Understanding Operations, Logistics, and Supply Chain: BMW Case Study

This report provides an in-depth analysis of BMW's operations, logistics, and supply chain management. It begins with an introduction to operation and supply chain management, highlighting their significance in improving product quality, eliminating waste, and enhancing business processes. The main body delves into operation functions, the manufacturing and service delivery system, and the infrastructure BMW has developed to manage its delivery system. The report emphasizes BMW's customer-centric approach, its efficient corporate structure, and its commitment to sustainability and transparent operations. It also explores the importance of manufacturing and service delivery, the role of infrastructure in supply chain management, and the significance of quality control. The report concludes by summarizing key findings and highlighting BMW's strategies for maintaining its strong market image and meeting customer needs.

Understanding Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Operation Functions....................................................................................................................1
Manufacturing and service delivery system................................................................................3
Infrastructure developed by BMW to manage delivery system..................................................4
Theories associated with operation, logistics and supply chain management............................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Operation management is very crucial aspect within the company by which quality of product
and services as well as business can easily improve within the organisation. There are various
approaches of operation management which helps to the company in eliminating wastage and
additional cost of business operation and improving existing process of business. In addition to
this, supply chain management is another significant aspect within the company by which
product and services can transfer from the manufacturer to customers. The present report
provides the detail knowledge and understanding about the significance of supply chain
management and operation management within the company. With help of this study, the
methods of operation management can effectively discuss. The major objective of this
assignment is to implement the approaches and method of supply chain management, logistic
management and operation management within the BMW company which is one of the luxury
auto mobile company. In addition to this how the operation function serves in the market has
been also included in this report. Furthermore, infrastructure of BMW and its used to manage the
delivery system has been also addressed in this present report.
MAIN BODY
Operation Functions
Operation management actually has its focus on managing and controlling all the
processes so that they can be able to sell and distribute all its products along with the services.
Usually, BMW focuses on an efficient and appropriate operation management because their forte
is to satisfy all their customers by providing them all that they want and which can help in
completing their needs. Although BMW has already received the global recognition because it is
considered as a leading manufacturer in luxury sports cars. It has been observed according to the
statistics that it has an excellent work structure and along with this, it includes a very better and
efficient corporate structure (Jacobs, Yu and Chavez, 2016). The vision of BMW is that strong
that it is catering all the needs of its customers. According to the sustainability reports of BMW,
it helps in providing all the data and information on the fact that it assumes and analyses all the
ecological and social responsibilities which further relates to the level and rate of success of the
organisation. Also, the communication factor is very important because maintaining a well level
of communication is very much essential because if the employees in any organisation such as in
BMW, if having efficient level of interaction between every employee, thus it can help in
1

making the environment of the company more healthier and happier which can help the company
in achieving all its targets and goals in a faster rate as well as in a faster time. The company
supports the market in various ways as a very essential characteristic of BMW is that it takes
regular feedbacks from its customers in order to make sure that the customers are not dealing
with any sort of issue or complication with any product or service. So, BMW takes feedbacks
from customers on a regular basis and if there is any sort of complaint, then the company
focuses on modifying it as soon as possible so that the customers may not have to face the
complexities for a much time. Risk assessment on a regular basis is also done just to make sure
that the customer must not go through any serious complication because of any error in the
engine or any other part related to the engine. Because it can seem small but severe errors can
also lead to death as well. So, BMW takes assessment of all its engines and parts on its regular
basis so that the customers can get efficient level of motivation and satisfaction and that too at a
huge extent. The company is also transparent of all its operations as unlike other companies, it
does not believes in hiding any feature because it has already been awarded as one of the best
productions, so by these functions and operations, BMW has been successful in satisfying its
customers and other bodies in the market place. The company already holds a very strong image
in the market, so the company focuses on maintaining that image by completing all its roles and
responsibilities (Menon, 2012)
Manufacturing and operation management is one of the most important aspect in the
present scenario as in the market there is stiff as well intense competition among the
Organisation. In order to sustain business in the competitive market, it is very important for the
BMW company to develop such effective strategy and solution by which firm can enhance its
competitive advantage and strength of Firm. Logistic and operational management is a path by
which enterprise can enhance its profitability as well as increase its productivity in the market.
BMW is one of the big as well as popular auto mobile company which produce and sale the high
quality of luxury cars. The objective of the organisation is to strength supply chain and increase
its logistic capacity. It has focus on developing effective network so that business entity could
provide effective and quick services to their customers (Christopher, 2016)
2

