Notes · Operations, projects and managers
Integrating an acquired plant: the method
- 1Say who you are and how it will work
- 2One plan, reviewed by every department
- 3Fixed parts and open parts, said out loud
- 4KPIs and gates, a weekly meeting, a monthly committee
SNOP, the automotive group I worked for for twenty years, grew partly by acquiring plants. I was on the buying side, and I took part in integrating them. This note is about the method, not the deals.
The first days: say who you are and how it will work
I started by introducing myself: my experience, my expertise, and how I expected the collaboration to work. Then I opened the floor for questions, to clear misunderstandings before they turned into issues.
I presented the action plan and asked for one thing: do not keep an issue hidden, share it openly. People hide problems when they think a problem is a fault. Saying this early changes what a problem means.
One plan, reviewed by everyone, quickly
The plan went to every department for review, and I booked specific review sessions within a short time frame to adjust it and agree on the final version. Speed matters here. A plan that waits for weeks lets rumours write their own.
From the start I knew which parts of the plan were fixed and which were open, and I told people which was which. That is honest, and it lets the open parts carry real contributions. The plan still had to succeed, so I never left open what could not move.
Measured progress
We had clear KPIs and gates, so progress and success could be measured instead of felt. A short weekly meeting followed the figures, and a steering committee met monthly. Senior managers of the buying group joined the introductory meeting and the monthly ones. Their presence showed that the group cared about the plant, and the plant noticed.
What the teams feared, and what helped
They mainly feared two things: losing control, and losing the value they added. Words do little against that. What worked was keeping them at the front line. They reported the progress themselves, so the results were theirs.
What I would do differently
I relied a little too much on technical experts who were keen to roll out their plan, and not enough on the key users who would live with the result. A few of those users stayed a passive audience, and we struggled to onboard them later. If I did it again, I would involve them from the first review, not the last.
A question to keep
In your last change project, who did the talking, and who simply watched?
Questions this note answers
- How do you integrate an acquired plant?
- Present the plan early, take questions openly, agree the final version quickly with each department, then run it with clear KPIs, stage gates, a weekly review and a monthly steering committee, with the buyer's senior managers visibly involved.
- What do the teams of an acquired plant fear?
- Mostly the loss of control over their work and of the value they add. Keeping them at the front line, reporting their own progress, answers that fear better than reassurance.
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