I want to answer the following questions about MOTOROLA
Question 1: What assess (problem or wickness) the need for a quality improvement process within Motorola organization.
Question 2: What is the description an "As is "flow chart of the process to be analyzed.
Question 3: Describe the relationship of the process to the organization's strategic plan.
Question 4: Identify both the internal and external customer in Motorola organization.
Question 5: Also, estimate the level of improvement that would be realized and the value of improvements process.
OVERVIEW OF COMPANY “ MOTOROLA”
The company started as Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in 1928. The name Motorola was adopted in 1947. Now it is a Fortune 100 global communications leader that provides seamless mobility products and solutions across broadband, embedded systems and wireless networks. Seamless mobility means you can reach the people, things and information you need in your home, auto, workplace and all spaces in between. Seamless mobility harnesses the power of technology convergence and enables smarter, faster, cost-effective and flexible communication. Motorola had sales of US $31.3 billion in 2004.
It provides wireless handsets, which transmit and receive voice, text, images and other forms of information. It also provides mission-critical radio communications and information systems. Motorola develops and deploys end-to-end digital broadband entertainment, communication and information systems.
It offers embedded telematics systems that enable automated roadside assistance, navigation and safety features for automobiles. Motorola has six segments: Personal Communications, Global Telecom Solutions, Commercial, Government and Industrial Solutions, Integrated Electronic Systems, Broadband Communications and Other Products. In August 2004, Motorola acquired Force Computers, which provides open, standards-based and custom embedded computing solutions. On December 2, 2004, Motorola completed the spin-off of Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
In November 2000, Motorola acquired Printrak International Incorporation. The new name of this company is Motorola Biometric Identification.
What is Motorola vision statement?
As a recognized global technology leader with 75 years of innovation in our portfolio, our vision is clear.....
To harness the power of wireless, broadband and the internet to deliver embedded chip, system level, and end to end network communication solutions for the individual, work team, vehicle and home.
Mission statement
Motorola is more than our product portfolio:
software enhanced wireless phones and messaging
two way radio products and systems
networking and internet access products
end to end broadband solutions
embedded semiconductor solutions
integrated electronic systems
“ TO BE LEADER IN ALL THE ABOVE CATEGORIES”
Goals and Objectives o f MOTOROLA
As a global corporate citizen, we strive to:
• Create innovative technological solutions that benefit people at home, at work and on the move
• Increase shareholder value through profitable growth, technological innovation and market leadership
• Operate with transparency and the highest standards of ethics and law in directing and managing the company for all stakeholders
• Protect the environment by improving our environmental performance and designing environmentally conscious products
• Maintain a safe and healthy workplace, fostering a globally diverse workforce and supporting our employees’ work-life balance
• Create economic opportunities and growth in regions where we do business, through our products, services and operations
• Set expectations for our suppliers to conduct their operations in compliance with the law and accepted standards of fairness and human decency
• Support the quality of life and educational opportunities in the communities in which we operate around the world
Transparency and trust enable Motorola to build solid relationships with stakeholders:
• Communities – We are a responsible citizen in the communities where we do business. We interact regularly with our neighbors on our environmental, health and safety efforts, and we provide financial and voluntary support to community programs.
• Customers – We endeavor to build long-term relationships with our customers – partnerships based on trust and integrity. We work closely with customers to develop and test new products and ensure satisfaction through surveys and ongoing dialogue.
• Employees – People are the essence of Motorola. We foster an open-door policy and ensure clear and constant two-way communication through employee surveys; regular group, team and division meetings; and our company intranet.
• Government Officials – We maintain an ongoing dialogue with legislators, regulators and others involved with policy leadership.
• Investors – We value our investors and believe it is vital to keep them informed and aware of our financial performance as well as our global citizenship performance.
• Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) – We value input from NGOs and participate actively in meetings, conferences and forums on policy issues.
• Suppliers – We require suppliers to comply with our global citizenship expectations, and we monitor their performance.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGHTS
STRONG FINANCIALS
It has robust financials and above average industry margins
The financials are as follows
• Sales 31.85 Bil
Income 4.02 Bil
Net Profit Margin 12.60%
Return on Equity 25.50%
Debt/Equity Ratio 0.25
Revenue/Share 12.79
Earnings/Share 1.61
Book Value/Share 6.33
Dividend Rate 0.16
Payout Ratio 10.00%
GLOBAL LEADERS
Motorola is a global leader in wireless, broadband and automotive communications technologies and embedded electronic products. It provides a scalable, integrated end-to-end system for the delivery of broadband services that keeps consumers informed, entertained and connected. Its technology enables network operators and retailers to create and execute on new business opportunities by providing innovative products and services to the home.
