-- —-CASE STUDY Motorola’s Quest for Quality* ‘The Total Customer Satisfaction (TCS) worldwide competition showcases the quality achievements of Matorola tecms, Ail employees are given an equal ‘opportunity to participate, Like many companies, Motorola uses teams to solve problems, In fact, al ‘most half of Motorola's employees are on teams. But Motorola takes it one step further end gives teams the opportunity to compete with one another and share firsthand what they've accomplished, allowing them to see how their achievements impact the organization through their TCS competition. Win- ig team members from ail over the world are ‘treated like royalty for a few days and are given the ‘opportunity to make a presentation to top executives, of the company. ‘THE NEED FOR TCS Why develop such 2 competition? The Chairman of the Board says the frst few years of Motorola's qual- ity journey “were carved by the idea of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.” But after win- ning the award in 1988, “the company needed some- thing to carry the momentum.” This led the company to develop the TCS team competition. Teams al- ready existed within Motorola, and the idea of a Competition was met with enthusiasm. Since its in- ception eight years ago, Motorola estimates this quality program has resulted in savings of $24 billion a year. A savings that is essential for the company to ‘remain competitive when its products have a price earning curve of 15% to 35% a year, In addition to the doliar savings, TCS has heiped develop a com- pany of empowered workers. “I'm not sure if maybe the whole empowerment aspects of what we did with ‘the team process is not more important than the indi- vidual savings that we've generated,” comments the Director of Corporate Quality for business systems. “Nothing has empowered the work force faster than ‘the team process—-it makes the difference between a {00d company and a bad company.” That opinion is echoed by the Chairman of the Board who says, “The numbers are impressive, but the numbers are ‘not what counts." ‘The TCS competition is based on the following objectives: levels ofthe organization, worldwide. = Recognize and reward outstanding, performance a the team level + Reaifirm the environment for continuovs improve: ment ‘+ Demonstrate the power of focused team effort, '* Communicate the best team achicvements through- D ‘+ Renew emphasis on the participative process ata! | out Motorola, { HOW IT WORKS ‘The competition starts with preliminary contests} held for each of Motorola’ business units. As many” as 5,000 teams take part initially, incorporating roughly 65,000 of Motorola's 142,000-plus employ- ‘ccs. The number of teams has grown trom approt- ‘mately 1,500 seven years ago and has increased ever, year. Depending on the size of each regional compe} tition, one to five teams are selected to move forward* to the worldwide finals, i This year’s one-day competition featured 244 teams from countries that included the United’ States, ireland, the Philippines, Israel, Taiwan, ‘China, Malaysia, and Japan, Teams took command of a large stage with four video screens and micro. phones at both ends. Each team had 12 minutes o present its accomplishments to a pagel of judges tha) included the company’s top/15 executives; teams that? went over time lost points (Table 1-2 shows the scor.” ing form). The presentations were well rehearsed: and proceeded like clockwork, with many teams having committed their entire presentations to- memory—very impressive considering all of the\gre sentations were given in English, a language some cf the team members didn’t even speak. The TCS teams generally consist of 10 to 12 members, all of whom participate in the presente tion, Teams are awarded points in the following seven categories: 1L Project selection. The project must be tied to Me torola’s key inatives and should use specific cu tomer input. Projects should last from three «121 months. "Adapted from: L. A. Kaus (1997), "Motorola Brings Fairy Tales to Life,” Quality Progress, XK6):25=28,/TABLE1-2 1996 TCS Team Competition Scoring Form. ‘Organization: eam Name: Date ‘eyietiniveSivsigma quel Prot improvemnont Product, manufacturing, and “Total cycle time’ Participative management environment leadership. Score Weighted Cuegory Citera/Recanmended Distribution 91010 Welghr Score Projetselection + Criteria and a methodology for selection evident. (t8ppints) Project clearly defined. 30%, * Aggressive goals with linkage to Key initiatives established 20% 10 + Customer identified. Customer requirements and ‘metrics defined. 40% Teamork © Team participation that demonstrates commitment to (C8 points) the project 20% * Appropriate team membership evident inthe improvement process 40% 10 + Participative practices reinforced 20% Analysis techniques + Thorough and appropriate analysis techniques used sad “MW poiats) understood 50% + Benchmarking of best practices evident 30% 20 ‘+ Innovative use of fundamental tools andlor progression 10 more advanced toc, Team growth evident 20% lemedios + Alternative solutions seriously explored 30% points) + Remedies consistent with the analysis 20% 20 + Implementation plans thorough and well defined 20% + Innovation in the remedies orimplementation evident 30% ‘salts * Veridied improvements measured favorably against the ‘D points) difficulty of achievernent 40% + Ancillary effects identified and characterized 20% 20 + Customer satisfaction results evideat 40%, siluionazaton + Unprovenents sustainable and pecmaeat 40% S points) * Solutions adopted by and itom other groups 40%. 