A Report on Operations and Supply Chain Management at Ford Romania

This report analyzes Ford Romania's operations and supply chain management, focusing on new product and service development and quality management. It examines the company's challenges in adapting to market trends, integrating innovative technologies, and maintaining sustainability, particularly within the context of the product life cycle. The report applies theories like materials logistics management to understand Ford's supply chain activities, including finance, manufacturing, and engineering aspects at the Craiova plant. It also explores solutions to operational challenges, emphasizing the importance of quality control and capacity design. Recommendations include improving finance, adopting new technologies, and enhancing human resource management. The report concludes that Ford Romania can improve its operations and product quality through strategic supply chain and operations management practices.

OPERATIONS AND SUPPLY
CHAIN

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
New product or service development or process.........................................................................3
MANAGING QUALITY............................................................................................................5
Solutions to operations management...........................................................................................6
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Operations and Supply Chain Management deals in the wide areas which includes the
manufacturing as well as service industries which involve functions of sourcing, operations
planning, materials management, distribution, logistics, demand forecasting, retail, order
fulfilment and many more (Rindova and Courtney, 2020). There is a basic difference between
operation management and supply chain management as the operation management deals with
the things which are going on inside the company while the supply management focuses on the
things which mainly happen outside the company including the obtaining of the materials and the
delivering of the products. Ford Romania is basically an automobile company which is located in
Romania deals in the manufacturing of the products like engines, Automobiles etc. (Ford
Romania, 2021). The report will shed light on the two major areas of product and service
development and managing the quality of the same in the company. It will focus on the issues
faced while implementing these two processes. Various theories of operations, supply chain and
logistics will be used. It will be concluded by various recommendations through which these
issues can be resolved.
New product or service development or process
Ford Company is the company which deals in the designing, manufacturing, marketing
and servicing of the full line products including the utility vehicles, trucks, cars as well as luxury
vehicles. Working and the operating in the emerging and competitive industry, the companies
need to develop new products and services continuously. But the company faces numerous issues
while developing and processing the new products and services (Banila, 2021). The company
needs to resolve the issues in order to gain greater competitive advantage among the competitors
like Nissan, Toyota, Honda, GM and Chrysler. The company focuses on developing the low cost
products by focussing on the various functions. Ford Company makes a decision to develop
global cars which can have technology and development integrated in them. The global standards
are also required to be followed by the company while developing and processing the products
and services (Athaide, Zhang and Klink, 2019).
The Ford Company faces various issues such as adapting to the trend. The company need to
analyse the current trends in the market and then consider the same while developing the new
products. This was observed that last year, the trend was of SUVs. In the field of innovation, the
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company is lagging behind as compared to the competitors. This is why; its products are not able
to keep up with the market changes. This becomes challenging for the company to integrate the
innovative technologies in its product and make them as low cost products. There is a need to
develop various strategies so that the company can maintain its goal while coping up with the
market changes (Asl-Najafi and Yaghoubi, 2021).
The theory of product life cycle can be used for the product design as it involves 5 major steps
including development, introduction, growth, maturity and decline. In one or the other phase of
product development, Ford company faces various issues and challenges which prove to be
difficult for gaining competitive advantage. In the first phase of development, the company
needs to perform research and development regarding the markets of Romania and the industry
in which it operates. The R&D costs higher than expected by the company. This issue prove to
be an obstacle in analysing the markets of automotive industry. Resolving this issue can help the
company in getting an idea about the new products of its competitors companies also which can
become the benchmark in the product development of Ford in Romania. Furthermore, in the
introduction stage, the market is developed for the product. In this stage, higher marketing costs
are needed by the company so that they can reach the potential customers. Investors are needed
in this but Ford faces issues because of its low positioning in the market. Ford company faces
main issues of technology and sustainability while developing new products and services
(Brown, 2017). Also, in this time of pandemic the company is facing issues while getting the raw
materials from other countries as there are complete restrictions on the travel. Ford is also unable
to maintain sustainability in its products and services which make it face the disadvantages like
less competitive advantage, poor positioning, less loyal and confident customers, environmental
challenges and many more. Also, high cost is needed for making the customers aware of the
products through marketing campaigns, advertising and many more.
