Change is always painful and comes at a cost, but agreeing to the change in writing has a galvanizing effect on the project to ensure success. Design software by its very nature is complex and engineers rely on what they have used to be productive. Tools should not be changed by management mandate, but rather sequenced in with room in the schedule for a learning curve. It may require retraining your engineers, redoing your databases, and rethinking your design flow. Expect to spend weeks and even months to bring new software tools online, and involve the engineers at all times.
Productivity affects moral and vice versa, so be sensitive when swapping tools.
Breaking engineering teams into smaller groups does not always increase productivity. Keep the teams together and focused on the problem at hand, especially if the problem is on the critical path. In the case of the cell library it would have been better if more people were pulled off design to keep the library on track. Doing design while the library is broken is of little value and slows production. You would be surprised how many companies continue to push design work along while higher priority prerequisites, like the cell library project, remain understaffed.