Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management in Bentley

This essay elaborates on the key operation, logistics and supply chain management issues faced by the operations and supply chain management in Bentley which has its services in the United Kingdom. It explores the quality management and managing people in operation and supply chain of Bentley. A critical, detailed and relevant analysis of the triple bottom line also is highlighted.

Student ID Number
Programme Title
Module Title Understanding Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Module Code QAB020N502A
Module Convenor

Philip Cooper
Coursework Title
Bentley Essay
Academic Declaration:
Students are reminded that the electronic copy of their essay may be checked, at any point during their
degree, with Turnitin or other plagiarism detection software for plagiarised material.
Word Count Date Submitted 29/11/2018

Table of Contents
1.
Introduction..........................................................................................2
2. A brief overview of the organisation and critical review.................2
3. Analysis............................................................................................4
3.1 Quality management.......................................................................4
3.2 Managing people in operation and supply chains..........................6
3.3 Triple bottom line – Economic, environmental and social factors.7
4. Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................8
5. References......................................................................................10

1. Introduction
Operations and logistics are the bases of the supply chain management, and they are
one of the primary methods in which the organisation can improve the performance of the
business. A modified and better supply chain management is helpful for a company to gain a
competitive advantage over other organisations. This is because an improved supply chain
management and logistics operations will lead to faster production and faster delivery which
will result in better customer satisfaction. This is key to the process of improvement in
business and maximising the revenues of the company and to make the business grows fast
(Li, 2014). The purpose of this essay is to elaborate on the key operation, logistics and supply
chain management issues faced by the operations and supply chain management in Bentley
which has its services in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it seeks to identify and clarify how
the operation functions and supports the market that it serves by exploring the quality
management and managing people in operation and supply chain of Bentley. A critical,
detailed and relevant analysis of the triple bottom line also is highlighted. And some relevant
recommendations, in the end, has been placed.
2. A brief overview of the organisation and critical review
Bentley Motors Ltd is one of the most famous luxury car manufacturers in the United
Kingdom, and the company is subsidiary to Volkswagen AG automobile company. The
company's headquarters is situated in Crewe in England and was established in the year 1919
by W.O Bentley as Bentley Motors Limited. It had become famous by winning several
accolades like the 24 hours of Le Mans in the years of 1924, then 1927 to 1930 and finally on

2003. The company has become a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG since the year 1998
(Bentley Motors 2018).
Bentley motors is a renowned name in the automotive industry because of their
management of their logistics and the supply chain. The organization is able to restructure
their supply chain and logistics in such a manner that the customer’s preferences and the
modern trends of the market get covered. Bentley is observed to opt for the total quality
management of the mentioned parts and he follow up of their customers reviews are a
significant part in their process of assessment for this (Gharakhani et al. 2013). The leaders of
the company, Adrian Hallmark, Darren Day and John Gregory are able to understand the fact
very well that the competition in the modern world is getting so tough that the organization
are facing significant amount of difficulty in surviving in the industry. Under such condition
the management of the quality with a precise focus on the total quality management is much
needed. Hence the organization is observed to implement two different teams in their supply
chain and logistics which will support the teams of Darren Day and John Gregory in the
management of the optimum design in the exterior and the interior for the manufactured
vehicles (Mohammad Mosadeghrad 2014).
The organization was so focused in maintaining their quality and the follow up of the
preferences of the customers that they implemented the Enterprise Resource Planning with
the help of the database and the internet. This was significant for the organization as that gave
the chance to the organization to make sure that he best seller vehicles get identified. With
the availability of the database, the organization was able to track the specifications of the
most purchased vehicles and the manufacturing section along with the logistics and the
supply chain was able to acquire the knowledge of the specifications that need to be
considered with utmost priority in order to hold the customers to Bentley and increase the
generation of the profit for the organization. This was the main motive behind the

