Quality

Our Quality Vision

We are committed to quality in all of our processes:

• A quality-first mindset governs all UTC employee actions.
• External and internal customers receive innovative products and services that completely satisfy life cycle requirements.
• Quality improvement is the job of every UTC employee.

ACE mission statement

What is ACE?

UTC is committed to Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE). ACE is our proprietary operating system to ensure world-class quality in our products and processes.

With its relentless focus on increasing efficiency and reducing waste, ACE is integral to the company's performance model. Facilities worldwide are using the operating system to improve quality and customer satisfaction while lowering cost.

ACE is built on three main elements:

• Culture and philosophy based on the teaching of the late Yuzuru Ito, the company's advisor on quality methodologies. This is institutionalized in the new Ito Foundation training program.
• A set of tools that helps the organization identify process improvement opportunities, solve problems and assist with decision making processes.
• The competency, commitment and involvement of the entire organization.

ACE is implemented on the micro level, with employees who are trained and empowered to implement the standard processes across the company. Through a rigorous, data-driven process assessed by internal assessors, employees and their organizations progress through the qualifying, bronze, silver and gold levels of ACE.

Ito Foundations

This is a three-day course that teaches managers the fundamentals of improving the quality of UTC products, services and business processes. Ito Foundations is a living tribute to the late Yuzuru Ito, UTC's quality advisor, who led quality efforts for Japan's Matsushita Electric (known in the U.S. as Panasonic) for decades. He was one of the world's foremost experts on quality and UTC's quality advisor from the late 1980s until his death in 2000.

Ito Foundations plays an integral role in UTC's drive to create the most educated workforce on the planet. These training sessions allow employees to pursue continuous education in areas that affect UTC's performance. Ito Foundations, along with UTC's Employee Scholar Program and our executive education program at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, is another example of the importance we place on personal development for all employees.