Using Time to Generate Corporate Renewal

Presents a preliminary evaluation of an extensive corporate renewal programme directly encompassing some 70 companies in the Swedish branch of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB). The renewal effort which is known as the T50 programme, is focused on reducing the total cycle times within most value adding chains including marketing, design, engineering and manufacturing. Preliminary results show that differences between companies are substantial with the leading companies well ahead of the corporate objective, while others have yet (after three years) only experienced minor improvements. Furthermore, the T50 concepts have been more difficult to apply to white‐collar work than anticipated which have contributed to limited success with respect to complete value‐adding chains. Describes and evaluates the T50 programme at corporate, company and workplace level and uses the programme history together with a national perspective to comment on the future of the programme.