E-Z-GO 2005 Annual Report Download - page 8

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Hurricane Katrina destroyed many homes and briefly stalled production at our two
New Orleans facilities. The Textron enterprise united to offer our employees and their
families a helping hand. They pulled together to get our business up and running in
record time – their efforts were simply inspiring.
6
Customer Focus
Our customer commitment underpins our every action and our
discipline of investing in innovative new customer solutions continues
to pay off. $2.5 billion – or more than 25 percent – of our 2005 sales
came from new products and services developed or launched since
our transformation began just five years ago.
Our Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Measurement System is
enabling our businesses to identify and execute against priority
customer loyalty drivers, strengthening our platform for growth. In
2005, both Cessna and Bell received top honors for customer
service and support in their respective categories from
Pro Pilot
magazine…
Bell having done so for more than a decade running.
Market orientation and customer focus will continue to be top
priorities as we take a broader view of our capabilities – enhancing
growth leadership, talent, process, systems and organizational
structures throughout the company.
Talented People
Textron’s future growth is directly linked to our ability to harness and
enhance the power and talent of our workforce.
We’ve strengthened our talent programs and processes to bring
added consistency and rigor. We are “building the bench” and
taking steps to ensure that we have the right people in the right jobs
at the right time. As part of this effort, we drove a 100 percent
improvement in filling approximately 80 percent of our top manage-
ment vacancies with internal appointments and promotions in 2005.
In 2005, we introduced Textron University – a virtual campus offering
a variety of learning opportunities for employees, from classroom-
style courses at leading universities to online workshops and
individual career development tools. Textron University provides
world-class learning programs in critical areas to help our people
develop the skills needed to achieve our business objectives and
meet our evolving needs. In its inaugural year, employees logged
more than 56,000 online training hours and approximately 1,600
employees participated in instructor-led courses.
World-Class Processes
Textron Six Sigma (TSS)
The breadth and depth of Textron Six Sigma Black Belts and Green
Belts are driving both significant progress and true cultural change.
Since launching the program in 2002, we’ve trained approximately
800 Black Belts, and more than 350 certified Black Belts have been
repatriated back into the Textron workforce – many of whom are in
critical positions driving key transformation efforts. We have also
trained 3,000 Green Belts. Overall, Textron’s Six Sigma efforts
generated more than 40 percent of our favorable cost performance
this year.
In 2005, we also accelerated the development and implementation
of Lean – a key element of Textron Six Sigma. One early yet powerful
example of Lean in action in 2005 was a 15 percent improvement in
direct labor productivity in E-Z-GO’s fleet golf car production.
Supply Chain Management
We’ve continued to enhance our Integrated Supply Chain (ISC)
strategies and processes, particularly in helping to offset the impact
of rising material costs that have affected many of our markets.
Our Global Technology Center (GTC) in Bangalore, India is already
contributing in a substantial way to the technology advancements
at our businesses. For example, since its launch in mid-2004, the
GTC has produced two winners of our prestigious Chairman’s Award
for Innovation.
In 2005, we expanded our ISC rotational leadership development
program and launched two comprehensive new curricula aimed
at our ISC and operations workforce – the Strategic Supply Chain
Management Program at Michigan State University and the
Operational Excellence Program at the University of Tennessee.
Shared Services
Our Information Technology, Finance and Human Resources shared
service centers continue to address vital operational needs. In 2005,
we established a new Infrastructure Center of Excellence to govern