Understanding Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management

This assignment focuses on the interrelation between operations, logistics and supply chain management in the automotive industry. It reviews relevant theories, discusses solutions for operations management issues, and provides recommendations for improving quality and new product development. The case study revolves around Bentley Motors Limited.

UNDERSTANDING OPERATIONS,
LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Review of relevant Operation, Logistics and Supply Chain Management theories....................4
Solutions of Operations Management.........................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Operations can be defined as business activities in which an organization engage themselves
so that they can convert their raw materials into finished services or products in order to sell
them to their targeted customers in order to increase their revenue and profit margin (Grant,
Trautrims and Wong, 2017). It is one of the most important part to be focused on. This helps the
organizations to provide complete quality products to their customers. When the goods are
completed with the help of logistics, they are transported to their end consumers. Logistics can
be defined as a process through which planning and execution of goods storage and
transportation is done so that end products can be transported to consumers end. Operations and
logistics are inter-related to each other i.e. after completion of final goods from operations,
logistics come into picture where storage and transportation of final goods is managed. But for
proper flow or transportation of goods it is important for organizations to focus on and adopt
Supply chain management (SCM). SCM is a kind of management in which flow of
services/goods as well as all the processes in which raw material is converted into final goods.
Both logistics and supply chain management are inter-related to each other and it is important for
organizations to effectively manage flow of goods and storage (Christopher, 2016). This
assignment will focus on reviewing all kinds of theories related to Operation, Logistics and
Supply Chain Management and will focus on New product/ service development and process and
managing quality. For this assignment an organization from Automotive industry will be chosen
which is Bentley Motors limited.
MAIN BODY
Organization
Organizations in Manufacturing industry are those who engage themselves in
manufacturing or transforming raw goods or materials into new products. Automobile companies
comes into this category. Automobile companies are also known as automotive companies are
those companies that sells or makes automobiles like cars etc. Bentley is one of those automotive
company that manufacturers automotive products. Bentley motors limited is a British
manufacturer who manufacturers luxury cars. It was founded in 1919 by H. M. Bentley and W.
O. Bentley in England, United Kingdom. Bentley was acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1931 and later
it weas acquired by Volkswagen groups 1998.
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Review of relevant Operation, Logistics and Supply Chain Management theories
Operational, logistics and SCM issues faced by Bentley are quite less but there are few
operational areas that are required to be focused on in order to maintain their brand value,
customer base etc. First is in development of new product or services process. It is quite
challenging for Automobile companies to continuously work on development of new products
and services and another issue which is required to be focused on is management of quality
(Choi, Chiu and Chan, 2016). It is important for automobile companies to focus on quality of
their products and services as customers in this industry mainly focus on three important factors
that are: price, quality and uniqueness of the product. If any of the one factor is missing then
customers can switch on another substitute product.
New product/ service development and process
It is one of the most important operational function that plays a vital role in the market in
which they serve as customers of this industry always seeks for new products or services.
Bentley uses pay per service system in which customers need to pay for each and every
individual service that are opted by them. Service delivery system used by Bentley is in three
steps: first is to maintain the quality of service which is being provided to the customers
(Mangan and Lalwani, 2016). Second is employee engagement in which attitude of employees is
monitored, engagement of employees in providing service to the clients is seen and last is to
provide customers with best experience.
Theory that can be used by Automotive company like Bentley for development of new
product or process is House of Quality. House of quality is a well-known process that can be
used by organizations for development of product. This process helps automotive companies like
Bentley to develop a product or process through which they can manufacture a product or service
that fulfil their customers desire, needs and requirements in an appropriate manner. It focuses on
developing a plan in which customers needs and desires are translated and prioritized and then
this plan is executed so that a new product or service can be developed as per the requirement,
needs and desires of the customers. It is one of the most important theory which is required to be
followed by Bentley so that they can focus on desires and requirements of their customers and on
the basis of it they can further focus development of new product or services which will be liked
by their customers (Yazdani and et.al., 2017). This theory is important for Bentley because they
are well known to deliver products as per the requirements of their customers and not only this,
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they also design their new products or services in such a manner that it is liked by their
customers and fulfil their desires. So, it can be said that HOQ can be used by Bentley for few
main purposes that can used in development of new products or services. First is to understand
their customers desires and priorities so that on the basis of it an ideal solution can be developed.