1s + Team’ grovth in the problom-salving process evident 20% sentation * Clear and concise 60% | points) ‘+ _Lmprovement process followed 40%. as Weighted score Deductions (-1 point for each minute over £2) ‘Total team score 2, Teammrork. The team must handle the project from se- Jection through implementation, Partiipation of cus- tomers andlor suppliers is encouraged and ali tear ‘members are expected to contribute to all phases of the project 3. Analysis, Analysis techniques used should support ‘appropriate analytical processes forthe project, lead to. root case, identify alternative solutions, and re- flect innovative use of analytical tools, 4. Remeiiies. The team must defend its choice of reme- ‘ies from the alternatives, and remedies should be consistent with the analysis. Creative and innovative solutions are especially noted. 5. Results, Results should be compated to the original ‘goals and requirements. The degree of achievement ‘of these goalsis considered by the judges. 6, Institutionalization, Teams must demonstrate that improvement is maintainable over time. They areencouraged ta adapt solutions from other teams and Spread their success throughout the company. Teams should emerge as leaders in their own right. 17. Presentatiou, Presentations must be clear and con- cise, with overhead graphs and charts that are clear and easy to read. Listeners should be able to eas- lly follow the team’s thinking through the entire process. IMPRESSIVE RESULTS ‘The accomplishments of these teams are truly im- Pressive. A team from Motorola's Automotive En ‘ergy and Controls group in Sequin, Texas, achieved a ‘savings of $1.8 million in 1996 by reducing polyimide delamination for electronic cireuits—an 85% im. provement in six months, Another cross-functional team from the come pany’s General Systems Sector in Hong Kong set out fo make the best cellular phone on the market in China and inerease production capacity by 50% in Just eight weeks, 1¢ also corrected a desiga problem ‘that prevented users from ending their phone calls ‘when closing the lower fap on the cellular phone. Motorola’ Land Mobile Product Sector in Schaumberg, Ilinois, created a cartoon character named Eugene and a site on the World Wide Web to help improve its responsiveness to the Motorola ser. vice station community. The team's work resulted in 86% growth in new-account setups, 99% improve. ment in cycle-time reduction, and 90% improvement in customer satisfaction. ‘THE REAL REWARD Even though team members are there to compete, the world-wide final is more than a competition--its 8 celebration, Its a way for Motorola to thank its em- ployees and vice versa. It's no coincidence that the 1996 worldwide competition was held at the Phoeni. cian in Scotisdale, Arizona, a five-star resort. To the presenters, the real prize was just being there and being a part of something so grand. ‘At Motorola, all the teams are considered win- nets. “We do say, and mean it, that everybody wins because you're here,” stated the Chief Executive Of. ficer (CEO). Following the competition, an awards banquet was held to honor all of the participants Company executives were-visible throughout, min. eling in conversation with team members and other guests. Afier dinner, each team was called up on Stage to be recognized and photographed with the President and CEO, These photos were just a few of some 2,000 pictures taken throughout the even! that will be compiled in a TCS yearbook for a. participants. The excitement and enthusiasm of thee Motorola employees was evident. “This is probably the grandest display of our efforts to be global anf the Way we manage and tiiink about our business"! ssid the CEO. He continued by saying that "hit event reflects all of the important aspects of th comporation.” The winner of this year’s customer satisfcties competition was a team irom & manufacturing plat in Boynton Beach, Florida, with a history of notewer thy quality improvements, The team had member, representing Motorola's Messaging, Information, tn) ‘Media Sector, and its goal was to develop and ingk* ment a low-cost, reliable packaging system lst demonstrates environmental leadership and corre problems identified by the team. ‘Team meal Tound $12 nilion in hidden packaging costs at identified three root causes: lack of Tick oct dards, stock outages, and inefficient reuse of mates als. After tackling each problem individually, team developed a standardized packaging tray cold be used to hold both finished pagers and ik ‘coming housing, It also created a central database, track packaging requirements. The result of thoir ei forts was a 29-cent-per-unit total cost reduction, ti ected to save $6.1 million in 1997. i AN OPEN INVITATION How o ate emles tae ea a contest? The TCS competition is open to all torola functional oF cross-functional teams, 98% which are self-forming. Since all team member zy required to participate in all phases of the pro ‘teams with representatives located around the we sely heavily oa e-mail, telephone, and