Technical and management notes: Strategic planning for factory automation by the championing process

The implementation of “factory of the future” manufacturing technologies has tested to the limit our ability to implement strategic change — and largely failed. The traditional concept of strategic planning conducted through an executive analysis and decision process and passed down the managerial hierarchy is clearly inadequate for these advanced, computerized technologies. A different, although not new, strategic planning process is required for the complexity of implementing changes on the scale of factory automation. Borrowing from the concept of the “product champion”, a process championing procedure for strategic change is postulated. This approach is then described and examples are given to illustrate the procedure. Last, some implementation guidelines are given to facilitate the use of this process for achieving strategic level change.