In the growth stage of the product life cycle, the product of the company is accepted by the
customers but it must be ensured that the demand is growing. This is why, there are various
issues faced in the operations including the increase in production, expansion in the availability
and many more. For example, the company develops the global care, so it must ensure that it is
accepted by most of the customers so that it can be expanded in the other countries as well.
In the maturity stage, the company can face greater profitability or the sales can level off. Ford
needs to add more features in the product for maintaining the market share (Villarruel, 2018).
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There is also decline in the production costs due to more efficiency in the manufacturing process.
There is also need to add funding at this stage. In the final stage of decline, the revenue is mainly
decreased because of various reasons like market saturation, changing needs of customers, higher
competition etc. So the companies like Ford can choose any option like selling the rights to other
business, discontinuing the product, tapping into new markets and many more (He, Pan and
Deng, 2018).
Therefore, it is must for Ford to manage the development of the products so that it does not need
to discontinue the product and also can compete in the emerging markets. The Ford Company
can only be successful when it efficiently performs the stages of the product lifecycle. The
company must therefore focus on developing new and innovative products by focusing on
sustainability and new technologies.
MANAGING QUALITY
Theories of supply chain management for Managing quality
For understanding Ford company's supply chain activities in Romania related to
management of quality of its product the theory which is being utilized is Materials Logistics
management. This theory is the integration of all the materials which are related to functions of
the company which include financing, manufacturing and engineering. In Romania this company
is known for its production of compact SUV's which is produced in the Craiova plant (Tredway,
2017).
Finance :
For the management of quality of the product a company needs to have proper finance in
its products. The investment this company has made on the manufacturing of its SUV which is
famous in Romania is $235million. This investment was made by the company as the demand of
the product is rising in many countries and the company wanted to maintain its quality thus the
company decided to invest in the quality of its product (Yu, 2020).
Manufacturing :
The manufacturing of the cars for this company is done in many of its production plant
one of which is situated in Romania known as Craiova Plant. The manufacturing plan of this
company covers up an area of 1900 sq m. In this plant the company manufactures wide range of
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products. For the manufacturing of the trusted cars in this plant the company has over 6000
employees working in this facility for making sure the product is of great quality (Tredway,
2017).
Engineering :
Behind the engineering of the cars of this company is the technical managers of the
company who is a Romanian engineers. These are very skill full individual which are responsible
for the company's success for many years. These individuals are responsible for manufacturing
300000 units of cars in a year. Thus, they have a lot of experience under which the quality of the
company is bound to be excellent (de los Mozos and López , 2020).
Solutions to operations management
Operational management process of a company is the transformation of its inputs into
outputs. The inputs for Ford company is its materials, equipment, labour and finance which the
company turns into Ford cars by the help of operations process. In Romania the company's all
the operations take place in the Craiova Plant. The company is successful in production of
300000 units of cars in a year in this facility. Operations are very necessary for a company to not
only make quality product but also maintain the quality of its existing products. The operations
of this company include,
Designing of cars :
The aim of this company has been to achieve consistency globally which can be done
only by maintaining the quality of the cars. For that the operational management of this company
focuses on design for customers satisfaction (Mohtar and et.al., 2019).
Quality Management :
For ensuring the quality of a car that is produced in the Romanian plant of the company,
there are individuals which are assigned for only checking the quality of the final product. This is
a crucial part of the operations for management of quality of the product.
Capacity Design :
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The design of the Craiova Plant in Romania is perfect for the maximum production of its
cars. The quality of a product is hard to be maintained if there is excess utilization of its
resources for production of more cars (Mire, 2021).
These were the operations which this company does for maintaining the quality of its
products. For solutions of the problems which this company faces in operations these solutions
are suggested, Individuals working in the company are very much responsible for the quality of
the product. It is the duty of the company HR to hire individuals which can make sure that the
company is maintaining quality.
