The Evolution of Motorola's Global Financial Supply Chain Strategy

This paper charts the progress of Motorola’sglobal cash management strategy encompassingMotorola’s internal factories worldwide, Motorola’scustomers and suppliers, and partner banks in the US,Europe and Asia. It explains how their financial supplychain strategy has evolved over a period of over thirtyfive years from a relatively simple internally focusedsystem into a fully integrated global system thatenables the flow of currency and associated foreignexchange processes to mirror the Just-In-Time (JIT)flow of products throughout the supply chain. Theperformance of the finance systems is analyzed usingdetailed statistical techniques including six-sigma. Thestrategy is characterized by incremental changespunctuated by significant shifts in the strategy,organizational design and information systems. It isdemonstrated that the financial processes that connectMotorola with its suppliers enable the supply chain tobehave more like a single, cohesive unit rather than acollection of autonomous organizational units.