Supply Chain Management and Competitive Advantage at JLR

This report examines the supply chain management and logistics of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), focusing on how the company achieves and sustains a competitive advantage. It explores the relationship between supply chain networks, logistics, and competitive advantage, highlighting the importance of optimizing processes and managing information flow. The report discusses the application of lean and agile supply chain models, evaluating their respective strengths and suitability for JLR's operations. It also addresses the challenges posed by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic on JLR's interconnected supply chains, particularly the impact on cross-border operations. Recommendations are provided to mitigate these risks, including diversifying manufacturing options, investing in automation, and refining talent strategies. The report concludes by emphasizing the critical role of logistics in supply chain management for cost reduction and overall operational efficiency, and suggests that JLR should prioritize these areas to ensure future success.

Supply chain management
and logistics

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Relation between supply chain network, logistics and competitive advantage...............3
Managing competitive advantage...........................................................................................4
Recommendations to sustain competitive advantage.........................................................5
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals..................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Supply chain management is the process of managing the flow of goods and services. It
includes all the processes which helps in transforming raw materials into final products. Supply
chain management comprises of streamlining the supplies of business and other activities which
will help in gaining customer value and thus, gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Logistics is a part of supply chain management which deals with planning, implementing and
control the business processes of goods and products (Wieland, 2021). It also connect the
required information between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the
requirements of the clients and customers. Jaguar land rover is a British multinational
automotive company. It produces many luxury vehicles and sports utility vehicles. Jaguar land
rover s headquartered in Coventry, United Kingdom. This report deals with the relations related
to supply chain management of JLR and their ways to gain competitive advantage.
MAIN BODY
Relation between supply chain network, logistics and competitive advantage
Supply chain management and networks is one of the main step to optimize the budget
of an organisation which produces goods and services. Logistics has a great influence in supply
chain in managing physical and informational flow in orders. This helps in optimising the whole
process and avoiding any unnecessary waste of the available resources. Logistics is a concept
which narrow its focus related to globalisation of resource management starting from the local
units till the entire network of production points. Supply chain on the other hand is more complex
and involves the use of logistics to perform end to end optimisation in the organisation as well
as the process of working with the counter parties (Saberi and et.al., 2019). Logistics is used to
achieve competiveness and increase the profitability of the company.
Logistics also helps in building the entire network of structure of supply chains along with
end user. The introduction of innovation in the process of supply chains and logistics is done by
focusing on increasing the overall efficiency of the participants. The role of logistics in supply
chain management helps in covering many tasks at a single time. It helps n designing the
storage facilities made by looking at the requirements for storage of the product and the use of
logistics in supply chain management ends with identifying the different solutions for
automation. In the transportation of the products, logistics in the supply work along with the
cargo carriers and the means of transport listed by the company demands. It helps in planning
the routes and calculating the fuel costs of the complete process of transportation of the

products. During the part of working with customs, the company plans about the international
delivery of the manufactured products and the important part during this transportation process
is that it fully complies along with the custom requirements. It contains all the important
documentation. Intermediates in the logistics are the third party and the resources which are not
for company.
These are involved with the implementation of supply chain. Finding the intermediaries
with an acceptable ratio for long term is the job of a good logistic management (Koberg, and
Longoni, 2019). The global logistics of Jaguar land rover has helped the company monitor their
supplies and the influence on the post market service. The supplies of the company are a main
provider for bumper around the whole of UK’s auto motive company. These suppliers are facing
many challenges to meet the needs and demands of the jaguar land rover because of the
increased demand for making new cars within the industry. The company has taken complete
advantage of the latest and advanced engineering knowledge which helps them to give out
many innovative solutions. The companies to supply for jaguar land rover have taken the
responsibilities for producing non current bumpers on the existing parts of jaguar. It has helped
the company to get the control of bulky parts. Jaguar has a great manufacturing team with many
machines installed to allows the production go smoothly. Implementing the innovative idea has
given the company effect on restoring the levels of their services. It leads to increased order for
products for jaguar land rover. These new ideas have let the jaguar reduce their need for
storage space. Jaguar has gained much competitive advantage in the fast changing markets
and has helped identified the new ways for improving their services.
Managing competitive advantage
Supply chains are fluctuating in the modern market dynamics as the customers are both
digital and global. It increases the competition in the market and pushed many companies to
innovate and deliver the product to their customers as quickly as possible. There are two
different types of supply chain models called as lean supply chain and agile supply chain. Agile
supply chain helps to focus on flexibility and receptiveness (Govindan, and et.al., 2018). It helps
in making quick decisions according to the changes in the demands and preferences of the
customers. It makes it easy for the companies to bear with unpredictability and avoid the
postponement in the market area. An agile form of supply chain will wait to check and calculate
the demand before the production of the final product. It helps in responding directly to the
demands rather than highlighting the process. Prediction is very important process before the
finalisation of the product and making the process fast and efficient. Agile supply chain will help

