Improvement Program at AstraZeneca

Productivity Improvement Program

Introduction1

Discussion2

Improvement in Organisations2

Selected Organisation - AstraZeneca UK2

Continuous Improvement through PDCA3

FMEA4

FMEA Methodology5

The Application of FMEA6

Opportunity of Improvement through Transformative Organisational Change in AstraZeneca6

Employees and Continuous Improvement8

Reasons of Employees to Resist Improvement Processes9

Fear of Failure10

Creation of Habit10

Close Mindedness of Employees11

Neglecting the Overall Impact of the Change11

Concerns about the Support Staff11

Concern about Personal Impact11

Lack of Job Motivation and Dissatisfaction12

Approaches to Manage and Implement Continuous Improvement in AstraZeneca12

Create a Democracy of Ideas12

Amplifying Human Imagination12

Gather Collective Wisdom13

Give Everyone a Chance13

Quality Assurance Methodology13

Conclusion14

Appendix16

Bibliography17

Introduction

Organisational improvement and development is a very important concept for organisations to cope with the changes that are required to succeed in the competitive business environment. It is very important for the management of the organisations to bring improvement in the productivity, performance, internal systems of the organisation for the betterment and development of the organisation (Rother & Shook, 2008, p. 32). It has been observed in many cases that there are a number of employees to cope with the changes being made by the management of the organisation. It is obvious that there are various reasons behind the employees not willing to cope with the changes aimed to be introduced in the market. It is also obvious that the employees pretend that they are willing to adjust with the changes, but they actually do not want to work according to the changes being introduced in the organisation (Blackard, 2000, p. 32). There are various ways through which employees aim to neglect or refuse to adjust to the changes for improvements.

The topic of improvement is associated with challenges and has received a widespread attention from various researchers, academic institutions, business organisations and industries as major businesses have realised the impact of challenges of change management in this competitive environment (Andriopoulos & Dawson, 2008, p. 11). Whatever the strategy a company adopts, it is vital to know that change is a regular contain of business world and handling challenges plays a significant role in the process of transformation of any organisation (Deming, 1982, p. 6).

Discussion

Improvement in Organisations

Taking control of the process of improvement is a planned method to transform all available to a desired and planned future position. It tends to empower employees to prepare themselves to embrace and encourage changes in the existing circumstances. Change management is a process that suggests and supports changes in the current project (Shingo, 2007, p. 38). It is also important to know that sometimes the question is: What else can be managed, if not change? After all, management is possible that moves the process. For practical purposes it is convenient to see the concepts of management and change management as two separate processes (Brown, 2009, p. 32). In fact, the change management allows managers to manage change in position from one point to another, where the administration of whole process is seen as a control of the movement. In other words, the process also teaches all people to move on to something different than the one they are working on or attached within ...