Motorola’s approach to process

design & their achievement in

reaching high quality &
performance

By
- Kazi Irfan
1
Motorola history
 The foundation for Motorola was laid by an resident of
Illinois, state in north-central United States. Paul V. Galvin
& Edward Stewart starting with a storage battery in 1921.

 Galvin, then began working on a new car radio receiver in

1929 & introduced the world's first commercially feasible
car radio. The product was named Motorola, a combination
of the words of "motor" and "victrola."

 Later, the company created a hand-held, two-way radio,

known as the "handie-talkie," for the U.S. military.

2
Motorola’s history..
 They made the equipment that carried the first words from
the moon in 1969.

 They led the communications revolution with the first

commercial handheld cellular phone in 1983 and the first
all-digital high-definition television (HDTV) in 1990.

 Motorola invented the Six Sigma quality improvement

process in 1986. Six Sigma provided a common worldwide
language for measuring quality and became a global
standard.

3
Motorola’s product
It includes;
 Software-enhanced wireless telephone, Two-way radio,
messaging and Satellite communications products and
systems, Networking and Internet-access products for
consumers, Network operators and commercial, Government
and Industrial customers.

 Embedded semiconductor solutions for customers in the

consumer, Networking and Computing, Transportation, and
Wireless communications markets.

 Electronic systems for Automotive communications,

Manufacturing systems, Computer & consumer markets.

4
Steps taken by Motorola
 In1981, the Motorola Training and Education
Center (MTEC) was established, educating their
employees in quality process and participative
management skills.

 1986 benchmarking study revealed that while

Motorola made significant steps in quality, as they
could compete with the Japanese by creating
products that were of equal and higher quality. It
was out of this realization that the Six Sigma
quality initiative was born in them.
5
Motorola approach to
Process Design
• Identify the type of product or service : What is the purpose
of the process?
• Identify the customer : How does the process creates
customer satisfaction?
• Identify the supplier : What is our need & from where can
we get it?
• Identify the process : What steps or tasks are performed &
what are the i/p & o/p for each step?
• Mistake-proof the process : How to eliminate or simplify the
tasks & prevent defects & errors?
• Develop measurements and control & improvement goals :
How to evaluate the process & how to improve further?
6
High Quality achievement
 Motorola had a good process design, which focuses on the
prevention of poor quality by ensuring that goods & services
meet both external & internal customers.
 They had a Standardized process established, which had a
consistency in o/p.
 They use to get feedbacks from customer on regular basis,
which helped them in controlling & monitoring on process
which helps in achieving a high quality product.
 Before Six Sigma, quality levels were measured in
percentages, or parts per hundred. Later when Motorola
invented Six Sigma to raise the bar and focus, the quality
debate was on parts per million, and in some cases, parts per
billion. Today, through Six Sigma Motorola’s quality target is
99.99966%, or 3.4 defects per million opportunities.
7
High Quality achievement
(Cont’d)
A common model of group collaboration at
Motorola is the use of cross-functional teams
to complete tasks. Workers from different
departments like Sales, Engineering, Market,
and R&D often combined to work jointly on
projects.

8
High Performance achievement
 Itis evident Motorola encourages creativity and
innovation from their employees, and this has
contributed greatly to the organization’s success.
 Because of cross-functional teams, cycle times
have reduced by 60%-70% in engineering and
manufacturing areas and 90%-95% in
administrative and service processes. They have
also seen that combining knowledge and diverse
perspectives of several departments often leads to
more creative solutions than traditional methods
9
High Performance
achievement (Cont’d)
 Motorola continues to pursue its comprehensive
learning strategy, the learning solutions to reach
all Motorolans with "the right knowledge, at the
right time, anywhere in the world".
 A key strategic element is providing tools for
instructional designers and subject matter experts
to easily create on-line learning.
 Motorola’s creative plan include employee
empowerment, participative management, team
collaboration, and innovative education and
training helped them in performing better.
10
Conclusion
Motorola’s step towards Quality & Six sigma
has clearly been a driving force behind
Motorola’s prosperity. Over the years,
Motorola has proven itself to be
revolutionary through their process design
which has helped them to achieve a
remarkable quality & performance.

11
References
 http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/751/Motor
ola-Inc-EARLY-HISTORY.html
 http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~kd636398/esp/Com
pany_Profile.doc
 http://www.qualitymag.com/CDA/Archives/cf
f7785824c38010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0
 www.motorola.com

12
THANK YOU

13