in maintaining the balance of being updated with the short term forecasted projections. It is
usually done in the products having short life cycle or the products which can be customisable.
The production house must be prepared for the changes occurring rapidly in the modern market
and emerge with the shifting trends (Sindi, and Roe, 2017). Strong partnerships and the
connection can help in making the agile supply chain work well within an organisation. When
there is no connection then the supply chains and the production process takes a lot of time
which will at the need an agile supply chain. It also helps in reducing the warehouse costs.
Lean supply chain on the other hand is the traditional factory chain. It focuses more on
producing high volume at low costs. The main aim of this supply chain is to add more value to
the customers by reducing the costs of goods and decreasing the waste. This supply chain
works on reliability and predictability apart from focusing on flexibility and adaptability like the
agile supply chain. In the lean supply chain, producing is planned from long before in advance
and not depending on the changing markets. Working with the help of preplanning everything
helps in finding the lowest costs for the large volumes of the required product. Lean supply
chain is best for the products having low market variability. Demands for such products rise
even when the economic situation is not well. It is the most traditional and popular type of
supply chain which aims to reduce the expenses.
The need for innovation is increasing day by day especially in the vehicle technologies
adding to the increasing complexity. These changing trends built up many engineering
challenges and thus increase the product development abilities. Jaguar land rover has seen
many opportunities from the growing ideas and is adapting new vehicle development. The use
of lean supply chains has brought many benefits for the jaguar land rover company. It has
increased the cross functional bandwidth of the company in a big extent (Vázquez Requejo,
2018). This has lead to more collaborations and resolving the issues. It has helped the company
attain more early detection and easy correction of the errors. All the changes implemented
within the company have their fair and share in making a huge difference positively to the brand
value of jaguar land rover. Mainly, the lean supply chain has made it able to detect and freeze
the event leading to better quality.
Recommendations to sustain competitive advantage
The effects of Brexit and Covid can destroy the Jaguar land rover’s cross border and
interconnected supply chain. The steering wheel of Jaguar land rover is manufactured from
Germany, the electric system comes from Romania and the airbags are designed and
manufactured in Poland. This shows that more than half of the parts of this British multinational
automotive company come from the abroad. This continued to happen till the introduction of

modern supply chain logistics. In current condition where UK is withdrawing from the European
Union and the situation due to Covid -19 pandemic has made a lot of challenges for the
company. It will have a direct impact on the supply chains of the Jaguar land rover. Supply
chains are now highly optimised, multitier and works with smooth flows of products and services
from labour coming from across the border.
The risk of Brexit has impacted the interconnectedness of the global supply chains of the
company (Ciccullo and et.al., 2018). The effects of Brexit will create issues such as in custom
delays, changes in tariffs and regulating the diversion. All these factors have the potential to
disrupt the production of jaguar land rover. The addition on the import and other rates will
decrease the productivity of the company and will eliminate the profit margin. Jaguar land rover
can move their convenes the international manufacturers and suppliers to move the complete
production to UK. Brexit opens the opportunity to increase the local production and enhance the
foundation for industrialisation. The new launches from the company can help in attracting the
French companies to set their business operation in UK. Jaguar land rover must focus more on
the international expansion along with minimising the risks of Brexit. Jaguar land rover has joint
venture with other countries and making the engine facility on the same site will help the
company to cut the costs and attain fast turnover times for factory to shelf.
The process of manufacturing the engine closer to the main site will make the company
rely on other countries less and built the Britain trading relation. Companies idea to invest in
local parts and production will in increase the import costs which is managed by the investments
in the technologies developing more manufacturing capacity. Automation will help Jaguar land
rover to make up for high labour costs along with production in the UK itself. It will also help in
increasing the economy of the whole country and will eliminate the dependence on European
countries. Along with this, jaguar land rover must reconsider their talent strategy (Ahmed, and
Huma, 2021). With the help of rapid technological advancements, technical staff and the skilled
engineers, the company will be able to develop self driving and electronic cars. It is therefore
important for jaguar land rover to fill in the gaps in the main roles which can result from the
restricted access to skilled employees coming from EU. The company must decide the correct
area to invest for their local parts procurement and production.
CONCLUSION
It is clear that the role of logistics in supply chain management is very important. The two
are inseparable concepts which are used to decrease the overall costs of the production of
goods and services in an organisation. It can be concluded that Jaguar land rover works with an

interconnected supply chain which is based on the cross European markets for their
manufacturing and other operations. The company has to face many challenges due to the
effects of Brexit and pandemic. It is best for the company to diversify their options for
manufacturing and producing in order to dissolve the effects of pandemic and risks of Brexit.
Along with this, Jaguar land rover must also put their focus on being more automate and
support the talent strategy.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmed, W. and Huma, S., 2021. Impact of lean and agile strategies on supply chain risk
management. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 32(1-2), pp.33-56.
Ciccullo and et.al., 2018. Integrating the environmental and social sustainability pillars into the
lean and agile supply chain management paradigms: A literature review and future
research directions. Journal of cleaner production, 172, pp.2336-2350.
Govindan, and et.al., 2018. Big data analytics and application for logistics and supply chain
management.
Koberg, E. and Longoni, A., 2019. A systematic review of sustainable supply chain
management in global supply chains. Journal of cleaner production, 207, pp.1084-1098.
Saberi and et.al., 2019. Blockchain technology and its relationships to sustainable supply chain
management. International Journal of Production Research, 57(7), pp.2117-2135.
Sindi, S. and Roe, M., 2017. Testing and Implementing the Strategic Supply Chain Model.
In Strategic Supply Chain Management (pp. 223-247). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Vázquez Requejo, A., 2018. Supply chain efficiency and transport management for the transfer
of an automotive JIS plant.
Wieland, A., 2021. Dancing the supply chain: Toward transformative supply chain
management. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 57(1), pp.58-73.