E-Z-GO 2004 Annual Report Download - page 9

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For the 11th consecutive year, Bell Helicopter was named the industry
leader in customer support in ProPilot magazine’s annual survey. We’ve
further cultivated our customer focus through programs such as our
Chairman’s Award for Innovation, which celebrates employees whose cre-
ativity will directly impact Textron’s growth. In just four years since the
program’s inception, we have recognized more than 120 employees
around the world for their innovative products that will generate nearly
$100 million in near-term sales.
We continue to strengthen our marketing competencies and deepen our
customer partnerships. Our integrated effort to build both customer
relationships and growth capabilities includes comprehensive customer
satisfaction and loyalty measurement processes. In addition, we have
implemented – and continue to enhance – our rigorous new approach to
customer segmentation. Together, these enable us to better understand
and manage the total customer experience.
Talent Development Textron’s highly talented workforce makes it
possible for us to drive future growth and help customers win.
We redesigned our talent assessment processes to elevate performance
and facilitate talent mobility, career pathing and succession planning –
from technical and supervisory positions through our most senior levels.
In addition, we unveiled a variety of new enterprise-wide programs and
tools to help our employees better manage their careers. These tools also
help our current and aspiring managers develop competencies that are
critical to the advancement of our strategic priorities well into the future.
We have revamped our Performance Management Process to help develop
the skills required to achieve our vision and ensure that our people are
focusing on – and accountable for – the activities that matter most as
they grow and advance within the enterprise.
World-Class Processes We are systematically developing and
deploying world-class processes to drive performance improvements
and inspire future growth.
Textron Six Sigma We have achieved substantial savings through our
Black Belt and Green Belt programs since the initiative’s inception in
February 2002. As we create a fully engaged Textron Six Sigma
culture, we’ve trained nearly 700 Black Belts and more than 2,200
Green Belts, and have repatriated nearly 200 Black Belts into the
Textron workforce. Our Black Belts have helped us implement our New
Product & Service Introduction process under which all new products are
being brought to market.
We continue to master the elements of Textron Six Sigma and in 2005
will broaden the use of Lean tools to further accelerate our efforts.
We expect to make significant progress as we work to rapidly drive out
waste and reallocate resources toward growth opportunities.
Supply Chain Management We are aggressively managing the supply
chain, optimizing our global footprint in order to improve efficiencies,
drive savings and propel growth. We also established enterprise-wide
commodity teams focused on areas such as steel, plastics, castings,
forgings, machined parts and electrical supplies.
We deployed in-country sourcing centers in Poland, China and Mexico
and last year launched our new Global Technology Center (GTC) in
India staffed with local engineers who provide extensions to our U.S.
and European business unit design and engineering teams. Through the
increased “uptime” enabled by our teams at the GTC, we are able to
bring products to market more quickly and efficiently.
Shared Services We’ve created internal Shared Service organizations in
Information Technology, Finance and Human Resources to address crit-
ical business needs more efficiently and cost effectively than ever before.
We are currently executing an enterprise IT consolidation effort,
which has already yielded annual savings of well over $40 million.
We’ve integrated all Textron IT networks, enabling us to share informa-
tion systems to drive business results – including the deployment
of enterprise-wide solutions such as PeopleSoft, SAP, Hyperion and
Captura. As one of our most critical investments over the coming
2004 was a very good year for Textron. We exceeded our earnings and
cash flow targets as we continued to invest in market-leading products,
services and technologies. We delivered shareholder returns that rank
among the highest in our category. And through the strategic, decisive
steps we’ve taken in the four years since our transformation journey began,
we’ve fundamentally changed the very core and culture of the company.