Second is to translate these desires and priorities into new goals and technicalities of new
product/service development. Then last is to develop a structure and allocate resources that can
be used by them for development of new product or service.
Managing quality
It is another important operational function that plays a vital role for Automotive
companies like Bentley as it is important for their customers before they buy any kind of
products or services provided by the company (Fernie and Sparks, 2018). It is important for
organizations in this industry to focus on maintaining the overall quality of the products they sell
to their customers as well as of the service that they provide to their customers. No matter how
much attract the product is, it is important that the quality of the product or service should be
excellent especially for organizations like Bentley who have already established their brand
value and most of the customers who tend to buy their services and products only buy it because
of their design, quality and features that they product. If there is any kind of issue or problem
associated with quality of the service or product then it will directly affect their customer’s
satisfaction and brand value (Swink and et.al., 2017).
Theory that can be used by Automotive company like Bentley for managing the overall
quality of their products and services is TQM (Total quality management) theory for Managing
quality. Total quality management theory is a kind of continuous process that helps an
organization to detect, reduce or eliminate any kind of issues or errors in manufacturing of their
products, improving their customers experience and to ensure that all the employees of an
organization are maintaining their work and speed. TQM focus on all the functions and
stakeholders involved in manufacturing and production process are accountable for their work as
are maintaining the quality of their final goods, products or services. Bentley follows Total
quality management approach for maintaining the overall quality of their products and services.
With the help of TQM, they ensure that all the employees engage themselves in service their
customers in order to provide best quality service and products to their customers in order to
maintain their standard and enhance their customer satisfaction globally (Coyle and et.al., 2016).
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Total quality management approach focuses on whole organizational management. This theory
focuses on maintaining quality of products, services, organizational outcomes quality as well as
also focuses on maintaining continuous improvement process for all of their internal functions
and practises. For this various industry standards are set at multiple levels in such a manner that
all the laws and regulations are adhered by the organization. This helps the organization to
maintain the quality of their products and services that they offer to their customers.
Solutions of Operations Management
For this assignment qualitative techniques will be used to find solution of the operational
management issues. For qualitative data analysis secondary data will be used in order to find
solution of operational management. Data from online articles, newspapers will be collected and
other than this relevant theory will be used to explain the key area and its importance in details
these theories will help in laying emphasis on issues, areas to be focused on for improvement and
many more. Other than this various example of other organizations will also be used that can be
applied on Bentley in order find solution for all kinds of operational management issues.
In order to resolve any kind of issue faced by the organization it is important for them to
adopt sustainable business practises in order gain competitive advantage, attract more and more
customers. Adoption of these sustainable business practises will eventually bring changes in
overall operations of the organization. These practises help the organizations to cut down excess
wastage cost, energy consumption which eventually help the organization in creating a positive
impact on triple bottom line of the organization (Song and Parola, 2015). Sustainable business
practices not only help the organization to motivate their employees but also help them in attract
more customers and bring improvement within their current business practices. In order to bring
improvement within their new product/process development process and maintain overall quality
of their products and services Bentley can focus on adopting Triple bottom line approach or
framework. TBL is a kind of theory or framework that helps the organizations to commit
themselves to focus on environment and social concern as much as they concern about their
revenues and profits. This framework can help Bentley to sustainable develop new products or
services as today more and more customers are becoming environment friendly and prefer
products that are environment friendly (Cosimato and Troisi, 2015). This will help them to
attract more customers towards their products which will eventually help them to enhance sales
of their new products. Bentley uses Triple bottom line for evaluating their overall organizational
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performance that concerns environmental, social and economic issues. Various automotive
organizations like Bentley consider these components as meaningful components for sustainable
development. Focusing on these components can also help Bentley to bring changes within the
development of new products so that they are economically feasible for their customers and are
in rage or budget of their customers. This will also help them to increase their target customers
for the new product or service developed by them by focusing on environmental factor they can
work on enhancing overall quality of their products/services which will also help them to
enhance their quality of products/services.
