Motorola Six Sigma Analysis

Motorola six sigma technique and approach and a revisit to the golden days of Motorola’s pioneering six sigma method.

Abstract: This essay attempts to show how Motorola adopted six sigma methods in their organizational search for total quality management. A revisit in time allows us to have a historical perspective on how six sigma was integrated into Motorola quality programme and its transformational approach to quality management philosophy. Finally, there is an obvious need to understand why they adopted such strategy in managing their quality. Ⅰ
Motorola company was founded on September 25, 1928, based in Illinois. There were two individual who brought forth six sigma techniques in Motorola namely- Bill Smith & Mikel Harry. The term ‘‘six sigma’’ was coined by Bill Smith. From 1970 onwards Japanese manufacturing industry were intensely outperforming American manufacturing companies in terms of

Ⅱ
Six sigma to succeed it needs a top down approach and it was claimed by Harry that ‘‘it begins by first dividing the quality pie into comprehensive compartments, or dimensions, that form a holistic focus at all levels of the business enterprise.’’ There are other key players in six sigma program and they are known by ‘‘master black belts,’’ ‘‘black belts’’ and ‘‘green belts’’. Black belts are project team leaders and green belts are member of project team. Therefore, the results achieved by Motorola by applying six sigma had tremendous influence in other organization as well (such as Honeywell, General electric). Motorola well known achievements after the implementation of six sigma sent a rippling effect for a decade ‘In 1986 Motorola invested an initial $25 million in training to implement the program. One year after the program was initiated, the company saved $250 million. Five-fold