other com nications technology. Motorola also reaiizes theo lenges of working with employees from dite cowntsies and offers cultucal diversity classes toh employees prepare for these differences. For every tcam that enters the competi there are numerous others that have also made nificant accomplishments, perhaps on asm scale. Roughly 40% of Motorola’ teams go ot present. Many of the teams choose not to com but participate in what Motorola calls “ days” at their facilities, where teams set up ba and display their accozmplishments to facility a agers and co-workers, E To help them learn how to solve quality Jems as a team, Motorola employees are 4 i } 3i ality techniques and teamwork. Additionally, teams, particularly those in Asia, have big sis- or big brothers who act as sponsors for newly Sened teams. These sisters and brothers are more | apelenced workers who help direct the teams and “gir expertise. The company also has TCS process ‘that describe quality tools, and one of Mo- lak business units even developed a CD-ROM “Gaining tool that exeates graphs and visual aids to aa ‘presentations. Finally, Motorola Univer- ‘ay offers quality training in areas such as quality “pres ‘and teamwork. NEVER GOOD ENOUGH “Takesping with Motorola's philosophy of continuous, “deprovement, the competition has changed over the "eon, For instance, in past years, all teams that made “ito the worldwide finals were presented either a igld or siver award, but the silver award winners, * geot avay feeling like losers, even though they were “aly winners. So in 1996, after recognizing each tram for its work, the company gave away one dia- nnond award to the overall winger. ‘To pinpoint sreas for improvement, team mem- ‘hs are usually surveyed at the worldwide competi- _slonor suggestions. Some of the regional competitions ‘uve been shifted to different countries to allow more ngloyees to experience other cultures. While the ‘vents have been refined so that they are good for the employees, they have been designed to tetain the ‘eel and the extitement, SHARING THE WEALTH Motorola encourages other companies to learn from is swcess. This year, Motorola extended the TCS competition to its suppliers and for the first time held afoxmal supplier contest in conjunction with the Mo- torola competition. Fifty-one supplier teams com- peted in three regional competitions, and the three ‘wimers participated in the worldwide supplier com- iioa, which was held the day prior to the TCS ‘ompettion. The winning team from Varitrontx pre~ seated at the Motorola competition as a showcase ‘eam, These supplier teams were eager to learn from Motorola; many of them had heard about quality ‘wocesies, but didn't know how to implement them ‘ntl Motorola stepped forward. Representatives from other countries, educators, focign government representatives, and customers ‘were also invited to attend the competition. Sun Mi- ccogystems started @ similar competition a few years / ‘ago based on TCS. Additionally, to help others learn about the process, Motorola offers quality briefings to the public through Motorola University that address total customer satisfaction, Motorola University Con- sulting and Training Sesvices offers quality briefings to the public that explain the six-sigma story, total cycle time reduction, and totsl customer satisfaction teams, Equally impressive as the competition is the company’s ability to motivate its employees. It has much to do with Motorola's culture. The company stresses the importance of trust before implementing something similar to TCS. Teams and empowerment ‘vill not work without trust. The employees have 10 trust management and they have to trust each other. Without trust, it just won't work. A team from ‘Dublin, ireland was motivated by the opportunity to show others in Motorola what they had accom- plished, And, the chance to win a trip didn’t hurt. For ‘TCS team members, tis an opportunity to get away, meet new people, and learn, but also to have fun, ‘The day following the contest is usually set aside for recreation, which this year included hiking, rafting, mountain biking, and goll Whether employees are executives or factory ‘workers, Motorola works to show them that they are valued. The TCS competition only reinforces these feelings. The experience emphasizes even more the value of each individual in the company. Finalists say that they treasure every one of their TCS mem- ores, Its worth remembering time and again—even forever. QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION \ 1. What is the most important asset of a company? How does Motorola ensure maintaining this asset? 2 Describe the role of cross-functional teams in the process of quality improvement. What are some ac tions taken by Motorola to promote such teams? 43. Discuss the advantages to be gained by companies conducting TCS-type competitions. 4 Discuss the importance of organizational eslture and its adoption at all levels in striving for quality improvement, 5. Discuss how Motorala motivates its employees to strive for continuous improvement. ‘The concept of employee-empowerment is an im- portant part of process control and improverent. How is this accomplished at Motorola? 77. What type of on organizational structure woutd best ‘promote the quality activities at Motorola?