Manufacturing and service delivery system
Manufacturing procedure is defined as the method through which enterprise produces
various goods and services. Manufacturing and service delivery procedure are diverse but they
all are essential. The basic elements are input, output, resources and activities. The
manufacturing or service delivering system of BMW are the same.
Inputs : These are the elements that are either consume directly or transformed through process.
The raw material require by auto maker company include It requires sheet steel as input.
Output- these are the end product of the process. The end product that are produced by
manufacturing unit of BMW is car (Govindan, Soleimani and Kannan, 2015).)
Resources- The various resources required by firm are Auto plant. The resources are the means
by which inputs are transformed into outputs.
Activities- The activities include use of resources in order to convert inputs into outputs. The
various resources required by BMW organisation are human resource, technology, finance etc.
BMW first entered into auto-mobile assembly with the Model “A” which include development
or creation of assembly that stands on which the whole vehicle was created usually by an
individual assembler which is being fitted in an entire section of the car together at one place.
This system has assisted manufacturing unit in BMW to increase their working efficiency,
increasing production capacity and minimising the cost of production. This is the technique this
model take 8.5 hours to assemble all the parts to manufacture a complete car. BMW has soon
realised that walking from stand to stand is wastage of time and has developed jam-ups in the
production process as faster slower workers were replaced by skilled and talented employees. It
has been identified that the BMW has taken initiative to facilitate movement of employees from
one station to other. This activity has supported firm in minimising the time which have been
taken to manufacture the product. With that first conveyor line which is made up of metal strips
to which the vehicle's wheels were attached are being used by the Organisation. This metal strips
were attached to a belt which have been trilled the dimension of the factory and then, beneath the
floor and then return to the starting area. This procedure have minimised the efforts are to be
taken by human resource management. As well as it have helped firm in increasing production of
products as well as services for the company, with that cost of the production have also reduced.
They are facing issue related to the quality of products and services. As human intervention is
3

very less and technological changes is taking place very rapidly. They are facing lots of issues in
their production of quality goods and services (Asgari, Nikbaksh and Hill, Farahani 2016 ).
Infrastructure developed by BMW to manage delivery system
The organisation has adopted attractive and effective infrastructure in order to obtain raw
material. BMW does not have their own infrastructure but enterprise has used third party
infrastructure. With support of the infrastructure the organisation is able to fulfil the requirement
of its clients. Supply chain management is the important feature of the infrastructure, which
include various stages and activities. The supply chain management procedure is totally
dependent on various activities such as planing, organising, designing, controlling, demand and
promise and they perform each and every activity in systematic manner in order to assist
business entity in becoming successful. There work is based on the promise and trust and for that
the organisation charge the sufficient amount of money from the BMW. There are five
significant steps that are concerned with the supply chain management of the enterprise. It
comprises localized part, imported parts, acquire dock/production, dealer and to consumers. In
initial step, the business unit position their assembly system in the procedure and then the
organisation takes initiative to place their material in the warehouse and stores. With that orders
are being delivered to the client according to their demand, this demand is being communicated
to the production department (Asgari, Nikbaksh and Hill, Farahani 2016). That functional unit
takes initiative to assemble all the raw material and parts that are required to facilitate production
system or process. It is very important for BMW to fulfil the requirement and wants of the
consumers. Thus, the organisation need to maintain the healthy relationship with their suppliers
so that they can able to procure the quality products as well as services from them (Wisner and
Leong, 2014))
Other than infrastructure and production of goods, quality also plays very important roles
in the Business, the business entity is required to adopt TPS technique as this will assist BMW in
cut down the various type of costs, waste and defects in the goods and services. Other than that
there are various activities and task are being completed by the employees. The venture require
to be aware that all the roles and responsibilities are being better-known by the employees so that
they can able to complete their task on time and serve products and services to the consumers.
The procedure begin with communication and delegation of the goal as well as objectives of the
company. This has developed a path at which workers can move forward to attain the objectives.
4

