Detailed Report on Jaguar's Operation Management and Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Jaguar's operation management, focusing on various aspects such as production processes, supply chain networks, and performance objectives. It delves into the different models of Jaguar cars, including XE, XF, XJ, and F-Type, highlighting their unique features and production methods. The report examines Jaguar's lean manufacturing approach, emphasizing its commitment to efficiency and quality. It also explores the roles of various departments within Jaguar, including marketing and sales, finance, human resources, and engineering, and how they collaborate with operation management to achieve organizational goals. Furthermore, the report addresses the challenges faced by operation functions and the strategies employed to overcome them, providing a holistic view of Jaguar's operational strategies and their impact on the company's success.

Operation Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK...............................................................................................................................................1
PART 1...................................................................................................................................1
PART 2...................................................................................................................................4
PART 3...................................................................................................................................5
CONCULSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Operation Management is the function of management which deals with designing and
controlling the procedure of production and redesigning business operations in the production of
goods and services. Through proper management they can make sure that whatever operation is
done in the organisation are carried out properly. This ensures that resources & materials are
used in an efficient manner and are satisfying consumer demands. By the help of production
system company converts a raw material into finished products. It creates a product and manage
its quality. (Heizer, 2016). This report will be dealing with different elements of operation
management and for that Jaguar company is taken in the context. It is an UK based luxury car
manufacturer and was founded in 1934. This auto mobile brand has made its mark all over the
world by delivering quality cars to their customers and all this has happened because of their
excellent operation management.
TASK
PART 1
Jaguar is known for its luxury and sporty cars. It is growing in a rapid speed and
constantly expanding their market all over the world. In the market they have 4 models which
represent them i.e., F-type, XE, XF and XJ. In these models there are sub variates also.
XE: It is an executive car which was launched in 2014 at Paris Auto Show and is known
for its light weight aluminium body. It is considered as most reliable family car. XE is the first
aluminium monocoque structure car. It is generally a Sedan car type. XE has 5 models i.e., SE,
Prestige, Portfolio, R-Sport and XE S. This model of Jaguar is a concept of innovation,
technology and design (Slack, 2015). It has Jaguar Land Rover 2.0 litre turbocharged four
cylinder engine known as Ingenium. It has both petrol & diesel cars and its 2.0 L diesel engine
produces 163 PS which is helpful in reducing the averaged fuel consumption. 2.0 L, 1.5 litre
three cylinder, 3.0 litre cylinder and 4.0 litre eight cylinder engines are available in this segment.
In 2016, Jaguar Land Rover's Castle Bromwich plant started producing Jaguar XE. Its all model
has ZF 8HP45 eight speed automatic transmission and due to all traction control system it is able
to adapt in all kind of terrains. Its exterior design with front and rear crash system has reduced
insurance costs (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra, 2013). For safety purpose it has included
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Advanced Emergency Braking System which has helped them in getting full rating by Euro
NCAP.
Features of Production of Jaguar XE
XF: This model of Jaguar is known for its design and holds a special image in the eyes of
their customer. It was launched in 2006 and its production takes place in Castle Bromwich
Assembly. It is the most award winning car and comes in two variants i.e., Saloon or
Sportsbrake. These models used six speed ZF 6HP26 transmission and has manually controlled
gear system. It has gained 4 points out of 5 by EuroNCAP for its safety purpose (Hill and Hill,
2012). It lacks in the safety measures which has become its major draw back and has reduced its
craze among customers. It has recorded speed up to 360 km/h. XF has J blade design and emits
CO2 from 180 to 200g/km in petrol version. XF is one of the lightest cars in its class.
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XJ: It is fully defined luxury car from Jaguar and comes in 5 ranges. It has glass roof and
has metallic paint. XL comes in 3 L diesel engine with 18 to 20 inch alloy wheels. Top speed of
this model is up to 250 km/h and has 6 speed automatic transmission. Its diesel engine version
has a fuel economy of less than 40 miles per gallon and emits approx. 184g/km CO2.
