Mini Cooper's Operations Management and Total Quality Management

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Operations Management
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Operations Management is defined as the planning, organizing and supervising the activities in
order to maintain the profit. These changes are done for improvement on a regular basis.
Operations Management, earlier called production management is done to maintain the goals of
the organization. Operations Management is planned to make sure all the resources, labour and
the inputs are used in the effective way to meet the goals and increasing the output. Operations
Management has a multi-disciplinary nature. Elements of Operations Management are planning,
organizing, staffing, controlling, directing and motivating. Logistics Operations Management is
also known as the supply chain management. The main purpose of logistics operation
management is to maintain the supply of goods and services to provide satisfaction to the
customer.
MINI COOPER is a worldwide famous company for automobiles. The company produces cars,
bikes and other luxury automobiles. It was founded in 1969. The mission of Mini Cooper is to
make people experience about the luxury drive with use of the latest technology and more
advanced instrument. The company was founded by Franz Josef Popp. Mini Cooper is
headquartered in Germany (Mini Cooper, 2019). Mini Cooper has launched a feature
compatibility check wherein the customer the test the compatibility of all the vehicles that are
launched by the company. Customers just have to download the app and have to insert the name
of the model. Information relating to the compatibility is displayed on the smartphone of the
customer. Mini Cooper does not produce all the parts of the cars by itself. Instead there are
suppliers in the market which provide spare parts to the company (Mini Cooper, 2019). The main
supplier of Mini Cooper is Al Thahabi. The company is the main supplier of spare parts to Mini
Cooper, Honda, Audi and other brands. Al Thahabi is headquartered in Dubai. Al Thahabi
produces the parts for the company and delivers them after all the testing and experiment. The
parts are then used in the models of Mini Cooper. This reduces the inventory cost of Mini
Cooper. Other than this, the efforts and time is also saved. Thahabi mainly provides fan blades,
oil filter, and tensioner pulley and expansion tank to the company. Mini Cooper is located in
Bavaria, Germany (Mini Cooper, 2019). As it is an automotive company, it is expanded to
7,80,000 sq. ft. Also, it is far away from the city and also uses eco-friendly technology for the
production. This way the company is contributing in the environment conservation (Mini
Cooper, 2019).
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Mini Cooper practises all the operations after considering the environmental factors. For the
environment, Mini Cooper is increasing the efficiency of combustion engines for maintaining the
sustainability of the environment. Also, with the same feature, Mini Cooper was launched as
experiment and it became successful. Also, all the vehicles are being developed and are modified
for better experiences (Mini Cooper, 2019). Mini Cooper is electrifying all the upcoming models
and series of cars. Their main mission is mobility which includes automatic gears, connectivity
and services. During the modifying process, the company is reducing emissions and increasing
the sustainability. According to Mini Cooper group, IN 2018, more than 1,40,000 electric
vehicles were sold (Mini Cooper, 2019).
The social approach which the Mini Cooper follows is efficient and effective supply chain to the
customers. Mini Cooper is operating in 7 other countries as well. Therefore, the company is
taking the environment-friendly approaches to other countries as well. For a start, In Europe,
Mini Cooper has started using the electric vehicles for the conservation of the environment.
Along with that, Mini Cooper has maintained a smooth and efficient distribution chain with other
countries as well. The chain is maintained to assure the timely delivery of the products. For the
population, Mini Cooper is working to improve the lifestyle of the urban people in Los Angeles,
Melbourne, Shenzhen, Rotterdam and Berlin. The company has seen the effects of increasing
traffic and is working with the political parties and other business for the solutions to improve
the lifestyle of the people. Mini Cooper is announcing partnerships with other businesses to
increase and maintain the supply chain. In the 2018 Sustainable Value Report of Mini Cooper, it
was proved that the company is working hard to reach the people and make them experience
luxury driving along with environment sustainability. For maintain the environmental
sustainabililty, Mini Cooper signed a United Nation’s Environment Programme of 2001 (Blunck.
E, 2016). This programme states to “make effective and efficient protection and use
environment-friendly tools in the production” (Blunck. E, 2016).
In my opinion, whatever efforts Mini Cooper is putting to maintain the environment is highly
remarkable. Being an automobile company, their main motive is to protect the environment
instead of harming the environment. Mini Cooper is making all the possible efforts in producing
the electric cars with the same luxury experience. Also, the company’s main motive is to protect
the environment. For the maintenance of the environment sustainability, the company has also
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signed UN Environment Programme, 2001 (Blunck. E, 2016). Also, the company is also working
to maintain the environment in other countries where they are operating. Mini Cooper is also
working to improve the lifestyle of the people. Mini Cooper is working on countries like Los
Angeles, Berlin Melbourne and other to improve their living standards. Seeing the effects of
traffic and increasing pollution, Mini Cooper has already started delivering electric cars to reduce
the pollution rate. Mini Cooper now is producing cars which reduced emissions, resulting in less
harm to the environment (Blunck. E, 2016).