There are three factors that together help in forming triple bottom line. Bentley need to
work on all the three triple bottom line together for sustainable business development. First line
is of profit. It is one of the main line which is requited to be focused on by the organizations as it
helps in maintaining corporate profit, profit and loss account. Another line is of people. It helps
the organization in measuring and evaluating till what level an organization is socially
responsible and focus on their people throughout of their operations and last is environment in
which it is evaluated and measured that at what level an organization is environmentally
responsible (Hazen and et.al., 2018). This will help Bentley to bring changes within their
produce development process in such a manner the new products developed by them is
environment friendly, quality is maintained and which will further contribute in enhancing
sustainability of their business.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Here, are few recommendations that can be used and implemented by Bentley so that they
can bring improvement within their business by improving their overall performance. These
recommendations will help Bentley to maintain the quality of their products and services as well
as focus on development of new products/services process.
They can focus on bringing improvement within their training and development program
which is used by the organization to train their employees. They should focus on developing or
improving skill sets of their employees as per the requirement of their business so that each and
every employee can work with their best potential. This will help them to provide best service to
their customers and maintaining the quality of their products and services. They can also focus
on creating a culture of quality with the help of TQM approach. This culture will motivate the
employees to suggest new ways of bringing improvement within their current process or
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function. Not only this all kinds of employees should be welcomes to suggest both small or large
kind of improvement suggestion that can be used by organization and is fruitful to bring
improvement within their business. They can also focus on improving their relationship with
their suppliers i.e. to work closely with the suppliers so that quality of raw materials or
components can be maintained that meet the quality standards of the manufactures. These points
will help Bentley to bring improvement within their business process.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it can be concluded that it is important for manufacturing
industry organizations especially automotive companies to maintain interrelation between
operation, logistics and Supply chain management as it not only affects the overall revenue and
profit but it also affects the overall satisfaction of their customers. It is important for automotive
companies like Bentley to focus on maintaining the overall quality of their products and services
at its operational level itself as it further helps in maintaining the quality of products and services
that are offered to their customers. It not only affects the quality of products but it also affects the
overall satisfaction level of their customers. It has been analysed that there are two areas that are
quite important for Organizations like Bentley to focus on in order to maintain their brand value,
customer satisfaction, sales and revenue that are: New product/ service development and process
and management of quality of their products and services. They need to focus on development of
new products and services to attract new customers and fulfil their customers desire and
requirements and simultaneously they also need to focus on maintaining quality of their services
and products because customers of this industry lay emphasis on price, quality and uniqueness of
product or service. It has also been analysed that there are various theories that can be used by
Bentley to improve their product quality and using which can develop new products or services.
Using House of Quality theory, they can focus on developing new products and services and
using TQM theory they can focus on managing overall quality of their products and services.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Choi, T.M., Chiu, C.H. and Chan, H.K., 2016. Risk management of logistics systems.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Cosimato, S. and Troisi, O., 2015. Green supply chain management: Practices and tools for
logistics competitiveness and sustainability. The DHL case study. The TQM Journal. 27(2).
pp.256-276.
Coyle, J.J., and et.al., 2016. Supply chain management: a logistics perspective. Nelson
Education.
Fernie, J. and Sparks, L. eds., 2018. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new
challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.
Grant, D.B., Trautrims, A. and Wong, C.Y., 2017. Sustainable logistics and supply chain
management: principles and practices for sustainable operations and management. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Hazen, B.T., and et.al., 2018. Back in business: Operations research in support of big data
analytics for operations and supply chain management. Annals of Operations Research.
270(1-2). pp.201-211.
Mangan, J. and Lalwani, C.L., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain management. John Wiley
& Sons.
Song, D.W. and Parola, F., 2015. Strategising port logistics management and operations for
value creation in global supply chains.
Swink, M., and et.al., 2017. Managing operations across the supply chain. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Yazdani, M., and et.al., 2017. A group decision making support system in logistics and supply
chain management. Expert Systems with Applications. 88. pp.376-392.
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