Littelfuse Employess ‘Act and Think As One’
Cover Story
By Joanna Miller   
Thursday, 14 July 2005
smc Chicago-based Littelfuse Inc. spent its first 75 years establishing itself as the No. 1 fuse producer worldwide. Recently, however, the company set a new goal.
Chicago-based Littelfuse Inc. spent its first 75 years establishing itself as the No. 1 fuse producer worldwide. Recently, however, the company set a new goal.
Chicago-based Littelfuse Inc. spent its first 75 years establishing itself as the No. 1 fuse producer worldwide. Recently, however, the company set a new goal.

For the past five years, Littelfuse says, the company has worked to extend its world leadership position to the broader circuit protection market.

Littelfuse now has the broadest product portfolio of any circuit protection manufacturer, it says, providing customers with expertise in seven different circuit protection technologies.

According to David Samyn, vice president and general manager of electronics, the possibilities in this market are endless.

“This is definitely the next horizon,” Samyn explains. “The widespread use of electronic devices presents increasing opportunities for circuit protection products. “As electronic devices become more powerful and complex, they become more vulnerable to hazards that cannot be protected by just one device,” he adds. For instance, he notes, a mobile phone can have up to six or seven different protection points.

“If you're walking on carpet in the winter and build up an electrostatic charge in your body before you touch the keyboard buttons on a mobile phone, the shock from the finger to the phone, without circuit protection, could damage the internal circuitry of the phone, possibly causing significant damage,” he says. “The insertion of the headsets headset jack can also create an electrostatic discharge causing the same damage to the phone. Charging the mobile phone via an unprotected car charger can overheat a mobile phone's battery,” he continues. “Mobile phones can use up to 30 tiny Littelfuse components to provide protection against these electrical transients.”

In cars, the power windows, GPS, stereos, phones, speed controls and airbags are all operated by electronic systems that need circuit protection, Samyn says.

Currently, the company sells its products to OEMs such as DaimlerChrysler, Ford and GM, and Tier I suppliers such as Delphi and Lear Corp.

Littelfuse is also active in the industrial market.

“Every manufacturing facility or commercial building anywhere in the world has an electrical system that receives power from the local electrical utility and distributes it throughout the building,” Samyn notes.

“This system needs fuses or other circuit protection devices to protect the integrity of the electrical equipment connected to it and, most importantly, to safeguard human inhabitants,” Samyn continues. “Our components are utilized to protect personnel from electrical hazards and prevent electrical fires that could burn the factory down.”

'Aggressive and Forward Thinking'
According to Dennis Craig, director of global operations, the company has grown in the past five years through a combination of business development, acquisitions and organic efforts. “We are now the world leader in the broad category of circuit protection,” he emphasizes.

He says Littelfuse, as a whole, has begun to implement a strategy process that Samyn and his team first developed for the electronics division, which is the company's largest.

“We have defined for ourselves a very aggressive and forward-thinking strategy and established the mountain to climb over the next five years,” Craig explains. “We've done this through linking all the resources in the company and ensuring every person is dedicated and motivated by this idea.”

Littelfuse employs 5,500 people at its locations worldwide. It operates manufacturing facilities in the United States, Mexico, Europe, China and the Philippines. “It's a challenge to take all those people and establish a common goal,” Samyn says.

“We developed a plan that sought to help everyone understand what their individual part to play is in the overall company goal. The theme is ‘the Power of One.’ It's a strategic plan that takes us across several technologies.

“We said, 'OK, in order for us to achieve world leadership across these technologies, there are a few critical things we have to do better than anyone else,'” he continues.

As Samyn explains, the company needed to be “more global than any company in our competitive realm, especially with regard to Asian competitiveness.

“We need to leverage the brand of Littelfuse and take the brand currently known as the world leader in fuses to become the world leader in all circuit protection technology,” he says. “We need to develop our capacity as the leader in providing solutions to our customers’ circuit protection issues.”

Thinking As One
The message Littelfuse wants to convey to the market, Craig says, is that whatever type of circuit protection a customer needs, Littelfuse has the best solution because it offers all the technologies under one roof.

“The message to employees is that, 'Whether you're a manufacturing operator on the shop floor in Des Plaines or any other U.S., Mexican, Asian or European facility, you know your job is to establish the company as a world leader,” Craig emphasizes.

“I can't overstate the excitement throughout the company about our strategy. It harnesses all this horsepower down to the individual level and allows employees to understand what they're doing and how it impacts the business and our customer base,” he continues.

As Samyn explains, this strategy has also led Littelfuse to evolve from a regional to a global company – one that is strongly linked to global activities.

“We have 5,500 people all over the world that act and think as one,” he says. The company has also made the move to lean principles and Six Sigma in the past 14 months.

“This allows us to be able to manage around the world to a common set of best-practice elements,” Craig says. “Each location is tightly linked back to our corporate strategy. Each plant is not thinking about its own metrics. They know how to map back to what the customer cares about.”

All Littelfuse manufacturing operations are ISO 9001:2000 certified, Craig adds, and the company is globally committed to green practices. In addition, the automotive manufacturing operations are also TS 16949 certified.

“That's what people expect from a global manufacturing organization,” he says.
 
< Previous Story   Next Story >