management of the logistics and the supply chain. Bentley was one of those organizations for
which the preferences of the customers was the main factor. They were able to manage their
design and the logistics in such a manner that the organization be able to follow the
requirements of the customers. Apart from that the application of the total quality
management was significant for the organization in making sure logistics get improved in
such a manner that the company became eligible to introduce effective and innovative new
designs which was significant for the organization’s growth (Talib 2013).
The flow of the inputs of the customers were notably helpful for the logistics and
design managers but even after that the utilisation of the Decision Support Systems or DSS
along with multi criteria decision models, the logistics managers of the organization were
gaining tremendous help as well (Herzallah, Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez and Munoz Rosas 2014).
Along with this, the application of the total quality management ensured that the company be
able to reduce the cost of its products and improve the service as well. This was significant
for the organization as it resulted in better market share for the organization an in non-
financial context, this was a major step for the organization in the generation of the customer
satisfaction. The derived customer satisfaction was instrumental in the formation of the
customer loyalty for the organization and that is pretty evident with the statistics of the
deliveries of the organization in the year 2016 in which the company delivered 11817 number
of products compared to the 10888 of the previous year (Bentley Motors 2018). This was a
gaining the much needed competitive advantage to the organization from long ago as it is
observed that due to the fine management of the logistics and the supply chain along with the
design departments, the organization increased its profit to 176 million Euro in the financial
year 2013 compared to 100 of the previous year.
3. Analysis
3.1 Quality Management

Bentley has created the future of luxury cars, and they are serious when it comes to
the quality of the cars that they provide to the market. The quality management takes two
separate divisions. The first division is to ensure that the quality of the internal process of the
assembly line, logistics and inventory is maintained well (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus 2014).
And the second must ensure that the companies who are supplying the peripheral parts are
producing the best material and not compromising on quality. If the quality of each of the
outer parts of the car is compromised then the overall assembled product quality will be
affected, and this ultimately will hamper the brand value of Bentley (Goetsch and Davis
2014).
Bentley has a dedicated team that is aimed at management of quality in the whole of
the supply chain. The first process is starting with the raw materials, the company is selecting
the parts with the best quality, and any defect is eliminated out by the quality control either
by machines or by manual intervention. The quality management department has to ensure
that the quality of each of the parts are maintained and checked before these are finally fitted
to the car (Al-Swidi and Mahmood 2013).
Quality management in Bentley is given great importance as there are separate
Quality Management teams in the company and posts such as Quality Management System
Assessor and similar posts that are dedicated at the quality assurance and management of the
products that they produce to sell. For instance, in the Crewe centre alone, the company has
more than 3800 people working for the production unit. Therefore, the works are dedicatedly
done by employees who are sufficient in number in each of the departments. The company
has witnessed regular growth, and in 2013 the achieved growth was 9% when the company
could successfully deliver more than 10,000 cars (Bentley Motors 2018). This has been
achieved due to the proper management of the quality in the company.

Bentley which is owned by Volkswagen itself has goodwill in the market, and they
have dedicated group quality management departments. Bentley understands the customers'
needs and therefore it is imperative that the company maintain a high level of the quality
check along the logistics and the assembly line (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus 2014). The
dedicated team of quality managers work more to ensure that the highest quality is kept in the
organisation. Mobility is also essential for retaining the customers, otherwise it would be
difficult to continue with the goodwill that the company enjoys. Bentley is growing at a fast
rate and is expected to do so in the future (Munizu 2013).
3.2 Managing people in operation and supply chains
Bentley Car Company is one of the largest manufacturers in the world and implement
a stable HR policy so that it can sustain the people and can control attrition rates among
employees. The supply chain of a car company has elaborate departments in the company,
and it is imperative that many people will be employed in this particular department. The
work in the supply chain management is done carefully as the quality of the final products,
and the goodwill of the company have been maintained (Hugos 2018). Bentley had the record
of employing 4000 number of employees at the Pyms Lane headquarters of it and along with
that the organization was able to win the status of the Britain’s Top Employers for the
consecutive fifth time (Bentleymedia.com. 2018). The organization is observed to spread
their business in a significant manner at the global stage with the participation in 58 different
markets and that had been possible only for the significant strategy that the organization was
able to take in managing their employees. The market share that the organization was able to
achieve was because of its 203 number of retail partners. Bentley’s operation is observed to
incorporate 36 apprentices, 24 graduates and 40 undergraduates for the operational sectors
like aftersales service, manufacturing and the engineering processes. The recruitment was
much needed for the organization in satisfying the considerable requirement that the

