There is a way to be almost certain that a change will be beneficial
. There is almost no bigger waste of money and resources then a failed plan of change. All of the time spent planning the change and all of the resources and man hours put into the project are all wasted and you have to basically start again.
Making a change and implementing it company wide or even in a specific department can be done in a way which gives you a good idea of what to expect. You would not just start moving people around and machines around because you believed that it may make a positive difference. First you would run tests to see how the processes worked currently and then take measurements and timings of how the process should work after the changes were made.
Next, you would put a plan in place to make all of the changes before you just started tearing down machines and moving them. You want to make any changes and moves to cause as little distraction and take as little away from production as possible.
Otherwise if a problem comes up that you're not prepared for, the delays and hold-ups wont cause as much damage and have as large of an impact on the bottom line. It seems to make sense, not to just begin making changes without being almost certain that they will help, but that is exactly what people do in situations that were not planned out enough. The excuse might be that the change had to be made and the consequences couldn't have been foreseen in such a short amount of time. The solution to that is to be proactive. Do not wait until something has to be fixed or changed, always be looking to make improvements. Always be looking forward, trying to avoid as many tragic problems as possible.
Do not let small troubles get out of hand and turn into massive problems that cant be ignored any longer. After all, it really is about continuous improvement and making every day better than the day before. Striving to make the best out of the situation and always looking for a way to improve over past performance. Continuous improvement is the only way to gain market share and to overcome your competition. If you are not progressing then your competition is improving and will soon be leaving you behind.