A very important aspect of the manufacturing business is the quality with which the product is
produced. The life of the product is predicted by the quality of materials with which the product
has been manufactured. Every organization has a department that is dedicated towards
monitoring the quality of services in and out the organization.
Total Quality Management is a structured approach that is used for continuously improving the
process operational process of the organization (Chen, et.al., 2016). Its main objective is to
provide customer satisfaction. It is a process that is mandatorily followed by the firms in
detecting the errors and then providing measures to eliminate the errors that occurs in the
manufacturing and streamlining of products.
Mini Cooper uses the tools of TQM to maintain quality in all the products that it is producing. It
is very important for an automotive industry to consistently check the quality of parts that are
being induced in the vehicle. A slightest error is capable in costing the life of the passenger. The
logistics department of the company is stated as one of the best in the entire UK automotive
industry. The firm applies the tools of TQM in the following manner as mentioned below:
TQM in the logistics management helps the company to reduce costs, eliminate inefficiencies
and improve the customer care service. The group manufactures it products at 25 sites in 13
countries. It follows the Lean Methodology while manufacturing the cars. It is a very common
quality tool that is mostly applied by the manufacturing companies. This method focuses on
cutting out the waste requirements that are consuming space, time and capital. It does no
compromise on the quality of materials used. The materials used in the vehicles are checked
thrice in the company before accumulating. The lean approach is applicable to all the aspects of
the business ranging from design, production and distribution. Another method that is used by
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the company to improve the quality practices is “Customer Oriented Sales and Production
Process” or COSP (Sabet, et.al.2016). Under this the cars are made by the choice and
specifications provided by the customers. This saves the time spent in designing and unnecessary
accumulation of materials.
Toyota is one of the leading brands of Vehicles. It is the only company that is the epitome of
applying the TQM techniques into production. Several manufacturing firms take examples from
the practices followed by Toyota. They believe in zero wastage whatsoever. They consider safety
as the most delicate part of the production process and considers it immensely vital for every
organization to practice and implement the tools of Total Quality Management. There are certain
points where the techniques of TQM applied in Mini Cooper differs from that of Toyota. Let us
look at the points that facilitate the comparison:
The two main pillars that are used in Toyota for manufacturing are the just in time concept and
jidoka concept (Habidin, et.al., 2016). These concepts are based on the customer first, respect for
people and continuous improvement approaches. Mini Cooper on the other hand is more focused
towards the lean manufacturing approach.
The process improvement technique used by Mini Cooper is called the Value-added Production
System (VPS). It includes the involvement of every employee in the process of improvement.
The success of the lean manufacturing dwells on the overall involvement.
Another important point of comparison between the two companies is the amalgamation of the
units to produce a vehicle. While Toyota uses the just in time concept, where the company does
not manufactures the parts of the vehicle, but it outsources them. This leads to zero inventory and
limited parts are required as per the delivery status. This saves a lot of cost of the company and
also ensures quality. In Mini Cooper, the company manufactures all the units for the vehicles.
They conducts quality tests multiple times on the manufactured goods and only after achieving a
perfect score, the vehicles are assembled (Salleh, et.al., 2015). As it is routine job, there are very
less chances of errors. To completely eliminate the risks of errors, Mini Cooper follows the
technique of 5s.
The most important aspect in quality management is how much time is taken the company in
every aspects. It also includes the time taken by the employees to complete a task. In Mini
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Cooper, there are work stations, where the employees or team works on one product and it is
then transferred to another team. In Toyota, the production of the parts of the vehicle has been
outsourced which leave the employees with focusing on further Research and Development and
new innovations.
TQM refers to a management process, that curtails a set of principles and disciplines that are
applied by the organizations to achieve improved quality in the operational activities. This leads
to enhancement of quality in overall divisions, departments and levels of the organization. The
principle of TQM in the automotive industry is to deliver the highest value to the customer at the
lowest price which leads to the firm achieving sustained profit (Khalili, et.al., 2017). Every
organization has its own sets of principles that it uses to improve the productivity of the company
and the administrative activities of the firm. Overall quality reflects, when every step that is
related to the final product maintains specified standards of quality.
The concepts of TQM Philosophy that is used by the automotive industry are classified as below:
Concept The Main idea
Customer Focus Most vital Goal is to identify and meet customer needs
Continuous Improvement A philosophy that aims at never – ending improvement
Employee Empowerment Employees are expected to seek out, identify, and correct
quality problems Ongoing employee training in the use of
quality tools
Use of Quality Tools employee training in the use of quality tools in manufacturing
process
Product Design Quality should be built into the process
Managing Supplier Quality Quality concepts must extend to a company’s suppliers
Customer Focus is the ultimate agenda of the automotive industry. When the automotive
company emphasizes on this particular aspect, certain benefits can be witnessed. These can be
stated as below:
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 It leads to increased revenue and the market quota that is obtained through the flexible
methods used.
