further approaches the issue by providing external training to
related department to aid us with the knowledge on the customer’s expectation from a 3rd
party’s perception. In this phase, the team faces many rejection and opposition due to the
audit by 3rd party, where some validation and some procedure were rejected. This caused
retaliation from various departments as they need to rework the gloves due to rejection or to
re-study their rejected process control and formulations. This stage was time consuming and
too expensive as it involves rejection and oppositions. Nevertheless, the management
supported the team by investing in testing equipment and manpower to fulfill the necessity
for the team to work.

The management’s continuous drive had brought us to elaboration stage whereby, a

team is formed, headed by R&D associates to monitor the entire food handling requirement’s
performance for all factories. After continuous effort from all departments, now they are able
to identify the limitation and requirement to meet food handling grade. The management
approach now is to build the trust of their employees that they will provide required resources
for all departments to meet the customer’s requirement. This process of transaction was
proving to all staffs to show that management walked hand in hand with the operation team to
support them in all possible ways. As we progress, now the operation team can continue to
implement improvement plans at area required to ease the dipping process and cost cutting
studies can be conducted to reduce the current costing.

In conclusion, change can takes place in various ways in our work space. It could be
due to many reasons stated as above. However, it is important that as a team, we should move
together and use the correct approach to educate, lead and guide the team to achieve the goals
or task given. It is also important that both employer and employee be a positive contributor
to the company’s growth as whole.