Otis Elevators Case Study
Executive Summary
Dear Mr. Bousbib: These are exciting and challenging times at Otis Elevator Company. We are currently the largest manufacturer, installer, and servicer of elevators, escalators, and moving walkways in the world.[1] Just two years ago we completed the second largest acquisition in company history by adding Amtech Elevator Services. This acquisition has proven to be a key strategic maneuver as we have eliminated an industry rival while increasing the company’s revenue, operating profit, operating profit margin, and customer base. Our company’s successful history, entrepreneurial mindset and strong process focus puts Otis ahead of the curve. Most recently Otis has introduced the e*Logistics program. This program will connect our sales, factory, and field operations through the Web to create a single global supply chain. With the implementation of the e*Logistics program we are moving towards our goal of becoming recognized as a leader in service excellence among all companies – not just elevator companies – worldwide. Otis faces 4 main challenges concerning its new IT: • Cultural challenge - Getting everyone on board with a process change when normally it is used to product changes. • Technical challenge – Delivering a system to 20,000+ computers and making sure it works everywhere. • Deployment challenge – Otis occupies 200 countries, 1,800+ locations, and has 4,000+ field supervisors and salespeople in places with different languages, cultures and environments. • Managerial challenge – The challenge here is to standardize the process while retaining the key ingredient to success of the company which is the local empowerment and accountability for results. Managing the trade-off of standardizing processes globally while retaining the local empowerment, motivation and accountability will be an especially difficult task. The challenges we face will come with a price, but if there are no trade-offs we will never
Dear Mr. Bousbib: These are exciting and challenging times at Otis Elevator Company. We are currently the largest manufacturer, installer, and servicer of elevators, escalators, and moving walkways in the world.[1] Just two years ago we completed the second largest acquisition in company history by adding Amtech Elevator Services. This acquisition has proven to be a key strategic maneuver as we have eliminated an industry rival while increasing the company’s revenue, operating profit, operating profit margin, and customer base. Our company’s successful history, entrepreneurial mindset and strong process focus puts Otis ahead of the curve. Most recently Otis has introduced the e*Logistics program. This program will connect our sales, factory, and field operations through the Web to create a single global supply chain. With the implementation of the e*Logistics program we are moving towards our goal of becoming recognized as a leader in service excellence among all companies – not just elevator companies – worldwide. Otis faces 4 main challenges concerning its new IT: • Cultural challenge - Getting everyone on board with a process change when normally it is used to product changes. • Technical challenge – Delivering a system to 20,000+ computers and making sure it works everywhere. • Deployment challenge – Otis occupies 200 countries, 1,800+ locations, and has 4,000+ field supervisors and salespeople in places with different languages, cultures and environments. • Managerial challenge – The challenge here is to standardize the process while retaining the key ingredient to success of the company which is the local empowerment and accountability for results. Managing the trade-off of standardizing processes globally while retaining the local empowerment, motivation and accountability will be an especially difficult task. The challenges we face will come with a price, but if there are no trade-offs we will never