With that human resource manager or management should be every effective as well as active in
hiring the employees. They need to hire effective and efficient candidates those
who can put maximum efforts in supporting firm in achievement of goals ans well as success.
Service delivery System
Service delivery system, refers to the method through which enterprise can make an
effective system in order to deliver goods as well as services in professional manner to
customers. BMW company has used four important elements which has assisted them to deliver
good quality product and services at reasonable price. These components are service culture,
worker or staff engagement, service quality and customer's experience. Service culture is based
on the constituent of leadership that includes norms, principle, working habit, skills, mission ,
vision and values. Service culture is referred to as the combination of various principles and
norms that are developed by organisations that supports manager in facilitating control,
maintaining and creating the social procedures that evident itself as delivery of services
And to provide value to BMW client. Staff or employee engagement is defined as the mental
attitude or behaviour and action of employees towards the various activities and operations of the
company. Effective structure of organisation assist business unit in motivating employee and
encouraging them to increase their participation in different activities and decisions of BMW.
Planning related to improving Service quality consists of strategies, processes and performance
management systems. Strategies and processes support business unit in designing and developing
their over all service management model. Customer experience involve various elements such as
account management, continuous improvements, and customer intelligence. The major problem
that is faced by BMW are related to the continuous improvement in customer services. The
BMW company is unable to adopt the several changes in the market. This is the significant
reason organisation is lacking behind to their competitors (Stadtler, 2015))
Theories associated with operation, logistics and supply chain management
Kaizen is a Japanese term that is defined as continuous improvement, This approach is
being used by the BMW for maintaining the quality in the production operation or production of
products as well as services. The venture have taken initiative to identify various innovative
ideas and thoughts which has assisted firm in producing new and innovative products at every
production procedure. Uninterrupted advancement is very important component of the
organisation. This activity supports business entity in retaining existing customers and attracting
5

new consumer. Change is very essential, which provides satisfaction to both customers as well as
workers. If they find change client feel happy and satisfied. There are several areas where
change and improvement can be implemented such as production process, technological
advancement, business structure and policies etc. Thus, it can be stated that BMW should adopt
this approach for implementing change and making improvement in their business ((Conley,
2017)
Just in time manufacturing
It is another very effective model of total quality management and supply chain
management. It is the strategy which assisted the enterprise in enhancing and maintaining the
quality of their goods in order to deliver the highest level of satisfaction to the customers. The
focus and objectives of this model is to minimise the time in production process and maintaining
of healthy relationship with the clients and suppliers (Stadtler, 2015). The BMW has taken
initiative to formulate plan the various activities of the production and then take the decision that
which activity will be done first and what will be the next activities. It is the strategy where
organisation first take orders from the customers and then procure material from the suppliers.
Further that material is transferred to the production department further processing and the final
product is delivered to the customers. This approach states that production will take place when
orders are received from the customers.
Six Sigma
It is also another essential tool for BMW. It is quality management tool which assist the
firm in various aspects of the production. It is the method which is used for enhancing the
capability of the Company in their different processes of the business. It Support the Business
entity in improving their performance and minimising the procedure variation by detecting and
reducing the defects
CONCLUSION
From this report it has been concluded that there are various approaches of operation
management within the company by which quality and productivity of business can easily
enhance. It has been also concluded that with help of total quality management, BMW can
improve its quality of business operation and eliminate the additional cost and wastage from the
business operation. Cited venture can effectively conduct the supply chain management with
6

help of its various techniques and tools in the business. It is very important for implement to total
quality management within the company and participate all member in this procedure.
REFERENCES
Books and Journal:
7

8