Motorrola Inc
Motorola Inc. Questions: 1. What are the key success factors for Motorola’s ASIC division? * The opening of a new production facility in Chandler was an opportunity for them to make changes within the division. * New plant floor layout that was designed for a JIT philosophy. * Products were able to move from cell to cell instead across large distances on the production floor. * The fast turnaround time for new IC’s which allowed items to be shipped within 3 weeks from the time design was accepted. The work flow was controlled through a pull system with designated areas where limited inventory was allowed between work stations. This kept excess inventory from piling up in the workstation. * Motorola involved the customer in the middle of the development cycle. This resulted in an involved customer relationship. Motorola focused on its customers rather than on its products. 2 Does a traditional standard cost system address these key success factors? Thetraditional standard cost system was designed for old style or traditional production system.
The dynamic changes, rapid volume production, number of different outputs of the ASIC division don’t fit into the framework ofthe currentaccounting system. The traditional system was a functional based accounting system, while ASIC needs a product oriented accounting system. In many case functional based accounting would not be a meaningful measure for ASIC division. Currently, when variance was detected it was too late. Tied the variance to a specific product or to pinpoint the cause and correct the problem was not feasible under the traditional system.
The larger time frame of monthly variance in this quick phase production system failed to account for the accumulation of positive and negative variance. 3 What are good measures of these key success factor? * Deciding on a measure or a scale for asuccess factors for any industry a hard enough task. As an industry outsider, deciding on the base measure for success of adynamic production plant is a daunting task. Particularly, setting a standard that is reasonable in terms achievability andreasonability is difficult. Industry specifics will vary for each and every measures and largely depend on each product. Broader standards, defined by corporate strategy will be the best way to approach setting the measure for ASIC division. Setting the standard against which the division performance will be measured, should not come from one group stakeholders alone. It should be a result of technical and business branches of the ASIC working together. It should be a conscious agreement between the engineers who understand the production needs and the managers who understand the business needs. Flexibility of is a must for these measures. Good measure always has of feedback loop which helps to fine tune the set standards. How would you control the plant using these measures and current structure of the plant? * The structure of the Chandler plant was designed to meet the needs of the unique custom designing production requirement. The control system should be designed for each cell of the nine cells in this plant. Since each cell is not uniformly connected to each other, the control should recognize the input and out put expectations of each cell. For example, the heat sink should not be punished for low volume since all products does not need to go through that cell.
On the same token, the cells that handled all products such as assembly preparation and warehousing and shipping should be given enough consideration for the volume they handle. Real-time data is necessity for the success of control system, not just because the speed of production but also to identify and correct the source of variance. Along with this “cell” based control system,a product based (using only the cells that were used in that particular process) control system should be employed to measure the performance of each product category.
