Industrial Press The Journey to Improved Business Performance By Stephen J Thomas

296 pages, Illustrated

Published: May, 2008

ISBN 9780831133634

Overview

Todd Bradley has a problem. As maintenance manager for the eastern plant of ATPCo (the American Tractium Production Company, a mythical manufacturer), he works for a company that doesn’t understand that the way they are managing their business is leading them down the path to ruin. As his frustration builds he takes matters into his own hands. This enrages his manager, who transfers him to another plant where conditions are even worse. As if Todd doesn’t already have enough problems, ATPCo introduces a new product called Epsilon that ironically further jeopardizes its position in the market. It’s not that they can’t manufacture Epsilon; they just can’t do it very well. Their problems are poor equipment reliability and equally poor work processes. With a major potential customer planning to visit the plant in just 90 days, Todd and ATPCo are faced with a serious set of problems. How Todd and his co-workers address the issues, how Todd learns about how to successfully manage the change process from his mysterious email mentor TAN, and ATPCo’s ultimate fate are all revealed in The Journey.

The Journey is unique. It is a story about how ATPCo addresses the need for change in light of eventsthat threaten its very existence. As such, it is a valuable learning tool that provides you with the essential concepts for successfully managing change within your own company. While the story line happens to involve plant maintenance, the concepts apply regardless of the type of work you do or the type of products or services your company provides.

Stephen Thomas is a working change-management professional with over thirty-five years experience in the petroleum industry. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Drexel University and M.S. degrees in both Systems Engineering and Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to The Journey, he has published three other books on the subject of change management, all available through Industrial Press, Inc., a New York publisher.

Heinz P. Bloch, P. E.
Process Machinery Consultant and Author

This book is much easier to read and understand than Goldratt [“The Goal”] but with a message that, in my opinion, is even more important, in that it describes basics every organization must master before they can even think about applying more advanced concepts such as the Theory of Constraints and related principles.

Jack R. Nicholas, Jr., P. E., CMRP Consultant

Bottom line, I LOVED IT!!! This is a great work and a great contribution to our community, and I think a very, very effective way to teach and influence.

Robert S. DiStefano
CEO Chairman, Management Resources Group, Inc.

Written in a very engaging manner, this book teaches the essential concepts associated with change management in a highly unique manner. It is not a textbook, but rather a business novel in which the main character, Todd Bradley struggles to learn the skills necessary to save his company, his plant, and in many ways himself. While the storyline is fictional account about business change made in a plant environment, readers will quickly realize that the tools found here can be successfully applied in all lines of business. Anyone working to make a change for the better in their business will benefit from this book. Features

• Written in a way that readers can quickly apply the knowledge gained.
• Features all of the concepts taught in the author’s first two books-Successfully Managing Change in Organizations and Improving Maintenance Reliability Through Cultural Change.

Table of Contents

• Welcome to My World
• Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire
• Life Gets More Interesting
• The Vision and More Takes Shape
• The Meeting
• The Steering Team
• The Goal Achievement Model
• Line #3 Goes Down – Again
• A New Role Model Is in Town
• There are Outcomes and Impacts for Everything
• I Address Resistance
• Learning and the Danger of Assumptions
• The Web of Change and C-RCFA
• The Visit
• The End Game
• Epilog
• Appendix 1 – Todd’s Web of Change
• Appendix 2 – The Change Root Cause Failure Analysis