F Type: This variant of Jaguar is a sports car with sitting capacity of two people and has
5 litre supercharged V8. Buyers can experience its top speed of 322 km/h and its body is
convertible which is made up of aluminium. It also gives 25 various driving modes so that the
people who are setting in the car can feel comfort while driving in different terrains. Its seats are
made from leather and has full LED lighting in the rear (Karlsson, 2010). It is widely accepted
car by people, this can be found out through its sales data. Right from starting when it was
launched and till now its sales has reached up to 40 thousands.
(b) Production process of the products and services.
Jaguar follows lean manufacturing procedure and this has given them success in their
new S type model. The main production of this car manufacturing company is carried out in
Castle Bromwich industry in Birmingham. They are constantly working to improve their
production process or methods by adopting Japanese technology. Whatever skills are developed
through lean production will be used in creating new models (Barratt, Choi and Li, 2011). Lean
manufacturing deals with terminating waste in the production system, so that they can achieve
quality and maximum efficiency. This can be achieved by regularly keeping an eye on the
process. Through this more emphasis can be given on labour and machinery.
(c) Performance objectives of operations.
 Emphasis on the designs and quality of the cars.
 Whether location is good or not
 Evaluation of the environment and identifying useful resources (Zurich, 2017).
 Need of tangible and non tangible inputs and outputs are tested.
 Through testing design, development and production stages management of Jaguar
checks that their cars are safer, durable and have quality.
 They use Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) and Computer Aided
Engineering(CAE) software to measure the performance and such things saves their time.
For example; Jaguar's Ingenium engines go through testing of two million kilometres.
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(d) Overview of the supply chain network.
For making sure that its operations are carried out in time and whatever key materials
they are using should be of fine quality, Jaguar takes services of DHL for delivering logistics
around the Europe and other parts of world. Pirelli company supplies them tyres for their all cars
and before coming out of the plant their fuel tank is filled with Castrol oil. CloudCar has also
been a supplier to Jaguar for years. For XJ model Novelis supplies them aluminium sheets and
Bowers & Wilkins provides them audio equipments. Other external suppliers are ZF group, Lear
Group, Johnson Control Inc., Faurecia, Visteon and Denso.
PART 2
Every business have some activities which are performed with the help of resources and
these assist them in converting inputs into outputs. If a company wants to gain success they have
to identify their operations and need to manage them so that they can yield better results. In
Jaguar there are various departments like human resource, sales & marketing and finance. Each
has some or other functions which they have to do in order to maintain a constant growth (Peng
and Lai, 2012). All these areas should work together to increase efficiency in the work. People
who are responsible for operation management in Jaguar have to collaborate with other managers
so that they can build a long term strategy for the organisation. Whatever strategy has been
made, operation management professional provides functional elements needed to achieve
overall objectives of Jaguar. Planning about the goals and different legislation for logistic
management, budget management and service support management. It makes sure that all the
departments of firm are in the right track. The main aim of Jaguar is to improve efficiency in
their operations and satisfy customers through quality services. As there is tough competition in
the auto mobile sector, they have to come with unique innovation which could attract buyers to
them. For this all areas of the organisation have to understand their responsibility and make a
coordination with each other.
Marketing and Sales Department
Operation management can assist them in checking flow of the business information. For
example; Jaguar can prepare a plan in which all different departments are given freedom to
communicate with operation management personnel. They can look at the manufacturing
activities and can make decision on bases of it. Marketing people will analyse the market and
will try to identify the needs of customers. For this they can use different techniques and tools to
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know what consumers expect from Jaguar (Subramanian and Ramanathan, 2012). They will use
social media and will try to engage people in various activities. Marketing and sales team has a
role of promoting and selling the cars, so they also get to know what is the market trends. Both
the inflow and outflow task should be done in better way by making operation function
personnel aware about the scenario. We could assume a scenario, for example; Jaguar has made
a car and now they want to introduce that in the market. Operation management personnel aware
marketing people about the how many cars they have manufactured and what are the output rates
they have to sell. Output rates is the final rate and it is prepared after analysing all the input costs
which company as faced for manufacturing a single car. After that inventory levels are defined
with the existing operating capabilities. Now marketing and sells staff can easily send and
promote the new car model because they know each and every thing of the manufacturing
process. After few months marketing staff revert back to them, informing about the customer
demands, market response and how much more cars has to be made (Galindo and Batta, 2013).