Delivers proven capabilities in cellular, wireless broadband and wireline access technologies, with recognized leadership in integrating core networks through wireless IP, wireless softswitch and IP multimedia subsystems. The Networks group is advancing seamless mobility with innovative technology solutions, as well as a billion-dollar services business with an expanded portfolio delivering support, integration, applications and management.
Customer Intimacy
A broad area of expertise is the customer interface: the degree of customer intimacy, community building, and one-to-one marketing
Employee Training & Loyalty
It has capable and outstanding team of human resources.
Strong R&D
It has very good research and development wing spreading around the globe.
Weakness
• It does not have its own operating system like Microsoft
• It may be cost ineffective with the emergence of Asian players like LG, Samsung etc.
1. Analysis of Strategic Factors
External Factor Analysis Summary: Here we will analyze the affect of societal forces and to see what trends are like to affect the Handspring:
• Economic Forces: One has monitor the economic trends like GDP trends, Interest rates, Money supply, Inflation rates, Unemployment levels, Disposable income. Currently in USA there is recession but in other parts of world there is growth especially in Asian countries. Individual economies becoming interconnected into a global economy.
• Technological Forces: Impact of Internet, virtual online stores, using Internet effectively to increase the reach and to reduce the cost. Portable Information Devices, Electronic networking, smart mobile robots, increase in the speed of microprocessors will have tremendous impact on business.
• Societal Trends: It is of very much importance to it. The factors like lifestyle changes age distribution of population, life expectancies etc.
• Competition: According to the data given in the case the main competitors are
MICROSOFT, PALM, NOKIA, SAMSUNG, SONY ETC.
OPPORTUNITIES
Economic development of Asia and other developing countries
Trend of Digital products increasing
Demographics favoring retailing and consumerism
Opening up through WTO
Threats
Increasing government regulations
Strong competition
Technological changes
Foreign trade hindrances
Cultural differences specially in foreign country.
Recommended Strategy:
Growth through Differentiation focus: In response to the increasing competition and pricing pressure in the handheld computing market, Handspring can now chose to focus on. Integrated digital products like communicator. It can offer the products in upper
Segment where the margins are also high.
6. Growth through Corporate Markets
They should also focus on corporate markets where it can offer its integrated products.
Advantages of growth strategy will lead to increase in the market share and the economies of scale.
Disadvantages: There may be risk of loosing its focus.
Pause Strategy:
Consolidates various acquisitions to find economies and to encourage innovation among the business units.
Advantages : may lead to increase in the short term profitability.
Disadvantages: There may be risk of loosing the market share and revenues.
RECOMMENDATION
It can simultaneously pursue following strategies:
• Continue current horizontal growth strategy of combining PDA and telecommunications technology into all-in-one PDAs sold throughout the world.
Pro: Uses core competency to build a desirable product.
Cons: May not increase dollar sales, unless market willing to pay more for PDA communicators. Need to significantly increase marketing effort and expenses.
• Follow vertical growth strategy of creating own operating system.
Pros: May enable better integration between PDA and cell phone.
Con: Likely to significantly increase R&D costs.
• Follow vertical growth strategy of acquiring manufacturing facilities.
Pros: May be able to reduce unit costs via process R&D; could improve product development function. Cons: Expensive and capital intensive; would restrict flexibility.
• Growth through Differentiation focus:
In response to the increasing competition and pricing pressure in the handheld computing market, Handspring can now chose to focus on. Integrated digital products like communicator. It can offer the products in upper Segment where the margins are also high.
• Growth through Corporate Markets
They should also focus on corporate markets where it can offer its integrated products.
I will recommend Benchmarking for MOTORPLA. Benchmarking is a process, which evaluate various aspects of their processes in relation to best practice, usually within their own sector. This then allows divisions/organizations to develop plans on how to adopt such best practice, usually with the aim of increasing some aspect of performance.
IMPLEMENTATION BY BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking is simply about making comparisons with other organisations and then learning the lessons that those comparisons throw up".
Source: The European Benchmarking Code of Conduct
"Benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognized as industry leaders (best in class)".
Source: The Xerox Corporation
Benchmarking will be primarily with the companies in the industry it is operating like with Apple., Nokia, Samsung, Sony and other rivals. We will also consider world class companies in other industries which can suitably be applied to our situation. It will encompass the following:
• Regularly comparing aspects of performance (functions or processes) with best practitioners;
• Identifying gaps in performance;
• Seeking fresh approaches to bring about improvements in performance;
• Following through with implementing improvements; and
• Following up by monitoring progress and reviewing the benefits.