Recommendation
Ford company has been very successful over the years, this has been because of the
quality of car which it provides in the market. The production plant of this company in Romania,
Craiova Plant has huge potentials. With the help of proper supply management this company can
increase the quality of its products. For improving the quality of the product the most essential
requirement for the company would be to get proper finance that will help the company to run its
operations and also maintain the quality of product by getting the proper raw materials. The
manufacturing of cars in this plant of the company is very good. The company has 6000
employees which are very hard-working because of the good work culture (Tredway, 2017). But
for further success the company can try to install new latest technological machinery which will
help the company to achieve ever better performance in its manufacturing and eventually
maintaining the quality (Harnish and Collins, 2021). The engineers of this company are very
excellent in what they do, for them the best recommendation would be to analyse the work of
their subordinates as the quality of the cars depends on the employees of this company. With the
help of introduction of Human Resource in the company, this company will be able to hire
talented individual, maintain discipline in the company, it will also help the company to maintain
a good work culture which is very important for the success of the company, which reflects the
quality of its products. For improving the quality checking management of the company it can
make the procedure even more complicated which will decrease the errors which can be made by
one person.
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CONCLUSION
With the help of this project it can be concluded that Ford company in Romania is very
successful in its business and the new products which it produces, have great quality. This
project helps in managing operations and supply chain for the management of quality and
production of new products and process for the company. In this project theories are applied for
understanding new products and quality management of the products. This project also discusses
operations management of the company and provides solutions. With the help of
recommendations this project helps the company for improving its process related to quality
management and new products.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Asl-Najafi, J. and Yaghoubi, S., 2021. A novel perspective on closed-loop supply chain
coordination: Product life-cycle approach. Journal of Cleaner Production. 289.
p.125697.
Athaide, G.A., Zhang, J.Q. and Klink, R.R., 2019. Buyer relationships when developing new
products: a contingency model. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.
Brown, T.E., 2017. Sensor-based entrepreneurship: A framework for developing new products
and services. Business Horizons. 60(6). pp.819-830.
de los Mozos, E.Á. and López, N.G., 2020. Short-term logistics management at a multinational
corporation. Procedia Manufacturing. 51. pp.1696-1702.
Harnish, V. and Collins, J., 2021. The greatest business decisions of all time: How Apple, Ford,
IBM, Zappos, and others made radical choices that changed the course of business.
Fortune Books.
He, B., Pan, Q. and Deng, Z., 2018. Product carbon footprint for product life cycle under
uncertainty. Journal of Cleaner Production. 187. pp.459-472.
Mire, K., 2021. The Eagle Ford Shale Play of Texas Thirteen Years of Development December
2020.
Mohtar, R.H., and et.al., 2019. Economic, social, and environmental evaluation of energy
development in the Eagle Ford shale play. Science of the Total Environment. 646.
pp.1601-1614.
Rindova, V. and Courtney, H., 2020. To Shape or Adapt: Knowledge Problems, Epistemologies,
and Strategic Postures under Knightian Uncertainty. Academy of Management
Review. 45(4). pp.787-807.
Villarruel, A.M., 2018. Building innovation and sustainability in programs of research. Journal
of Nursing Scholarship. 50(1). pp.5-10.
Yu, Z., 2020. Current Situation and Solution of Express Packaging Under “Green Logistics”.
In Global Perspectives on Green Business Administration and Sustainable Supply Chain
Management (pp. 156-162). IGI Global.
Online
Banila, N., 2021. Ford Romania names new president. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://seenews.com/news/ford-romania-names-new-president-general-manager-at-
craiova-plant-731736>
Ford Romania, 2021. [ONLINE]. Available through :<
https://www.emeoutlookmag.com/company-profiles/303-ford-romania>
Tredway, G., 2017. Ford Ecosport production starts in romania.[Online] Available trough:
<https://www.automotivelogistics.media/ford-ecosport-production-starts-in-romania-/
19386.article>
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