Understanding Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain

This study explores the operations, logistics, and supply chain management of Jaguar Land Rover. It focuses on managing quality and business relationships within the supply chain. The study includes analysis of Total Quality Management and Six Sigma principles, along with recommendations for improvement.

UNDERSTANDING
OPERATIONS,
LOGISTICS AND
SUPPLY CHAIN

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Operations refer to all the appropriate activities and processes that are required to
effectively support functions of the organisation. One operation within companies is associated
with logistics, which is associated with the process of storing the raw materials in a proper
manner to ensure their effective usage while developing a product. Furthermore, another
operation associated with an organisation is supply chain management, which is purely
consistent on managing the supply chain for acquiring raw materials in an effective manner, as
well as supplying the finished products to the customers (Yazdani and et. al., 2017).
In this relation, the report below is based on Jaguar Land Rover, which is one of the most
recognised companies in the United Kingdom's automotive sector. The firm currently deals in a
range of vehicles that are segregated into several categories such as passenger and utility
vehicles. The report undertakes a detailed analysis associated with the operations, logistics and
supply chain management of the firm, which focuses on two key areas, that are managing quality
and managing relationships within the supply chain. For this purpose, the report includes two
appropriate theories which would be governing the effectiveness of the company in relation to
these factors, along with analysis of triple bottom line and certain recommendations associated
with the organisation.
MAIN BODY
Jaguar Land Rover is an a British Automotive organisation, that effectively deals in
manufacturing, as well as distribution of different vehicles within the UK and beyond.
Headquartered in Conventry, United Kingdom, it is one of the most recognised and preferred
organisation in relation to providing high end offerings to the customers. In addition to this, the
firm's marketing abilities are very much appropriate in terms of communicating their offerings
with the target market. In addition to this, the organisation has quite appropriately handled its
logistics functions and operations, which are required to provide the company an effective edge
within the marketplace (Addo-Tenkorang and Helo, 2016).
In relation to the company, the very first topic in question is Managing Quality. It is one
of the most necessary functions that must be adopted by a company to ensure that the products
manufactured by the organisation are developed with highest quality possible. In addition to this,
another prominent feature which this topic contains within the same is related to managing the
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operations, logistics and supply chain management with utmost consistency, which automatically
reduces any scope of error. Moreover, this concept also ensures that customers are very much
attracted and retained, along with enhancement in market image. Hence, this topic in context of
Jaguar Land Rover would be covering the extent up to which the company manages the quality
in the product development process, along with operations, logistics and supply chain
management (Hazen and et. al., 2018).
Another topic that has been clearly analysed and evaluated is related to Managing
Business Relations in Supply Chain. It is yet another essential component which must be adopted
by the companies in relation to managing the supply chain in the required manner, which would
further facilitate the manufacturing and production operations of the company. In addition to
this, in context of Jaguar Land Rover, a detailed study upon how well the relations of the firm
with its supply chain are maintained and improvised would be undertaken. This would be
covering configuration of the supply chain network of the organisation, the quality, cost and
dependability of the firm, along with several sharing of information and traditional market
supply relationships.
Managing Quality is one of the most important operation that must be implemented
within an automotive organisations, as their goodwill, preference and profitability is very much
dependant upon the same. This is related to a complete management of the firm that is associated
with elements like planning, designing, procedures, supply chain as well as logistics.
Furthermore, for this aspect, the theory which is adopted within the organisation is Total
Quality Management (TQM). This method is adopted by company relates to all the techniques,
processes and tools that are fairly implemented by an organisation to ensure consistent and
achieving high level quality related to the operations and functions of the company. In addition
to this, the agenda of this principle is related to reducing and simultaneously eliminating the
errors within the operations and processes of the company. In addition, this function also ensures
a consistency in improvement when it comes to ensuring better quality management within the
processes and operations of the firm (Fernie and Sparks, 2018).
In relation to the same, there are several principles that are associated with TQM which
guides the organisation in relation to enhancing the scope of quality in operations and functions.
One such principle is related to Continuous Improvement, which is associated with regular and
consistent evaluation of the current processes and operations and ensuring continuous
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modifications to increase the quality of operations. In addition to this, continuous improvement
also contains applications on elements like cost, delivery and safety in manufacturing vehicles
which further promotes the quality. Moreover, another principle in associated with the same is
commitment to management. In this relation, firms adopt several functions that are also reflected
Shewart's PDCA model, where the management of the company ensures planning, doing,
checking as well as acting on different purposes. Another aspect through which this commitment
could be ensured is associated with employee empowerment. This is associated with providing
authority and responsibility to employees within the company, that would enhance their
engagement towards maintaining the quality of operations within the organisation (Choi, Chiu
and Chan, 2016).
