Ford's Operations, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management: A Review

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Ford's operations, logistics, and supply chain management. It begins with an overview of Ford's operational functions, including planning, organizing, directing, and controlling, emphasizing the company's strategic focus on customer satisfaction, product quality, and efficient manufacturing processes. The report then delves into Ford's service delivery system, examining the key elements of service culture, employee engagement, service quality, and customer experience. The manufacturing process, from the assembly line to modern techniques, is also discussed, highlighting the evolution of Ford's production methods. Furthermore, the report explores the infrastructure Ford uses to manage its delivery system, including supply chain management stages and the importance of supplier relationships. Finally, the report examines relevant theories, such as the Kaizen approach and Just-in-Time manufacturing, to provide a comprehensive understanding of Ford's operational strategies and challenges. The report also touches on the technological changes faced by Ford, and how it can affect the quality of products and services.

Understanding
Operations,
Logistics and supply
chain Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Operation functions................................................................................................................1
Service delivery system..........................................................................................................2
Manufacturing process...........................................................................................................3
Infrastructure used by Ford to manage delivery system.........................................................3
Theories related to the operation, logistics and supply chain management...........................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation have key aim and objective is ti understand the needs and wants of
the customers and then serve them different products and services so that they help them to raise
productivity and profitability of the venture. There are different type of departments that are
involved in the organisation that work together in order to attain the common gaol and objective
of the venture. Every department has different operation and activities, which that there are
several issues faced by the employees related to their roles and responsibilities (Slack Brandon-
Jones and Johnston, 2013). Other than that supply and demand also plays very significant role in
the organisation, this is because it is one of the factor at which sales of the products are
dependent. While doing this process, there are different type of issues that are being faced by the
business such as relationship with the different suppliers, quality of the raw material,
technological changes etc. managing suppliers is one of the key issues faced by the venture, this
is because organisation need to maintain good relationship with the suppliers so that they can
serve quality raw material to them on time and when needed. The key focus of this research is
being made on Ford. It is one of the most famous and multinational automotive organisation,
which was incorporated on June 16, 1903 (Asgari, Nikbaksh and Hill, Farahani 2016). The
company sells auto-mobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most luxury cars
under the Lincoln brand. Ford also owns Brazilian SUV manufacturer, Troller, and Australian
performance car manufacturer FPV. The key objective of selecting this organisation is the
venture used to maintain their productivity and profitability but introduction of similar type of
reduced their revenue. They have slowly reduced their performance in the market place with that
they are facing several issues related to supply chain management, quality management etc.
Operation functions
Management is the social process by which different roles and responsibilities are being
fulfilled by every individual in the venture on order to regulates the different operations of the
venture so that desired goal can be achieved. There are four key function that are being used by
the Ford, that are planning, organising, direction and controlling. Other than that strategic plan is
being made by the firm which helps them to achieve the long term operations of the firm. With
that when the organisation is creating the strategic plan they used to focus on key three aspects
that customer's satisfaction, quality of products and services and manufacturing process. These
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three aspects are being applied in very effective manner so that venture can able to reduce the
cost and maintain their quality.
Other than that there are different functions that are being performed by the venture so
that they can able to meet the needs and wants of the customers. In order to do so, they need
effective and efficient workers so that they can produce those good which serve the highest level
of satisfaction to the customers (Jacobs, Yu and Chavez, 2016). Ford tries to find the different
types of issues that are being faced by the employees when they are serving satisfaction of the
customers. Further, they take different steps to solve the various issues faced by the employees.
Most of the parts of the products are being produced by the venture and some spare parts of
being transferred to the other subsidiaries in order to assemble them. This strategy of Ford helps
them to reduce the time of manufacturing as well as helps them to reduce the cost of production.
But they used to monitor all the activities very closely so that they can improve the quality of
products and services they used to serve to the target market.
Service delivery system
Service delivery system is the way by which organisation used to make the system which
helps them to deliver the products and services in appropriate manner and at proper time. When
it concerned about the Ford, they use key four elements which helps them to serve the products
and service at low cost. The elements include service culture, service quality, employee
engagement and customer experience. Service Culture is built on elements of leadership
principles, norms, work habits and vision, mission and values. It is the set of different principle
made by venture which helps in managing controls, maintains and develops the social process
that manifests itself as delivery of service and gives value to customers. Employee engagement
is the attitude and action of employees towards the different activities and operations of the
venture (Menon, 2012). Effective organisation structure helps the venture to uplifts employee
and helps them to engage in different activities and decisions of the venture. Service quality
consists of strategies, processes and performance management systems. Strategies and processes
helps the organisation to design their over all service management model. Customer experience
includes customer intelligence, account management and continuous improvements. The biggest
issue which the venture is facing is related to the continuous improvement. The venture is not
able to adopt the different changes which are taking place in the market. This is the reason they
are lacking behind to their competitors.
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Manufacturing process
Manufacturing process is the way by which organisation design the different stages in
producing the goods and services. It is process which helps them to process raw material into
finished goods. Ford's first organisation into auto-mobile assembly with the Model “A” which is
involved setting up assembly stands on which the whole vehicle was built, usually by a single
assembler who fit an entire section of the car together in one place. This system helps them to
increase their efficiency and reduce the cost of production. This is the way this model take 8.5
hours to assemble all the parts to produce a product. Ford soon recognized that walking from
stand to stand wasted time and created jam-ups in the production process as faster workers
overtook slower ones (Christopher, 2016). It has been founded that the venture have eliminates
to movement of workers from one station to other. This have reduced 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 venture. This metal strips were
connected to a belt which have been rolled the length of the factory and then, beneath the floor
and then return to the starting area. This process have reduced the different efforts made by the
human resource. As well as it have increases the mass production of the venture, 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 very less and technological changes is taking place very
rapidly. They are facing lots of issues in their production of quality goods and services.
