R.R. Donnelley's Six Sigma Change Management Success
This paper examines how R.R. Donnelley's Roanoke, Virginia printing plant used Six Sigma principles and strategic change management to overcome employee resistance and modernize operations. Facing threats of closure due to declining print demand and inefficient production methods, management invested in worker education and digital technology integration rather than resorting to layoffs. The paper analyzes key change management strategies — including building worker buy-in, providing role models, and coordinating HR with new job classifications — and documents measurable outcomes: a 50% reduction in production time and a 20% productivity increase. A brief personal workplace comparison illustrates the value of systematic, team-based change implementation.
- Introduction: The Printing Industry Under Pressure: Donnelley plant faces closure amid declining print demand
- Six Sigma as a Framework for Change: Six Sigma guides quality and digital technology adoption
- Overcoming Employee Resistance to Change: Buy-in strategies address worker fears about job security
- Role Models, Training, and Workforce Transition: Training and HR coordination ease workforce transition
- Outcomes and Measured Results: Productivity rose 20%; production time cut by half
- Lessons from a Personal Workplace Experience: Personal case highlights value of systematic team training
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds abstract change management concepts in a concrete, well-documented industry case, making the analysis both accessible and credible.
- Follows a logical progression from problem identification through strategy to measurable outcomes, giving the argument a clear cause-and-effect structure.
- Closes with a personal workplace comparison that reinforces the main argument by contrast, demonstrating critical self-reflection alongside the case analysis.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a case study framework to apply change management theory — particularly resistance to change and buy-in strategies — to a real organizational scenario. By citing specific quantitative outcomes (50% reduction in production time, 20% productivity gain), it bridges theoretical concepts and empirical evidence, strengthening its analytical claims.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by establishing industry context and the Donnelley plant's crisis, then introduces Six Sigma as the chosen improvement philosophy. It proceeds through sequential change management strategies — building buy-in, providing role models, coordinating HR — before presenting measurable results. A final personal anecdote provides a comparative counterexample. References are formatted in APA style.
Introduction: The Printing Industry Under Pressure
Changes in technology have had a particularly significant impact upon the printing industry — more and more people are reading content online, which is reducing demand for printed books. Surviving in the industry requires a lean and focused approach. R.R. Donnelley employees at a Roanoke, Virginia plant feared that their facility would be closed due to reduced demand and criticism of the branch's inefficient production methods. However, rather than close the plant, Donnelley employed a new managerial approach focused on improving product quality and employee productivity. The company invested in worker education rather than simply instituting punitive measures to force harder work. Workers were given a new philosophy: they were instilled with the principles of Six Sigma and other process improvement methodologies to motivate them to embrace change.
Six Sigma as a Framework for Change
The Six Sigma philosophy stresses the need for "zero defects" in production. Defects are costly in terms of both time and money. At Donnelley, there was a practical need to ensure that employees adopted different quality control and workflow processes to better incorporate new technology into production methods. To keep pace with the times, the company needed to expand its use of digital technology to receive and produce printing film and plates. This would require many jobs to change and employees to learn a number of new methods and approaches. Change resistance was inevitable, and it was management's task to anticipate and then address that resistance with effective strategies.
Overcoming Employee Resistance to Change
One of the first key steps in overcoming change resistance is encouraging "buy-in." Workers must be convinced that the likely cost of things remaining as they are is far greater than the cost of change to their well-being. In the case of Donnelley, workers feared that the looming changes to their standard operating procedures were merely an attempt to find excuses to eliminate positions, or even a prelude to closing the plant. Management had to demonstrate the opposite: if the plant continued operating as it had, it would become obsolete in the new digital age. More rigorous, leaner production standards were required to retain workers' jobs (Schuler, 2003).
Another common obstacle to change is that people are comfortable in their old routines and have no framework for modeling new production methods (Schuler, 2003). Donnelley's management addressed this by instituting a rigorous training program that provided new role models and encouraged workers to identify with change agents rather than with older ways of doing things. Workers felt more secure in the new standard operating procedures when they were called upon to implement them. Additionally, by adopting a well-established philosophy such as the continuous improvement methodology of Six Sigma, the company could point to the documented successes of other organizations as incentives to embrace change. The production methods may have been new, but Six Sigma had proven effective at many organizations, including GE, where its concepts were first formulated (Calloway & Gleich, 2006).
References
Calloway, D., & Gleich, G. (2006). What is Six Sigma? Search CIO. Retrieved July 2, 2010, from
Schuler, A. J. (2003). Overcoming resistance to change. Schuler Solutions. Retrieved July 2, 2010, from
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