In relation with this principle, Jaguar Land Rover is quite inconsistent in managing
quality and implementing TQM in its operations and manufacturing processes. For instance, the
firm's market in China is consistently becoming weaker, due to the ineffective quality of
operations. A couple of years earlier, the firm collaborated with Chery Automobile within China
to essentially improvise and modify their vehicles that would be suiting the current conditions of
China. However, despite improvisation in design, the quality of the products were severely
damaged and was dropping consistently. An evidence of the same is that within 2017, the firm
undertook almost 13 recalls from its Chinese markets, with heavy faults in engines, airbags,
batteries and so forth. This reveals that the firm is not implementing any principle associated
with Total Quality Management within its manufacturing processes. Moreover, these recalls
undertook almost 106,000 products, that is equivalent to higher than 70% of the firm's local sales
within the marketplace (Jaguar Land Rover hurt by quality control issues in China, 2019).
Moreover, there is a very limited adherence within the organisation when it comes to ensuring
employee empowerment. This is because there is lower adherence of employee engagement
within the company and much lesser concern on their motivation. This is reflected through the
fact that quite recently, the firm has planned a £2.5bn cost cutting plan, as to which the firm cut
up almost 5,000 jobs within the United Kingdom (Jaguar Land Rover to cut up to 5,000 jobs,
2019). This led to a major setback for the employees of the company and hence, reveals that the
organisation is somewhat inconsistent when it comes to managing quality and implementing
TQM within its processes.
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One prominent example of an organisation which implements this principle is General
Motors, which is another prominent company in the automotive sector within the United
Kingdom. In terms of this method, the firm is highly consistent when it comes to manufacturing
processes. For instance, the organisations adopt this functions right from the starting of
development of a new vehicle. Moreover, aspects of vehicle manufacturing such as focusing on
speed, reliability and accuracy are heavily emphasised upon when the firm implements TQM. In
addition to this, its implementation within the company is surely facilitated with ensuring
participatory management, which enhances commitment of employees towards the company, as
well as empowers them in an appropriate and effective manner (TQM management: Explain
importance of customer satisfaction in organizations, 2019).
Another aspect reflected above was managing relationships within supply chain. For an
automotive organisation, the quality, consistency and reliability of vehicles is highly associated
with the efficiency of the supply chain. This is because the more efficient and consistent the
supply chain of the organisation, the more effective would be the supply chain
One of the models which is associated with the same is Six Sigma. This refers to the
framework which requires the company to consistently monitor and evaluate the current
processes in order to ensure improvement within the same and reduce the cost in an appropriate
manner. The firm has several steps related to this technique, such as, defining the objectives,
measuring the current and anticipated elements, analyse the current processes, improvise the
same as well as control the improvement in an effective manner. All these steps are very much
appropriate in relation to manage supply chain of an organisation, which ultimately helps in
development and fostering business relationships of the firm (Copacino, 2019).
In context of Jaguar Land Rover, the firm is very much inconsistent where supply chain
relationships are concerned along with implementation of Six Sigma. This is because due to
Brexit, the supply chain management of the firm has very much disrupted recently, causing
ineffective relationships with its supply chain due to high cost and lower money supply within
the market. Hence, this reflects that the firm was not applying Six Sigma in an appropriate
context. The reason for the same was related to the fact that the firm was not analysing the
situation surround Brexit as well as was not improving its supply chain which disrupted the
relations (Jaguar Land Rover to Close Plants for a Week as a Brexit Safeguard, 2019). This led
to closure of several plants of these models that caused further inefficiencies within the
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company. However, there are several positive aspects associated with the supply chain
relationships as well. For instance, Jaguar Land Rover does not implement traditional supply
chain model any more and has shifted its operations towards closed loop valu chain model for
supply chain. In this model, the firm has created several new supplier relationships with other
organisations such as Novelis, Innovate UK and other organisations that would be ensuring
delivery of more closed-loop aluminium within the firm (How Jaguar Land Rover ditched
traditional supply chain thinking to create a closed loop value chain, 2019). This would further
cause improvements in the supply chain management, along with consistent improvement which
satisfies the requirements in relation with the supply chain of the company.
However, there are several organisations which are working impressively when it comes
to adopting Six Sigma principles and managing the supply chain relationships. One such
organisation which could be used to compare Jaguar Land Rover is Ford. The firm is one of the
biggest competitors of the company within the UK market and is spectacular when it comes to
Six Sigma implementation and supply chain management. As for the former, the organisation
has recently formulated its production and supply chain departments through application of Six
Sigma Principles. The company has directed these principles towards achieving of several others,
such as cost reduction, improvisation of quality, as well as reducing the impact on environment.