This process goes on repeating and every time the final product gets better.
Finance and Operation Management Department.
Finance and operation management needs to set their priorities and should understand
each other. Finance deals with the money and capital, so operation management tell them about
requirements related to capital. After that they gives them a capital investment plan which briefs
about funds which has been invested or will be invested. Finance people takes measures
regarding financial services and allocate budget for the manufacturing of cars. They make aware
what all funds are available to the company and from where they will be buying the parts. They
try to ensure that in the minimum budget they can take out maximum output.
Human Resource Department.
Functional management team demands that they want more labour for carrying out
production and this demand is put in front of human resource department. They recruit new
people by analysing job requirements and they inform labour costs. It also make them aware
about the skills which newly hired candidates posses (Lewis and Brown, 2012). Such thing will
assist them in deciding what kind of person will be fit for which stage of manufacturing
according to their qualification. In the Jaguar company, it is one of the crucial department who
take care that all things are going well and there is proper use of the resources.
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Engineering Department.
Engineering is one of most important area of a car making company because they are
responsible for designing and technology. It has to be linked with operation management and
they ask them capabilities of products and what kind of design they want for the new car. In back
engineers provides them technology and product specification. All the cars should be tested
before it is launched for the sale in the market. Engineering personnel tries to design a product
which can make their cars unique from their competitors. They try to bring new products to the
market and involved in problem solving. Every minute of the cars are developed and judged by
the engineer.
PART 3
There are many challenges operation function faces which effects its management. They
should try to get those tools which will help them in overcoming those situations which are
affecting their operations. Operation manager at Jaguar has to understand all their business like
its products, buyers and technology. Through this they will better able to deal with different
processes and will bring more productivity & efficiency. Managing service system in Jaguar has
become a typical task because competition in the luxury car market has increased. As everyday
some or other operations takes place in manufacturing unit of Jaguar, which give rise to issues.
The approaches used by the managers in Jaguar is not suitable in the current marketing scenario
because its competitor are using different techniques to transform the manufacturing. They make
sure that all the aspects of production process till the supply of the products should have quality
in them (Parry, Mills and Turner, 2010). Following are some of the challenges faced by the
operation management:-
Globalization: This deals with the expansion of the businesses into different countries
and this happens when government of any country reduces its trade barriers and wants to develop
more technologies. So Jaguar has to face competition from other companies of the same sector
and have to design cars which would satisfy all the customers. They have to reduce the prices of
their cars if they have to gain competitive advantage. Cutting the prices will directly affects the
production system and there will be less profit margin (Nagurney, Masoumi and Yu 2012). To
overcome this, they can use innovative technologies which is cheap and are of great use.
Sustainability: They have to analyse the current resources to know that does their
current business can maintain existing practices without putting future resources at risk. For that
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they can observe and evaluate social, economic and economic areas. These impacts the
surrounding in which they are operating. For example; some models of Jaguar cars emits too
much pollution and government has issued a notice to them on this. In solution to this, they can
adopt CSR model in their production system by using cleaner fuels.
Communication: There might be situation when there is no proper coordination between
various departments of Jaguar and its production management team. This can lead to disaster
because manufacturing staff don't have enough knowledge of the customer expectation. They
might not have sufficient labours and capital with them. Their sales will drastically go down if
this happens and they will loose the trust of the buyers. Jaguar operation management
department have to coordinate and build a link with other departments like HR, finance, sales &
marketing and engineering. Through this they will know the resources which are needed to
mange the production system. This will also increase the capabilities of Jaguar employees and
will boost the moral & confidence in them.