Infrastructure used by Ford to manage delivery system
To procure raw materials, Ford does not make their own but they make use of third party
so that they are able to meet the requirement of customers. Supply chain management is the key
aspect of the infrastructure, which consist of different stages and activities. The supply chain
management process is based on planing, execution, designing, controlling, demand and promise
and they perform each and every process in significant manner to make down the cited business
activity successful. There work is depend upon the promise and trust and for that they charge the
significant amount of money from the cited company. There are five different stages that are
involved in the supply chain management of the organisation (Fernie and Sparks, 2014). It
consists of local part, import parts, receiving dock/production, dealer and to customers. First the
venture put their assembly system in the process and then they try to put their material in the
warehouse and stores. With that orders are being received by the customers according to their
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demand, this demand is being communicated to the production department. That department try
to assemble all the raw material and parts and then start the production system or process. It is
very significant for the venture to meet the needs and wants of the customers. Thus, they need to
maintain the good relationship with the suppliers so that they can able to procure the quality
goods and services from them.
Other than that quality also plays very significant roles in the organisation, they need to
use TPS that helps them reduce the different type and waste and defects in the products and
services. Other than that there are different activities and task are being completed by the
workers. The venture need to be aware that all the roles and responsibilities are being known by
the customers so that they can able to complete their task on time and serve products and
services to the customers (Govindan, Soleimani and Kannan, 2015). The process start with
communication and delegation of the gaol and objectives of the venture. This create a path at
which employees can move forward to attain the objectives. With that human resource should be
every effective in hiring the employees. They need to hire effective and efficient employees who
can put maximum efforts.
The auto mobile industry are considered to be those industries that are greatly influenced
by innovation and advance technology. When any new advance technology comes in the market
that made the old technology obsolete and also affect the company products and services. So, it
is important for the organisation to find the changes and to bring the advance technology
accordingly to meet down the changes and requirement. With that it also helps them in
producing their product in effective manner so through which company can attracts its more and
more customers and also give them satisfaction in each course (Asgari, Nikbaksh and Hill,
Farahani 2016 ). Technological changes is the biggest issues that are being faced by the
organisation. This is because it is not possible for the venture to adopt new technological very
frequently as well as it enhance the cost of venture.
Theories related to the operation, logistics and supply chain management
Kaizen approach
Kaizen is the Japanese term which means continuous improvement, it is the approach
which is being used by the venture in order to maintain the quality in the production process or
production of goods and services. The venture try to find different innovative ideas and thaughts
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which helps them to produce new and innovative goods at every production process. Continuous
improvement is very significant part of the venture which helps them retain old clients and
attract new customers. Change is very important, which serve satisfaction to both customers and
employees (Wisner and Leong, 2014). If they find change they will feel happy and satisfied.
There are several aspects at which change and improvement can be implemented such as
production process, technological advancement, organisation;s structure and policies etc. Thus, it
can be said that Ford should use this approach in order to implement change and improvement in
their business.
Just in time manufacturing
It is another very effective strategy of total quality management and supply chain
management. It is the strategy which helps the organisation to enhance and maintain the quality
of the products in order to serve the highest level of satisfaction to the customers. The aim and
objectives of this model is to reduce the time in production process and maintenance of good
relationship with the customers and suppliers (Stadtler, 2015). The venture try to plan the
different 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 sent to
the production department to process and the final goods 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 important tool for the organisation like Ford. It is quality management
tool which helps the organisation in several aspects of the production. It is the method which is
used to enhance the capability of the venture in their different processes of the business. It helps
the organisation to enhance their performance and reduce the process variation by detecting and
reducing the defects (Conley, 2017). It is very important for the Ford to implement six Sigma.
There are different advantages of using this approach, that are as follows:
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the project report that total quality management is very
significant aspect for the venture in order to enhance the process of organisation. It is being
applied to the several aspects of the venture such as supply chain management, logistics,
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operations etc. report includes the issues faced by the venture such as change in the needs, wants
and preference of the customers, technological change, procurement of quality material,
relationship with the suppliers etc. This issues are decreasing the customer's retention, image,
productivity, profitability of the venture. It is very important for the venture to focus on the
different strategies which helps them to reduce these issues. Very effective strategy which can
helps them to reduce these issues and serve different issues that is Six Sigma. The report also
include different theories of quality management, supply chain management that are Kaizen
approach, Just in time manufacturing and Six Sigma.
RECOMMENDATION
The venture is facing several issues such as technology adoption, change in needs and
wants of the customers, quality reduction etc. In order to remove this problem, the venture to
implement six sigma strategy, which serve them different benefits, that are
 Cost reduction: The old process of organisation is very costly, by using the six Sigma
they can able to reduce their cost of production.
 Improving quality: Ford have been renown for their quality products and services, but
time on time it has been decreasing. This have bad impact over the performance of
venture. After using the six sigma they can able to enhance their quality again
 Poor customer satisfaction rates: Satisfying customer demand is as critical to success
as leveraging it. These issues are being linked to several other aspects such as detection
of the defects etc. This increase dis-satisfaction level of the customers. Six Sigma helps
the venture to streamline their processes, and improve production issues.
 Lowering environmental impact by reducing solvent consumption: Six Sigma is the
strategy which is totally based on the green philosophy. The venture can use it in order to
enhance their environmental awareness. Ford’s consumption of vital resources proved
very costly in the long-term. But by committing to a green work culture with Six Sigma,
they reduced costs, increased quality, and improved customer satisfaction.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journal
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