Analyzing Management of Change

SAP Management of Change is part of the wider SAP Environment, Health and Safety Portfolio.

The solution allows companies to make operational changes with confidence. Users can mitigate risk by monitoring changes made to equipment, materials, chemicals, operating conditions, procedures, and organizational structure.

They can document assessments, approvals, and task completion throughout the process. As a result, the business can make changes that facilitate growth, without disrupting operations or harming employees, assets, or the environment.

SAP Management of Change (MoC) runs on the browser. No additional software is required to access it. On the SAP Fiori Launchpad, you can find all apps needed for the MoC processes, whereas some are hidden by default and you can add them by personalization.

• Changes to the processing of chemicals, to technology, to equipment, and to procedures require an operational change process to mitigate any risks. (U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2000. Process Safety Management, OSHA 3132).
• The technical basis, timeline, potential impact, and authorization of any change must be documented to meet regulatory requirements. (American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2008. Guidelines for Management of Change for Process Safety.

• Poorly managed change results in severe industrial accidents, such as the Texas City Refinery Explosion. (U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, 2007. Investigation Report.)
• Up to 80% of the large-scale incidents worldwide are traced back to failure in management of change. (Gambetti, Casalli, and Chisari, 2013). Why Sometimes May be Neglected Management of Change.)
• Best-in-class operational change management improves the overall equipment efficiency and increases the operating margin. (Ismail and Paquin, 2013. Operational Risk Management: Managing Change to Improve Productivity and Minimize Risk.)

• Changes or deviations to operating design limits.
• Changes or deviations to process equipment.
• Changes or deviations from the composition or use of process substances.
• Change or deviation to process design.

• Changes to requirements in controlled documents.
• Changes to or deviations to Standard Operation Procedures or Work Instructions.
• Selection of a new contractor company to perform safety relevant work.

• Changes to the organizational structure or reporting relationships.
• Loss, transfer, or delegation of responsibilities of personnel with specific knowledge.
• Changes to a training module or curriculum.

Also, other changes in a company can have far-reaching effects and might need management:

• A change that is implemented for a short, predetermined, finite period.
• Handling of overdue temporary changes (like extending, making permanent, reverting.)

• A change that is required to avoid immediate damage to a facility, to equipment, or to the workforce.
• Urgently or immediately required change.

• An item that meets the design specification, if one exists, of the item it is replacing
• Not a change

• Changes which have major impact on safety, health, or environment
• Regulatory forms

A rule-based workflow guides the users through managing the change process. Based on the categorization and impact of the change, there is a flexible number and sequence of process steps. Since change processes vary highly from customer to customer, the application is flexible and can be customized to fit the most diverse change processes.

The process starts with the Initiation phase. Every person with the required authorization can create a Change Request, describe the required change, add attachments, and determine impacted objects.

The initial change request can be reported using the dedicated Create Change Request app.

The user can select which change request type must be reported. Based on the system configuration, the types of changes can be split into several processes (if they deviate from each other.)

In the Change Request screen, a description, notes, and an impact can be provided.

The impact of the change request often can be derived from the initial assessment or review of the overall change. Based on the impact, you may need to notify certain stakeholders about the planned change.

Much additional information can be added to the request. The preceding screenshots show a quick overview.

After submitting the change request, the review starts automatically. The activities shown in the preceding screenshot are predetermined based on the system configuration and the initial assessment of the change.

During the next process step, the gatekeeper reviews the change proposal / change request and decides on its completeness.

Activity owners can access their activities using the Manage Change Requests or the Manage Change Activities app.

The responsible persons for the Review and Risk Assessment activities get an e-mail notification or they can open their tasks from the My Inbox app on the SAP Fiori Launchpad. They are authorized to change the information given in the Change Request.

After the gatekeeper has accepted the change, the subject matter experts are notified about their pending tasks to review and assess the change request.

Once a task was completed, its status gets updated in the Activities section and any consecutive tasks are started.

Each activity can also have a questionnaire assigned that must be answered to complete the activity.

Based on the results of the assessment step, the Operations Manager approves or declines a Change Request. With the approval of a Change Request, the creation of extra activities and the assignment of further people might be necessary.

The area manager checks the entire change request and decides if a change is necessary or not.

The following tasks can be performed in this process step:

• Verify the change.
• Add or create new activities (for certain people.)

• Add more stakeholders who are important for the change process.
• Assign action owners to activities.

Approval sequence: Several approvals (sequential or parallel) can be requested.

The area manager can either approve or reject the change request and document the required findings, recommendations, and actions.

When the approval is granted, the implementation (execution) of the change is started.

The responsible persons start and drive the implementation of the Change Request.

If a Notification to Customers is required, the implementation starts with the evaluation. The evaluation can also be automatically done using a Checklist with Yes/No/Not Applicable questions.

After the successful verification of implementation activities, the Change Request will be closed.

After completing all the implementation activities, the validation of the change is started automatically. The validation of the effectiveness of the change includes several steps. Typical tasks during this phase are as follows:

• Verification of Change
  • Verify effectiveness of the change
  • Review process performance
• Conclusion
  • Several people can be responsible for the close-out
  • Communicate the change
• Audit Trial
  • Examine procedure on change level
  • Check performance on activity level
  • Every change is logged with a timestamp

After completing all the tasks, the change request is closed automatically.

Finally, the Change Request can be closed. This close-out can be performed automatically by the system when all Tasks are completed and no additional step is required.

The Detailed Analytics of Management of Change allows you to:

• Find abnormal trends that require follow-up activities and further analysis.
• Analyze the performance of plants and objects that you're responsible for.
• Analyze the frequency of changes that occurred in a certain period of time.

The analytical path consists of two main areas:

A standard Adobe Print Form is available for change requests and for activities. The creation of customer–specific Adobe Print Form is also possible.

Using the Manage Change Requests / Activities app the business user can search for and view requests and activities.

A set of predefined analytics provides reports and dashboards.

As a summary, SAP Management of Change provides features for the end-to-end lifecycle of a change request.

The solution contains functional components in three separate areas:

• To support the change initiation process, the solution provides functional components to record the planned or occurred changes.
• During the change request processing the coordinator or other involved people are able to execute or add activities, maintain involved persons, attach documents, links, and references. The change request allows a dynamic and flexible processing with conditioned activities.
• The change request process furthermore supports the responsible persons with creating outputs. In the analytics work area, you can find a set of predefined analytics, such as reports and dashboards.