Analog Devices Inc Case Study Solution

INTRODUCTION

This case study is concerning Analog Devices Inc , a leading American manufacturer of integrated circuits. Headquartered in Norwood ,Massachusetts it specializes in data conversion (analog and digital) and signal processing technology. It elaborates ADI's journey through the years 1981 - 1995 and takes into account the growth , peak and turbulent times that the company has gone through. As is the case with business environments , they are dynamic in nature and therefore require consistent monitoring of the industry in cognizance with different management tools to implement change as a consequence of coping with the changes in external and internal environments .

SUMMARY OF THE CASE

Founded by Raymond Stata and Mathew Lorber

Half Life Concept

b. Identifying the CSF's

c. Developing a Scorecard

Half Life Concept

Quoting from the case study - "Schneiderman believed that any defect level, subjected to legitimate QIP, decreases at a constant rate. " The result therefore is that every process can experience a 50 percent diminution in defects at a consistent time interval. The conceptual basis for the half-life theory is that the improvement teams identify the root causes of defects, rank them in order of importance, then propose, design, test, and implement solutions using the Plan-Do-Check-Act or 'PDCA' cycle. The team continues to cycle around the learning loop until the root causes of most of the defects are corrected, then moves to the next most important source of defects.

Identifying the CSF's

Utilizing the 5 year plan as tool , the critical success factors were identified :

a. Innovative products

b. High quality products

c. Be a reliable and responsible supplier

They were determined keeping in mind customer demands with realistic expectations of each measure's half-life. He also proposed reductions such as dropping process defect levels from 5,000 PPM in 1987 to fewer than 10 PPM by 1992.

Developing a

C. How would a company develop the half-life for different processes? Half-lives vary across processes and functions. The given figure summarizes the relationship Schneiderman hypothesized between the technical and organizational complexity of a process and its improvement half-life. Comparatively simple processes like the functioning of a single piece of equipment on the factory floor were found to have half-lives on the order of a few months. Complex processes like product development had half lives on the order of a few years. Improvement per cycle and the number of cycles per month depend on the technological and organizational complexity of the process to be improved. Improvement per cycle will be large and the improvement cycle will be rapid for simple processes where experiments can be implemented rapidly and the results observed immediately, cause and effect are easily discerned, the process is well understood, problem solving teams involve fewer people from fewer functional backgrounds, and few organizational boundaries and layers are crossed. Conversely, improvement per cycle will be lower and cycle time will be longer for processes where experiments are difficult and time consuming, the process is poorly understood, problem solving involves coordination and cooperation of many people with diverse skills and interests, and multiple organizations within and outside the firm are