Productivity of Resources: This point deals with the quality of the cars delivered by the
Jaguar. Quality directly depends upon the proper use of the resources. If all the elements which
are used in the production system are not properly utilized then there will be increase in the
manufacturing cost. So they should try to manage and introduce quality control system in
Jaguar . Only those cars should be passed which passes quality tests.
Ethical Conduct: This is the point which is becoming very important in the business
now a days. Jaguar operation functions can affects their shareholders, management, staff and
buyers of the cars. It is not easy to make shareholders happy because everyone has different
perspective and needs. By different opinion and interest there manufacturing system will widely
affect. They should find a common solution which will make them happy (Akkerman, Farahani
and Grunow, 2010). If any employees does not perform well, Jaguar management team should
gives him training instead of terminating him. Ethical issues plays a important role in the
businesses, so Jaguar should take care that they follow every legislation involved in operation
management.
Lack of labours: Shortage in the labour will badly affect the production process of
Jaguar and they will not able to deal with the high demands. In such situation a single labour will
be given multi task which will automatically increase the workload. Rise in the workload will
decrease the efficiency and brining down the quality. To overcome such situation they should pre
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plan the production system and should aware human resource department about the intake of the
new candidates.
Shortage of the resources: For manufacturing a car Jaguar needs lots of raw materials
and these parts are designed in a way that it brings a world class car. But situation will become
worse if there is no proper resources which are used in car production. For example; Jaguar uses
steel for making body of their cars. Suddenly there is increase in the price of the steel in the
international market, so this will affect the demand and company will not get a proper supply.
CONCULSION
From the above report we can conclude that every organisation needs proper management
of their operations. Jaguar who is a leading car manufacturing company has to make sure that
their manufacturing process is dynamic so that each resource used in the process has some value.
They have to coordinate with other departments like HR, sales and marketing, engineering and
finance, so that greater productivity can be achieved. There are some challenges which hampers
the market of Jaguar and if they are not addressed can lead them to crisis.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akkerman, R., Farahani, P and Grunow, M., 2010. Quality, safety and sustainability in food
distribution: a review of quantitative operations management approaches and
challenges. Or Spectrum. 32(4). pp.863-904.
Barratt, M., Choi, T.Y and Li, M., 2011. Qualitative case studies in operations management:
Trends, research outcomes, and future research implications. Journal of Operations
Management. 29(4). pp.329-342.
Galindo, G and Batta, R., 2013. Review of recent developments in OR/MS research in disaster
operations management. European Journal of Operational Research. 230(2). pp.201-
211.
Heizer, J., 2016. Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India.
Hill, A and Hill, T., 2012. Operations management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Karlsson, C. ed., 2010. Researching operations management. Routledge.
Krajewski, L.J., Ritzman, L.P and Malhotra, M.K., 2013. Operations management: processes
and supply chains (Vol. 1). New York, NY: Pearson.
Lewis, M.A and Brown, A.D., 2012. How different is professional service operations
management?. Journal of Operations Management. 30(1). pp.1-11.
Nagurney, A., Masoumi, A.H and Yu, M., 2012. Supply chain network operations management
of a blood banking system with cost and risk minimization. Computational Management
Science. 9(2). pp.205-231.
Parry, G., Mills, J and Turner, C., 2010. Lean competence: integration of theories in operations
management practice. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. 15(3).
pp.216-226.
Peng, D.X and Lai, F., 2012. Using partial least squares in operations management research: A
practical guideline and summary of past research. Journal of Operations
Management. 30(6). pp.467-480.
Slack, N., 2015. Operations strategy. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Subramanian, N and Ramanathan, R., 2012. A review of applications of Analytic Hierarchy
Process in operations management. International Journal of Production
Economics. 138(2). pp.215-241.
Zurich, L.B., 2017. Service Operations and Management.
Online
What are some of the challenges facing Operations Managers today?. 2016. [Online]. Available
through: <https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-of-the-challenges-facing-Operations-
Managers-today>. [Accessed on 28th June 2017]
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