organization was facing as it started to grow. The organization was significantly requiring the
aftersales service of it to improve and along with that the engineering process of the
organization was in need to be innovative so that the modern features of it get included in the
vehicles of Bentley. Moreover, Bentley has established a proper hierarchy in this regard, and
it is taken care of that the top management has complete control of the quality of the products
and the process in which the supply chain works (Christopher 2016).
A large number of engineers and employees work in Crewe in the United Kingdom
where the maximum number of Bentley assembling takes place and producing the luxury
cars. The management of the people in this location is done through democratic leadership
system. As this allows managers and the top brass of the company take advice and ideas from
the employees before the final decisions are made (Hendriks and Karsten, 2014).
Apart from this, the organization was observed to conduct various sessions for the
improvement of the performances of their employees. As it is observed that the organization
operates in an industry which is significantly sensitive in the case of faulty operations and has
a wide spread list of consequences for the same, the organization is observed to conduct
various performance improvement trainings which had the potential to reduce the incapability
of employees in handling complex task.
4. Triple bottom line – Economic, environmental and social factors
Economic:
As mentioned earlier, Bentley is a significantly successful organization when I comes
to generation of profit. In the entire history of the organization, it experienced lesser number
of losses but when it faced, it faced huge losses. However the organization with the
application of the total quality management is able to generate a sharp rise in the generation
of the profit. As specified earlier, the organization is able to acquire a rise of 76 million Euro
in the time span of just one year in the year 2013 (Bentley Motors 2018). The number of

deliveries for the organization is also observed to increase as a result of the introduction of
the total quality management.
Environmental factors:
The organization was able to portray themselves as one of the most environmental
free organizations in the concerned industry (Elkington 2013). Being a large scale industry,
the organization was in need of significant amount of electrical power. The organization was
observed to be concentrated more on the generation of the electrical power through the non-
conventional method so that the conventional sources are not finished (Milne and Gray
2013). The organization was observed to consider the implementation of the 20815 number
of solar panels which had the potential to supply 40% of the total electricity consumed by the
organization (Bentleymedia.com. 2018). Apart from that the organization had the chance to
save 2150 tons of carbon dioxide emission per year with the above mentioned plan. The
estimated generated energy was equivalent to the required energy of providing electricity to
1200 number of houses per year. Along with the organization’s improved eco-friendly
operations got recognized when it was able to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental
standards and the ISO 50001 energy management standards (Iso.org 2018). This was
significant for the organization’s image as an eco-friendly company and they were also able
to reduce the energy consumption of the vehicles by at least 60% from their previous records.
Apart from this, the organization’s good work in the carbon, waste and water reduction was
acknowledged with the award in the form of Triple Carbon Trust Standard.
Social Factors:
The organization had great significance for the community and the employees of it as
well. It was one of those organization in the UK business industry which was able to create

consider amount of employment for the locals (Henriques and Richardson 2013). As the
number of delivery was increasing from the organization, the requirement for the resources
was subjected to a significant increment as well. Along with the organizational was
significantly involved in the development of the society as it was observed to be associated
with “Cheshire Community Foundation” for the local community development. In addition to
this, the organization was observed to offer 150 work experience positions for the students of
the local schools with the aim of local community development (Gold, Hahn and Seuring
2013).
Conclusion and recommendations
In conclusion, Bentley Motors has a well-developed logistics, inventory and supply
chain system. The employees are also managed well in the supply chain department and their
needs are fulfilled so that the organizational goals are fulfilled. In addition to this, the
organization is able to form the required strategies for the social wellbeing of its community
and the employees. The contribution of the organization towards the planet apart from the
classy and quality products of it, is significant. The organization is observed to take care of
the environment in the best way possible where it is making sure that the products of it does
not cause significant amount of harm to the people and the environment. The manufacturing
process of the products also follows the eco-friendly procedures where the consumption of
the non-conventional energy sources re preferred. With the creation of the significant amount
of employment, the organization is able to help the society in its development. This had the
capability to form the trust for the organization among the community.
However, the organization has several numbers of policies for improving the quality
of their employees along with the health and work safety of their people. Though the
organization is observed to take significant steps for the welfare of the employees, yet it was
observed that the organization lacks the much-required engagement of the employees. Hence

in order to solve the issue, the organization is in need to introduce employee engagement
activities which will be significant for the organization to make an effective bond with the
employees. Moreover, the organization need to conduct increased amount of promotional
activities which will cover the loophole along with the formation of a board which will
monitor the end results and the implementation of these activities.

5. References
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