Moreover, for supply chain management and business relations associated with the firm, Ford
has implemented the principles of Six Sigma on all the operations related to this function of the
company. As a result, the firm has been very much successful in eliminating almost $2.19bn
amount of waste in the last year (Six Sigma Case Study: Ford Motors, 2019). Hence, this helped
the company in investing the amount in prominent operations associated with this function.
However, there are several considerations which Jaguar Land Rover must adhere to, in
order to ensure effectiveness in their operations, logistics and supply chain management. The
first aspect associated with the same is economic consideration. This requires the organisation to
be economically viable and appropriate in terms of feasibility. However, Brexit and other
associated factors of ineffective supply chain might cause certain disadvantages to the company.
Reason for the same is that Brexit has disrupted the regulations, which caused high costs
associated with the supply chain management (Trautrims and Wong, 2017).
Another consideration related to the organisation is related to social aspect. This requires
the firm to be ethical towards people and other stakeholders of the company. Hence, in such
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relation, Jaguar Land Rover must appropriately ensure high inclination towards managing the
people within the organisation along with the ones in the supply chain. However, in this context,
the organisation's management and leadership is quite a big issue in relation of managing the
same. This is because the firm does not appropriately ensures empowerment of employees and
business relations with the suppliers of the company (Schönsleben, 2018).
Furthermore, environmental consideration is another essential and important factor that is
related towards ensuring protection of environment surrounding the organisation. In this context,
the firm is very much capable when it comes to being environmentally sound. The fact which
could be implemented in relation to support the same is that the closed loop value chain for the
company is supportive towards protection of environment in a prominent and better manner. This
is because closely related supply chain could ensure required volume of materials when required,
which might ensure reduction in transportation, hence, protection of environment.
Hence, in this relation, the firm could implement several recommendations which is
associated with improvisation in managing quality and business relations with the supply chain.
In terms of managing quality, the firm must adopt Strategic or Transformational leadership,
which would be appropriate in terms of empowering individuals. This would encourage them to
ensure quality within the operations of the organisation. In addition to this, the firm could
implement Just In Time inventory system, which would improvise the quality in relation to
inventory and logistics management, due to reduction in cost and quantity, hence, maintaining
the quality of operations and raw materials (Wang and et. al., 2016).
Another appropriate recommendation could be performed in context of managing
relationships in supply chain management. One aspect which could be performed within the
same is related to ensuring contractual supply chain. This would allow the firm to manage the
chain at a pre decided rate and quantity, despite changes in regulations of the country.
Furthermore, another aspect associated with the same is that facilitation of information which
could be done through prominently implementing digital information sharing system.
CONCLUSION
Hence, this is concluded from the report above, that operations, logistics and supply chain
management is important for an organisation in terms of ensuring effectiveness within the
functions. Moreover, it is important that several topics associated with the same are analysed in
relation to highlighting the issues associated with them. Furthermore, different theories must be
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implemented and understood against these topics to ensure the extent up to which the firm is
applying the same. In addition to this, other firms must also be compared to the organisation to
compare the implementation of these models in practice. Lastly, companies are required to
ensure compliance with several considerations, which would be allowing an effective and
essential management of operations, logistics and supply chain.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Addo-Tenkorang, R. and Helo, P.T., 2016. Big data applications in operations/supply-chain
management: A literature review. Computers & Industrial Engineering. 101. pp.528-
543.
Choi, T.M., Chiu, C.H. and Chan, H.K., 2016. Risk management of logistics systems.
Copacino, W.C., 2019. Supply chain management: The basics and beyond. Routledge.
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.
Schönsleben, P., 2018. Integral logistics management: operations and supply chain management
within and across companies. CRC Press.
Wang, G., and et. al., 2016. Big data analytics in logistics and supply chain management: Certain
investigations for research and applications. International Journal of Production
Economics. 176. pp.98-110.
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.
Online
How Jaguar Land Rover ditched traditional supply chain thinking to create a closed loop value
chain. 2019. [Online] Available Through: <https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/news/blog/how-
jaguar-land-rover-ditched-traditional-supply-chain-thinking-create-closed-loop-value-
chain>
Jaguar Land Rover hurt by quality control issues in China. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/jaguar-land-rover-hurt-quality-control-
issues-china>
Jaguar Land Rover to Close Plants for a Week as a Brexit Safeguard. 2019. [Online] Available
Through: <https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/22028307/jaguar-land-
rover-to-close-plants-for-a-week-as-a-brexit-safeguard>
Jaguar Land Rover to cut up to 5,000 jobs. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46810473>
Six Sigma Case Study: Ford Motors. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.6sigma.us/uncategorized/six-sigma-case-study-ford-motors/>
TQM management: Explain importance of customer satisfaction in organizations. 2019. [Online]
Available Through: <https://brainmass.com/business/total-quality-management/48480>
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