Dr. Bruce Munro, AM
12 Jessica Gardens,
St Ives, NSW Australia, 2075
1st March 2001
Dear Charles,
You have asked me for a note on the work that you did with me in CSR Limited. It follows.
I retired from my position as a senior executive in CSR Limited, a major Australian owned public company, almost three years ago. For the last seven years of my career with CSR I worked as a Quality Manager, initially within the Wood Panels Division, then as General Manager, Quality for CSR Limited and finally within Sugar Division. These were the days when CSR committed itself to continuous improvement.
CSR's approach was to look for those companies recognised by the worldwide Quality movement as having superior Quality Tools and Techniques. Motorola's cross-functional process mapping and cycle time reduction, were the two such processes used most often in CSR. It was Charles Loew, working as a Motorola consultant who introduced these processes to CSR and who worked closely with and trained many of the Quality Managers in CSR in the application of these processes.
Cross Functional Process Mapping was used to reduce cycle time, error rate, manning and costs in processes such as:
- Order to Remittance
- Purchase order to payment
- Monthly reporting against budget
- Annual budgeting
The Cross Functional Process Mapping process as applied involved representatives from every part of the process in determining the 'As-is', 'Should be' and 'Could be'. This inclusiveness was in contrast to other similar processes and seen to be an advantage within CSR. In all instances major improvements were achieved with some processes approaching 'best in class' at that time.
Yours Sincerely,
Bruce Munro
