General Electric: Major Appliance Business Group - Case Study Example

In the early 1970s, MABG management viewed the dishwasher business as an issue despite its market share being over 20+% and its strong financial performance. Most of GE’s washers manufactured are different from other competitive models, and the dishwashers got criticized as they are heavy water users which translated into excess energy use. Following the quality issues, Jack Welch challenged MABG by proposing a simple fix on the dishwasher business in to make it efficient in operational standards.

As a result, thirteen members were put together to architect and implement a key step change (Project C) in the process, product, and workforce factors of GE’s dishwasher business. The changes included manufacturing changes and workforce changes as Nag Hambrick and Chen (2007) proposed.

In the case of manufacturing changes, Moeller, and his team proposed to redo the key Louisville dishwasher sections to fully complement and adopt a cellular approach on major production stages. The changes were to get integrated along with PermaTuf and door redesign. Additionally, the team proposed to pursue automation aggressively to reduce cost and improve quality along with product design modification according to the constraints and capabilities of the new process. There was also the integration of product testing within manufacturing to an entirely separate quality control organization. The proposed principle to focus on the Louisville dishwasher plant on the General Electric-Perma Tuf C product line is an appropriate way to achieve world-class leadership. It is because the concentration on process productivity, quality, and work-life quality will enhance production quality. The principle also aims at reducing the number of product parts in the plant from 4,000 to 800.

Workforce changes were also significant as part of Project C. The project’s team proposed to focus on the employee’s environment to improve their attitude toward their contribution to GE’s success in the dishwasher business. The process requires research on the employees’ attitudes toward the company’s environment and to measure the progress (Walter, 2010). Improving the employees’ environment will increase their production abilities on the new product (Rumelt, 2011); hence, an increased market acceptance will add revenue to the MAGB.

Therefore, following Project C, it will be easy to achieve the aims of being the worldwide dishwasher industry, and leadership in product profitability and quality. It is due to the objective of improving the product quality and working environment for the employees in the company. The manufacturing unit and the workforce are the key points for improving the Hotpoint unit. In this case, the Project C team will have positive implications and will help the company in becoming the best worldwide in the dishwasher industry.