個案資料

The newly appointed director of the project dedicated to reducing product development time for AT&T's Transmission Systems Business Unit (TSBU) is trying to decide how best to sustain the momentum of its Achieving Process Excellence (APEX) teams. During the past three years, APEX teams helped reduce TSBU's product interval 50%--an accomplishment that contributed to TSBU's receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Now motivation and expectations for continued improvement are high. The case describes the launching of APEX, its evolution, and the current challenges facing the product development organization. Details support a discussion of the elements required to launch and sustain an improvement program, including metrics, goal setting, management's role, and methodological approaches for problem solving.

• Branding
• Market research
• Cross-functional management
• Incubators
• Operations strategy
• Community development
• Strategic positioning
• Process management
• Economics
• Quality control
• Quality management
• Interpersonal communication
• Cause marketing
• Strategy execution
• Teams
• Product development
• Hiring and recruitment
• Process design