 The resources used by the firm are limited and it increases the efficiency and
effectiveness in achieving the customer satisfaction (Adžić, 2018).
 Increase in the customer loyalty degree.
 It also leads to higher research and development that insists on comprehending the
expectations and needs of the customers.
There are various tools that are used to measure the performance of the company and then
compare it with itself and its competitors to note the improvement done. Both the companies
uses different theories of TQM to deliver products.
The agenda of both the companies is the same, but they follow different paths. Mini Cooper is
more focused on delivering efficient vehicles. They are completely indulged in the requirements
of the customers and also manufacture vehicles on the specifications provided by the customers.
There is a theory that builds a relationship between the product qualities with the specifications
quality. This is very efficient in saving the production costs of the firm and they majorly focus on
job costing. Another theory that is applied by Mini Cooper is 5S. It is a much known Japanese
technique that helps in eliminating the unnecessary items that are not at all required and
increases the costs of the firm (Tickle, et.al., 2015).
Toyota is the master of applying the theories of TQM to achieve higher profitability, providing
quality services and providing utmost satisfaction to the customers. The practices followed by
Toyota are considered as Benchmarking by other companies. The strategy of Toyota is centered
in eliminating all waste, which is similar to that followed by Mini Cooper .The Research and
Development Team of the company is dedicated towards improvement. The staff of the firm is
Kaizen minded and aims at standardization.
Mini Cooper is more incline towards the design of the vehicles. They are known for
manufacturing luxurious vehicles with extremely stylish looks. It becomes difficult for them to
provide such high designs with limited costs. For this, Toyota uses Design Review Based on
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Failure Mode (DRBFM) tool that eliminates the chances of failure in the designs.The philosophy
of the firm is to produce defect-free vehicles. This is similar to that of Mini Cooper.
Mini Cooper uses a theory named as Toyota Kata that is very beneficial in building patterns
towards achieving the desired goals. This theory describe the optimal behavior of the improver
and the steps that are taken to monitor consistency in work (Sabet, et.al., 2016). The theories
used by both the companies are adapted according to their requirements and the processes that
are being followed in their company.
The ultimate goal of every organization is to retain its customer base at any cost. With the arrival
of new vehicles which are delivering high quality under affordable costs, these companies have
to restructure their policies to compete with the same. The theories and tools of TQM makes
absolutely no compromise, when it comes to quality. It will provide the best option to consider in
terms of cost to offer the best quality.
In this essay, the discussion was about the Operations Management and its Logistics. Operations
Management for any organization is important. To meet a specific target and goal, there should
be a proper planning. The planning is then done by the Operations Management. Further, the
knowledge was increased by knowing about the company Mini Cooper. The discussion was
about the economic, environmental and social approach of Mini Cooper and how is it working on
these approaches. Total Quality Management tools are also used for the proper analysis. The
Total Quality Management Tools helps in identifying high and low points, changing trends and
patterns. Here, the Total Quality Management is used in order to know the working of Mini
Cooper and how it manages the changes in the external environment.
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References
 Adžić, S., 2018. Learning organization: A fine example of a management fad. Business
and Economic Horizons, 14(3), pp.477-487.
 Blunck. E, 2016. Germany MINI COOPER’s Sustainability Strategy of Evolution and
Revolution towards a Circular Economy. . ERIA Research Project Report. 2(44). PP. 1-
19.
 MINI COOPER, 2019. About MINI COOPER Group. [Online]. Mini Cooper. Available
at - https://www.Mini Cooper.com/en/footer/about-Mini Cooper-com.html [Accessed on
6th August, 2019].
 Chen, C.K., Anchecta, K., Lee, Y.D. and Dahlgaard, J.J., 2016. A stepwise ISO-based
TQM implementation approach using ISO 9001: 2015. Management and Production
Engineering Review, 7(4), pp.65-75.
 Habidin, N.F., Salleh, M.I., Md Latip, N.A., Azman, M.N.A. and Mohd Fuzi, N., 2016.
Lean six sigma performance improvement tool for automotive suppliers. Journal of
Industrial and Production Engineering, 33(4), pp.215-235.
 Khalili, A., Ismail, M.Y., Karim, A.N.M. and Daud, M.R.C., 2017. Critical Success
Factors for Soft TQM and Lean Manufacturing Linkage. Jordan Journal of Mechanical
& Industrial Engineering, 11(2).
 Sabet, E., Adams, E. and Yazdani, B., 2016. Quality management in heavy duty
manufacturing industry: TQM vs. Six Sigma. Total Quality Management & Business
Excellence, 27(1-2), pp.215-225.
 Salleh, N.A.M., Kasolang, S., Jaffar, A. and Halim, N.H.A., 2015. Lean TQM leadership
management practices in Malaysian automotive companies. Jurnal Teknologi, 76(6).
 Tickle, M., Adebanjo, D., Mann, R. and Ojadi, F., 2015. Business improvement tools and
techniques: a comparison across sectors and industries. International Journal of
Production Research, 53(2), pp.354-370.
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