Operations Management at Nissan Motor Company

The assignment content discusses Nissan Motor Company's operations management, focusing on decentralized supply structures, risk management, and production management. The company achieved competitive advantage by deploying resources effectively and shifting focus to demand. Service operations and manufacturing operations were compared, highlighting the importance of mission and vision in both areas. The article also explores project management techniques such as PERT and CPM, discussing their differences and applications in various scenarios.

QSO 300 Final Project Milestone
1. Generating Value
A. The use of operations management functions by Nissan Motor Company has been
done by considering the crucial aspects. The decentralized supply structure is
significant. The consideration of diversity as a source of management strategy. Risk
and emergent response emerges as a crucial function as part of operations
management. The production management at Nissan too was increased to the
requisite levels (Bromiley, P., & Rau, D., 2016). The stock in transit inventory
prevalent at Nissan Motor aided in reduction of the production bottlenecks.
B. The company is able to achieve the completive advantage with the deployment of
resources in an appropriate manner. The shift is focused towards the demand. With
the sales corrective actions taken and various strategies deployed, Nissan was able to
achieve the needed level. Nisan prepared itself for the challenges. There were
collective actions taken which followed the rapid changing environment for the
company. There were consolidations along with terminations and new sale points.
C. With the comparison done for the service operations and manufacturing operations at
the company, the lowered cost of production of goods and the sales too at lower
prices gave it higher sales margins. This was synchronized with the manufacturing
operations too at company. The production line was slow with the similar
consideration. The creation of mission and vision both by the service operations and
manufacturing operations is significant. The contrast in both the service operations
and manufacturing operations can be witnessed with the different elements
operational in the environment. The planning done from the service operations

involves greater planning to impact the customer mindset. With the efforts taken with
the manufacturing operations, the company considered stock in transit as the
inventory mode. The operations provide value to the customers with ascertaining the
demand and the timeliness improved.
Part 2
Theories & Techniques
A. While PERT is a technique that has basis of project management, wherein the
projects are handled with respect to various activities. CPM is associated as a
statistical technique of PM that aids in the management of activities in the project.
While CPM is activity oriented, PERT is event oriented (Mazlum, M., & Güneri, A.
F., 2015). The PERT over CPM would be favored by the projects - Allocation of
supply and managing the production with the inventory strategies in the production.
Favoring of CPM over PERT at the company would be restricted to time estimations
done for production. Also controlling disasters can be organized.
B. The steps to develop forecasting system encompass problem definition, gathering of
information and preliminary analysis done. The fourth step is linked to choosing the
appropriate fitting model. The last step involves using the evaluation forecasting
C. Implementing the forecasting system for the top selling product will render benefits.
The production of higher quality levels in cars while keeping the margins also
considered. The increase in demand felt for the vehicle is bound to grow too. The
major categories of supply chain risk include the supply risk, operational risk, risk

associated with the demand and the security risk. The risk reduction strategies for
supply risk include enhancing the cost efficiencies in company. With the proactive
actions taken, the same can be controlled. The operational risk can be mitigated with
appropriate planning done. The risk associated with demand can be mitigated by
appropriate decisions taken basis forecasting. In order to mitigate exposure to supply
chain disruptions caused by natural disasters by preparing the appropriate strategy
basis the business continuity and disaster recovery.

References
Bromiley, P., & Rau, D. (2016). Operations management and the resource based view: Another
view. Journal of Operations Management, 41, 95-106.
Mazlum, M., & Güneri, A. F. (2015). CPM, PERT and Project Management with Fuzzy Logic
Technique and Implementation on a Business. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 210,
348-357.