March 5, 2001
To Whom It May Concern:
Over the years, Milliken & Company has had numerous contacts with the Motorola Corporation. My contact with Charles Loew started when he was with the education group of Motorola. I worked directly with Charles, as he assisted an effort by the Milliken Chemical Division of Milliken, regarding mapping of our new product introduction process.
Starting with the basic outlining of this effort to the final conclusions and metrics that we have used to measure our improvement from this mapping process, Charles was an integral part of our efforts.
While the basics of process mapping seem simple, the actual implementation we found to be very difficult. This was caused by many strong opinions from different functions within the organization. Charles Loew did an outstanding job of focusing the large group on the task to be done and built a consensus from the entire group that we were on the correct path.
The final results of this mapping process have been impressive, and we have significantly improved the workflow through the entire process and have substantially reduced cycle time for new product introductions.
My experiences with Charles would allow me to give him an unqualified recommendation to work with companies in corporate education efforts.
Sincerely yours,
G. Ashley Allen
President Chemical & Industrial Specialties Division
GAA/lhe