In benchmarking with comparable others, an organization:
* Determines how leading organizations perform specific process(es)
* Compares their methods with its own
* Uses the information to improve upon or completely change its processes.
It is important when benchmarking with stellar organizations that you gain a clear understanding of the scope of their project, the methodology they used, the critical success factors they identified, the challenges and opportunities they faced in implementation, and the important lessons they learned.
The ‘Gap Analysis’
When examining the best practices of others and drawing comparisons, an organization will often perform what is called a "gap analysis." This is a way to identify the performance or operational differences between your process and that of your benchmarking partners, and to understand why the differences exist. One way to identify these gaps is through a technique called "activity modeling," a useful method for understanding how a business process really works by first describing how things are ("as-is" modeling), and then by how you want them to be ("to-be" modeling). Key Actions in Benchmarking for Best Practices
Number of steps that are integral to an effective best practice review:
* Research to plan the review. Before selecting comparison organizations, research the organizations themselves as well as current industry trends and developments.
* Select appropriate organizations. Your research should yield a list of best practice organizations. Use this list to determine how many and which ones to visit. Experts suggest keeping the list to a manageable number, which can be as low as five.
* Collect data from selected organizations. Develop a standard list of questions to structure the interview process and guide your discussions. Gear questions toward discovering common practices and characteristics among the selected organizations. You may need to revise this list after you obtain feedback from the first interview.
* Identify barriers to change. Identify the barriers to implementation within your organization, whether real or perceived.
• Make recommendations for change constructive and convincing. Give your agency a "basket of ideas" from which to choose. Build flexibility into the recommendations, as your agency will need to adapt them to its unique needs and functions. It also helps to outline the benefits as well as the key steps that should be taken in order for implementation to be successful
Measures to be taken by MOTOROLA on the basis of benchmarking:
• A product mix that is responsive to rapidly changing market needs
• Introduction of new products based on latest R&D,
• Use of process innovation and quality improvement process to reduce cost of operations and consequently price of product
These are some of the measures that need to be taken up by the manufacturing companies to retain their competitiveness in a low margin environment. Efforts to reduce manufacturing costs need to be targeted on reduction in material related costs as well as overheads. Investment in material costs would get reduced by looking at long term contracts with vendors, reducing rejects & reworks dramatically, developing alternative materials etc. By reducing investments in inventory across the supply chain (through implementation of pull-based material procurement), even the overhead costs can be reduced further.
Benefits of benchmarking
Benchmarking opens organizations to new methods, ideas and tools to improve their effectiveness. It helps crack through resistance to change by demonstrating other methods of solving problems than the one currently employed, and demonstrating that they work, because they are being used by others.
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT CAN ALSO BE IMPLEMENTED
“Quality” is continually evolving, an emerging consensus includes: Continuous Improvement and Learning: Continuous improvement and learning refers to both incremental and “breakthrough” improvement, and applies to both the individual and organizational levels. Improvement and learning can be directed toward better products and services, to better processes, and to being more responsive, adaptive, and efficient.
The companies use all the above statistical and managerial concepts. They all are very useful tools and used time and again by the organizations. According to my opinion control charts is essential to study closely the quality of the products coming from each production operation. The primary purpose of control charts is to indicate when production processes may have changed sufficiently to affect product qualtiy. This tool is very mush useful for the organisations. There are two type of control charts: 1. For variables 2. For atributes.
These charts can be used just in any application, from automated manufacturing to services. In any industrial product, say cotton yarn, the print outs of control charts for certain qualtiy measures can be provided to the consumers which will give consumers more confidence
Perceptive from Joseph M. Juran
He focused on following points:
* Quality control must be an integral part of management
* Quality is no accident
* Quality must be planned
* There are no shortcuts to quality
* Use problems as sources of improvements
Hence Handspring must focus on quality as an integrated concept. They must improve the quality of every aspect of management whether it is labour, material or machine.
Perceptive from Deming
THE CONTRIBUTION BY DEMING IS VERY USEFUL. He has give the 14 points apply anywhere, to small organizations as well as to large ones, to the service industry as well as to manufacturing. They apply to a company:
1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move toward a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership: The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company
9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
* Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
* Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
11. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
12. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.
REFERENCES:
BOOK: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT BY GAITHER
Motorola website, money central.com