Original Date: 01/24/1994
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Harris Semiconductor (now Intersil Corporation) is one of four business sectors of the Harris Corporation. With 12 domestic production areas located in five states, Harris Semiconductor is responsible for over $127 million in 1993 sales. This Harris sector produces standard, custom, and semi-custom integrated circuits and discrete products for analog, mixed-signal and power-control uses in commercial, military, and space-based operations. In addition to being a major semiconductor supplier for military and aerospace applications where signal processing and power control are pervasive, Harris’s worldwide strategic goal is to become the preferred supplier for these processing and control products in automotive, communication, computer, and industrial applications.

Harris has acquired and consolidated four companies since the late 1980s. This consolidation presented Harris with both substantial challenges and opportunities for growth. Challenges came in the form of assimilating many different company cultures, systems, and procedures into one single culture. Harris was successful in this effort, mainly by focusing on its total customer satisfaction (Quality First) philosophy. That same philosophy fostered the growth potential by bringing in and integrating new viewpoints and capabilities. The process and outcome of consolidation and assimilation were underlying factors in many of the presentations given to the BMP Survey Team.

The extent to which self-directed work teams have developed at Harris Semiconductor was another outstanding feature noted by the Survey Team. While other companies have addressed and pursued the concept of work teams, self-directed and otherwise, Harris has fostered an environment that encourages and supports them. This support includes training, more stringent hiring criteria, and almost continual communication between members of individual teams, different teams, and management and the teams.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS:
The following acronyms were used in this report:

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.