HONEYWELLThe OrganizationHoneywell International Inc. is a global company specializing in a number of technology-intensive businesses including aerospace, automotive, and control systems. The company's strengths include its strong brand name, large market capitalization, and leadership in product research and development. Formed through a merger between AlliedSignals and Honeywell, Honeywell International created the Six Sigma Plus (SSP) program, a quality program designed to meet its specific needs including its E-Business and less-explicit processes. In particular, the SSP program is a comprehensive customer-focused quality program created by combining Six Sigma, Malcolm Baldridge, and the European Foundation quality models.AnalysisHoneywell's primary challenge is to sustain the Six Sigma Plus program in a meaningful and beneficial way. There areseveral underlying factors that are critical to the success of the SSP program. Honeywell must be sensitive of these factorsand act accordingly to ensure that the SSP program continues its momentum and remains relevant to the corporation'sstrategic goals. These critical success factors include:Top management commitment and focus: Management must be clear and visible in its support of initiatives. It must send astrong and consistent message to the organization, ensuring that its claims are backed by actions and sufficiently allocatedresources. Without the full support of top management the front-line supervisors and employees will not take ownership ofthe program, making the initiative unsustainable.A common reason for failure of new corporate initiatives is lack of or inconsistent of support by top management.Insufficient allocation of resources leaves employees frustrated and incapable of effectively implementing the program. Italso sends the message that the effort is not important to top management; rather it is simply another management "buzzword".Diversion of top management's attention from an initiative can also occur as a natural response to troubles in the businessenvironment. There is strong evidence to support this in Honeywell's case, following its failed merger attempts with GEand the September 11 terrorist attacks. This led to financial difficulties, which consequently redirected managementattention from the SSP program.Alignment with corporate strategy: This issue goes back to an initiative's relevance to the company's long-term and strategicgoals. Any initiative that is adopted must be assessed to ensure that it is a tool that helps management fill the gap betweenits current situation and its strategic objectives. For example, if the strategic goal of the company is to primarily establishitself as the highest quality manufacturer of a product, it should implement relative quality programs. Initiatives that are notaligned with this primary goal will only divert precious resources and attention away from the objective and do not affectthe bottom-line. In developing a quality program that meets its specific business needs, Honeywell seems to have addressedthis issue. Honeywell's challenge however, is to reassess its strategy and ensure that the program is still relevant to its goals.Planning: Sustaining the SSP program also depends on comprehensive plans that consider the short-term and long-termobjectives as well as resource and personnel required to achieve the goals. If too little resources are allocated, theimplementation will be ineffective and targets will not be met. If the objectives are set too aggressively or too muchresource is allocated to the program, the company runs the risk of diverting attention from the effort when problems in thebusiness or economic conditions arise. This may be one of the reasons why Honeywell International lost its focus on theprogram during the unfavorable conditions in the early 21st century.AlternativesThe following alternatives are some possible future courses of action for Honeywell International regarding its managementof quality programs.1.Honeywell could abandon the SSP program and apply a simpler quality management program that concentrates onmaintaining the current levels of quality and efficiency. This solution would reduce the complexity of the qualitymanagement system and free-up resources that could be used elsewhere. However, without the SSP program, the companywill have a difficult time maintaining the current position of the company. The benefits of the SSP program will also notextend to and any new products and processes that will be developed in the future.2.The second alternative is to reassess the business and its strategies and adopt only the portion of the SSP program that ismost relevant. For example, Honeywell could decide to maintain only the Six Sigma quality management system that ismore relevant to manufacturing processes, which is Honeywell's core business. This solution again reduces the complexityand resource requirements of the management system while leveraging the benefits of a proven program that it already hasin place. However, before the merger, Honeywell and AlliedSignals both showed tremendous benefits from the HQV andSix Sigma programs, respectively. Therefore, abandoning either program can result in potential opportunity costs forHoneywell International.3.A third alternative is to adopt a new quality management system that while being less complex, promises to offer the samebenefits as the SSP program. A major disadvantage of this action is that in doing so, Honeywell International will beabandoning its investments and the expertise in an already established program. Many companies that take such actions endup wasting time and resources on various programs without getting the opportunity to reap any benefits. In such companies,the employees often loose confidence in the leadership and fail to fully cooperate or take full ownership of the program.Therefore, this alternative would not be advisable to Honeywell International.4.The last alternative involves continuation of the current programs with better awareness and attention to the criticalsuccess factors mentioned earlier.Recommendation and ImplementationThe course of action recommended to Honeywell International is to continue with the SSP program. However, continuedsurvival and success of the program requires that Honeywell address and correct several key issues.First, Honeywell's top management must remain as a predominant and visible figure in advocating and promoting the SSPprogram. This will ensure that the employees continue to see the importance of the program. Management must alsoensure that it continues to recognize and reward the key successes of the program. Honeywell's management shouldcontinue the Quest for Success program, which was designed to achieve this goal.Second, Honeywell should set short-term and long-term objectives for the program and communicate them clearly with theorganization. This will help clarify the roles and responsibilities of the employees and eliminate ambiguities. Managementshould ensure that it does not set objectives that are too aggressive. In doing so, Honeywell will be spreading its resourcesthin. Consequently, when confronting difficulties it may divert its attention away from the SSP program, which will havelong-lasting devastating consequences for the effectiveness of the program.Third, the top management must reassess its business strategies and ensure that the SSP initiatives concentrate on the mainobjectives. Aligning the goals of the program to the business strategy is helps the bottom-line and ensures that limitedresources are properly allocated and used where they are most effective.