People have never talked so much about the crisis as they are right now: the crisis that causes people to lose their job, the crisis that baffles legendary companies, the crisis that puts a stop to investments, and so on.

Certainly at one point in time you also have heard the famous phrase “THERE ARE GREAT OPPORTUNITIES IN A CRISIS” and, like many others, you probably thought: nice words, catchy slogan, but what do I do with my cancelled orders and how do I get rid of my product?

Frankly, I also thought the same thing for a long time.

Nice clichés but, actually, it was much better when the crisis had yet to hit the markets. Perhaps there weren’t these “GREAT OPPORTUNITIES”, but at least people kept their jobs.

The crisis has generated a series of negative consequences, such as the loss of jobs, the shrinking of profit margins for companies, the cancellation of investments, less bank credit; basically, nothing good has come out of it.

In this scenario, which today is unfortunately common to many sectors, one struggles to find those great opportunities that many are ready to preach about as if they were right there, just around the corner, with us that look like the lazy ones, as if we weren’t interested in seizing them.

After a period of careful observation, also participating in several workshops, I reached my own personal conclusion: today, the real problem is not the crisis, or, let me say it more clearly, the crisis is the consequence of our fear of dealing with change.

THE CRISIS IS ONLY THE CONSEQUENCE OF FEAR OF DEALING WITH CHANGE

So, we should not be talking about the crisis, but rather about how to overcome the fear of dealing with change.

One very clear example of this is the following: if the fire alarm goes off at a hotel, fear takes over so that instead of running for the extinguisher so that you can put out the fire, you run around with a hammer in your hand so that you can break the alarm to make it stop going off, without actually solving the main problem: in other words without putting out the fire.

So, it is useless to talk about the crisis just for the sake of it; the crisis is only a result: we need to trace back to the just cause which, as I have just told you, is the fear of change.

WHY ARE WE AFRAID OF CHANGE?

Change: this word does not always evoke positive feelings, given the unpredictability of the event itself.

Hence, we fear it and avoid it, with the risk of becoming static.

Changing requires energy, willpower, determination and the will to persevere because at times, when faced with difficulties, the temptation to go back to the way things were done before can cancel out the desire for change.

Sometimes the first step is the hardest to make when you are thinking of embarking on a path to “transformation”; it is undoubtedly more comfortable to dawdle with what you have and not to explore any alternatives, as this may lead to change, which we subconsciously fear.

There are many types of change.

The change I am analysing concerns work: generally speaking, people who are more willing to change possess a good level of flexibility which derives from their professionalism and the skills they have acquired.

THE MORE CHANGE TOUCHES THE EMOTIONAL SPHERE, THE MORE DIFFICULT IT IS TO REASON OBJECTIVELY.

To answer the question as to why people fear change, let’s start from the Greek word for “change”, which has the same semantic root as “catastrophe” and the same ending as “movement”.

It therefore appears as a sort of distortion that can give rise to unforeseeable consequences.

In and of itself, change is inherent in life, even if it does not refer to any distortion: as human beings, we also need a constant renewal, both biological and psychological.

Just think of the continual renewal of the cells in our body that keep us alive.

The moment this change stops happening, well, I have some bad news for you: you’re dead!

ALL THAT FAILS TO CHANGE IS DEAD!

Even in nature, all that does not change is dead: if a plant “does not change”, in other words does not grow or does not bloom in the various seasons, it is dead.

How did the world’s greatest manufacturing power, China, which scares us in various sectors, manage to achieve all that power?

I have a vague idea: 10, perhaps 15 years ago, China started to act differently (change) in the manufacturing sector as well as in other sectors…

And this is where I vent my feelings concerning the sector I work in: I have seen many companies complain about the crisis, while their production departments were equipped with tooling machines the most recent of which was at least twenty years old.

In a world that changes faster and faster compared to the past, you tell me how you can be or stay competitive using twenty-year old equipment with characteristics and performance that were adequate for that time, maybe, but not for today.

And you even have the gall to complain.

Take a look inside your company. In any field, from the fastest of PCs, which are already obsolete the moment you buy them to the photocopiers, printers, telephones, etc.. ultimately, everything is constantly changing.

WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF RESISTING CHANGE?

The consequence is the defence mechanism that tends to lead the company to hide and isolate itself.

In the long term, resisting change leads to the company becoming static, forcing it to enter into a vicious cycle that causes an overall weakening and does not promote growth.

I have seen companies that were leaders in their sector use this defence mechanism and stop investing for years.

This behaviour caused them to slow down, stopping their growth or, even worse, going backwards.

Once you step over this limit, it becomes harder still to introduce change a few years down the road, because if you did not manage to do it then, you do not see why you should do it now.

CHANGE MAKES ONE GROW AND CONSEQUENTLY BECOME STRONGER

People should try to not run away when faced with something new or let opportunities slip by, instead always looking forward to embarking on new experiences.

Many times, in my sector I detect this fear of dealing with changes, hearing statements such as “This is the way we have always done it.

Why change?”

It is about survival: failing to seize any new opportunity is equivalent to condemning yourself to standing still, which is the problem that plagues companies.

By applying this concept to the machine tool sector, I see two large families of customers that reach with enthusiasm and excitement when faced with new solutions such as flexible production, producing only what you sell in order to reduce the stock on hand, fast retooling, and so on.

In these types of customers I see, in their way of doing business, the desire to deal with change.

I also notice a high level of self-confidence, albeit fully aware that there is always a bit of a risk, just enough to get the adrenaline going and making us feel alive.

On the other hand, I see companies that perceive only danger in any innovative proposals.

This generates a feeling of not being in control of the situation and, consequently, of potential pain.

With these companies, experience has taught me not to insist in wanting to demonstrate at all costs that change through the revamping of their machinery fleet is the right course for them.

They are so firmly convinced of this preconception, that I’d rather invest my time working with the companies that belong to the first group. Besides, I am not a missionary and don’t pretend to be one.

Fortunately, there are companies that understand the importance of changing at such a particular time.

If you are not one of these companies, do not waste any more of your time reading this article, as it would be best for you to do something more useful.

I can say this with no qualms, because at one point in time we were faced with a momentous change within our company: since 1958, we had been producing high-productivity TRANSFER machines only; then, in 2005, we introduced the MULTICENTER, a new machine developed according to the rules of a market that had changed.

It was precisely the MULTICENTER that led me to understand that the real problem in many companies is not the crisis, but rather the fear of dealing with change, which then translates into inertia on a market that is changing ever faster.

When faced with mathematical data about cycle time, investment cost and, in the end, cost per piece, I have seen many people fail to take the step because this type of machine, the MULTICENTER, is missing from their departments, as these companies are equipped with machining centers or transfer machines.

For a company that is using machining centers only, my suggestion to install a MULTICENTER to process their pieces was rejected because is would have reduced the cost per piece by 50%.

So why was it rejected?

Having just purchased a few machining centers just 12 months before, with another two on order, the Production Manager was not comfortable with suggesting a change to Management for fear of their reaction concerning the choices made so far.

So, you can draw your own conclusions about what happened then.

When two forces like IMMOBILISATION and CHANGE come into conflict, the more suitable word is probably CRISIS.

Seeing that you cannot govern a changing market, there is only one thing left for you to do: convert immobilisation into change, so that changes within your company move in sync with the changes in the market, and the crisis word will magically disappear.

Then you can truly state that:

“THERE ARE GREAT OPPORTUNITIES IN A CRISIS!

Now I will ask you the same questions and, as always, to write down the answers, because writing them is harder than thinking about them, since it requires more concentration.

So, it is more likely for the right answers to pop out through the writing process:

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN AT YOUR COMPANY IF YOU DECIDED TO DEAL WITH A CHANGE BY INTRODUCING A NEW FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION SYSTEM?

…AND WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU KEEP ON USING THE SAME MACHINES YOU HAVE ALWAYS USED IN THE PAST?

WHAT WOULD BE THE RISKS FOR YOUR COMPANY IF YOU DID NOTHING AND SIMPLY POSTPONED YOUR DECISIONS?

Maurizio Porta
Expert in Flexible Production