Operations Management: Modified Auto Parts, UK Supply Chain & Lean Ops

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of operations management concepts within the context of modified auto parts in the UK market. It begins by introducing the product and detailing the various organizations involved in its supply chain, including Prestige Wrap & Customs, Mad Motors, Cosworth, Superchips, and Kahn Design. The report then explores the application of operations management concepts in meeting customer demand, emphasizing the importance of efficiency and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, it evaluates the application of lean operations and supply chain principles, illustrated through a process map that outlines both downstream and upstream activities. The report also addresses barriers to entry in various industries, including shoes, supermarkets, and car manufacturing. The analysis covers critical aspects such as decision-making, value chain management, and the role of logistics in ensuring the delivery of quality products. Finally, the report offers recommendations and conclusions based on the findings, highlighting the importance of continuous improvement and strategic alignment in operations management. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Operations Management
Name of Student:
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1OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Assessment 1...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction to the product..............................................................................................................3
Explanation of the different organizations involved in the supply chain........................................1
Use of operations management concepts in meeting customer demand for the product.................2
Evaluating the application of lean operations and supply-chain.....................................................4
Recommendation and Conclusion...................................................................................................5
References for Assessment 1...........................................................................................................8
Assessment 2.................................................................................................................................10
Task One........................................................................................................................................10
Barriers to entry in the shoes industry...........................................................................................10
Barriers to entry in the supermarket industry................................................................................11
Barriers to entry in the car manufacturing industry.......................................................................12
Task Two.......................................................................................................................................14
Answer to Question No. 1.............................................................................................................14
Answer to Question No. 2.............................................................................................................14
Answer to Question No. 2- Part A.................................................................................................14
Answer to Question No. 2- Part B.................................................................................................16
Answer to Question No. 3.............................................................................................................17
Answer to Question No. 4.............................................................................................................17
Answer to Question No. 4- Part A.................................................................................................17
Answer to Question No. 4- Part B.................................................................................................18
Answer to Question No. 5.............................................................................................................18
Answer to Question No. 5- Part A.................................................................................................18
Answer to Question No. 5- Part B.................................................................................................19
Answer to Question No. 5- Part C.................................................................................................19
Answer to Question No. 6.............................................................................................................20
Answer to Question No. 7.............................................................................................................20
References for Assessment 2.........................................................................................................22

2OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Assessment 1
Introduction to the product
As discussed by Bromiley and Rau (2016), in “operations management” the role of
“logistics and the supply chain” is recognized with a broader concept of interconnected subjects
such as “value chain management, sourcing of network, value chain management and
management of the supply pipeline”. The report aims to demonstrate an operational model and
discuss about the “critical evaluation of the role of operations management” in terms of an
existing product which is currently trending and the UK. The product selected for the analysis is
seen with modified auto parts. The rationale for selection of such a product is since more number
of high-value automobile customers in the UK prefer to customize their car for “extensive
performance, mechanical and aesthetic improvements”. Several companies such as Prestige wrap
and customs, Mad Motors, Fully Loaded Car, Urban Automotive and Custom Exotics
manufactures their own car parts can be easily fitted with all the popular models of automobiles.
Some of the services offered by these companies are often seen in customization of the car’s as
per customer request. The operations of the product are based on identification of the process in
the automobile sector. The important discussions from the discourse has been acknowledged
from “placing a purchase order to delivery of quality product to the customer”. The linkage
between the decision-making and value chain is conducive for evaluating the activities studying
the operational model. The various types of value chain aspects have been taken into
consideration with activities described as per the flowchart. For instance, the “Land Rover”
defender is identified as a motoring icon. However, it goes without saying that the car has been
identified with several flaws which includes water leaks, noisy cabins, suspension issues and
poor handling. The companies dealing with the customization services manufactured their own
suspensions, brakes, spoilers, chassis, seats, exhaust, tires, rims, lighting and paints to eliminate
any existing flaws in the stock model. In addition to this, such companies have an important role
in professional racing circuits for ensuring that the cars are equipped with the best performance
and utility upgrades. Several people look for not just a modification shop but also specialists
service in terms of tuning the vehicles (Heizer 2016).

3OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Customer
Placing Purchase
order
Delivering Quality
Product
Checking
acceptability
of the
customer
terms?
Changes prescribed
by the customer
Confirmatio
n of the
order
Carriage Material
in stock?
Tooling
Stock
availability?
Machine Parts Inspection Post Process
requirements? Cleaning
Shipping the vehicle
to the customer
Inspection
Post Processing
Vendor Processing
Ordering of the material
Material Vendor
Tooling of order
Inspection
Material Tooling
Tooling Vendor
Scrap Parts Taking corrective action Taking corrective
action
Reconfigurati
on possible?
No
Yes
Yes Yes
Yes
No
Pass
Pass
Fail
Fail
No
Pass
Yes
No
Downstrea
m
Upstream
0OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Process map for supply-chain of the product including downstream and upstream operations

0OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
The process diagram shows the sequence of the order which is best suited for “deciding”
on the “method for decision making in the operations of the company”. This map has included
the various types of activities which takes place in both upstream and downstream operations of
the company. Some of the downstream operations of the company starts with of placing the
purchase order by the customer for parts such as suspensions, brakes, spoilers, chassis, seats,
exhaust, tires, rims, lighting and paints. The next sequence is followed by checking the
acceptability of the customer based on inventory status. The next process in the downstream
operations include conformation with the customer for prescribed changes which are to be done
in the automobile. The next sequence of the steps includes carriage and checking of the validity
of the overall order process. The company also takes the initiative of making use of any scrap
part which may be re used for any other car part. The given diagram shows the relationship
among the decision making and value chain. The different types of other downstream activities
are seen with postprocessing, vendor processing, tooling of order, tooling vendor and possibility
of reconfiguration of the present material which is to be used in the car (Hübner, Holzapfel and
Kuhn 2015).
The fundamental features of the value chain in the research has been depicted with
various types of results which may affect the acceptability of the customer’s initial ordering
process. “The process of this model can ensure about the confirmation of the order about the
postprocessing requirements with various types of the conditional statements”. The main form of
the conditioning tool is based on the condition such as “material vendor, tooling vendor with fail
or pass order”. The main considerations of the value of the supply-chain is depicted with “goods
and services, quality management, capacity design, location, job design”. The given diagram has
further illustrated the process of the operational activities for the automobile company (Jacobs,
Chase and Lummus 2014).
The main activities in the upstream operations include inspection, veryfying that
inspection is done in a proper manner then only the vehicles are passed for the cleaning phase.
The final upstream operations include Shipping the vehicle to the customer. It needs to be

1OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
discerned that the primary upstream activity includes inspection of the various types of sub
processes which are involved in the operational cycle (Jay and Barry 2016).
Explanation of the different organizations involved in the supply chain
This section includes the explanation of the different organizations which are involved in
the supply-chain process and stated the rational way that they are based in UK or overseas.
 Prestige Wrap & Customs: “Prestige Wrap & Customs” is identified as a car
customization centre based in West London. Despite of the company being based in the
UK it also takes order in Doha Qatar, by the branches situated in that region. The
company manufactures its own products ranging from “vehicle branding and livery, car
wrapping, car window tinting, Car replications, Stone chip protection, car detailing items,
re-sprays, Engine modifications and other customised items”. “Prestige Wrap &
Customs” is seen to follow a similar supply-chain strategy illustrated in the diagram. The
process of the activities followed by the company “ensure about the confirmation of the
order about the postprocessing requirements with various types of the conditional
statements”. The main form of the conditioning tool is based on the condition such as
“material vendor, tooling vendor with fail or pass order”. The value of the supply-chain is
depicted with “goods and services, quality management, capacity design, location, job
design” (Prestigewrap.co.uk 2018).
 Mad Motors: This company is identified as “UK's leading body kits specialist”. “Mad
Motors” offers a broad range of “body styling kits for most car makes and models”. It has
been identified as the most “preferred retailer for some” of the “world's most prestigious
body kit manufacturers”. It supplies its body kits to various types of “European brands”
such as “Ibher Design, Carzone Specials and Carcept, to niche Japanese body kits for
performance Nissan's”. Some of the in-house manufacturing process of the company
further includes “Alloy Wheels Body Kits Angel Eye Headlights Lexus Lights Lambo
Doors Interior Styling” and “Carbon Products Spoilers Car Grills Fenders Headlight
Eyebrows Wind Deflectors”. The companies upstream supply-chain includes include
inspection, verifying that inspection is done in a proper manner, installation phase
followed by cleaning phase. The final upstream operations include Shipping the vehicle

2OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
to the customer. In addition to this, the different types of downstream supply-chain
operations include of placing the purchase order by the customer for parts such as
“suspensions, brakes, spoilers, chassis, seats, exhaust, tires, rims, lighting and paints”
(Madmotors.co.uk. 2018). The next sequence is followed by checking the acceptability of
the customer based on inventory status. The next process in the downstream operations
include conformation with the customer for prescribed changes which are to be done in
the automobile (Walker et al. 2015).
 Cosworth: Cosworth (based in Cambridge; Northampton) is seen to offer a wide range
of power upgrades for the private vehicle owners and professional racers. Being one of
the well-known supplier in the automobile industry corporation ventured into a new
partnership with “Subaru in 2010” when “Cosworth upped power by 33 per cent on the
Impreza”. It is known to manufacture a wide variety of aftermarket “Road and track
performance” product mainly for the private car owners. The supply-chain operations
include both downstream and upstream operations as stated in the diagram (Auto Express
2018).
 Superchips: The main services include “Straightforward engine remapping for added
power”. This company affords affordable services for average motorist power boost their
existing vehicles. Some of the notable services offered by the company includes
modifying a “2013 VW Golf GTI” to increase its power output from “216bhp to 246bhp
and torque from 350Nm to 401Nm”. Henceforth, the company is known for and of
exiting various types of parts for engines as well (Auto Express 2018).
 Kahn Design: The company (“based in Bradford and Leeds, West Yorkshire; King’s
Road, London”) focuses on “giving luxury off-roaders added panache, but Kahn also
sells watches and personalised number plates”. The main supply-chain activity of the
company includes taking the purchase order by the customer for parts such as
suspensions, brakes, spoilers, chassis, seats, exhaust, tires, rims, lighting and paints. The
next sequence is followed by checking the acceptability of the customer based on
inventory status. The company is known for having high-end showrooms in Chelsea and
Bradford as well (Auto Express 2018).

3OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Use of operations management concepts in meeting customer demand for the product
“Operations management” is discerned as that domain of “management” which is
concerned with “controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the
production of goods or services”. Some of the main responsibilities under the concept of
operations management ensure that the operations of the business are maintained with efficiency
and able to meet the customer requirements. The main concerns of the concepts are associated
with managing the entire production system which is responsible for converting the inputs such
as “raw materials, labor, and energy” into outputs “such as goods and/or services, as an asset or
delivers a product or services” (Matthias et al. 2017). It needs to be understood that the
operational products are known to create service and manage quality. For instance, the distinct
operational activities are conducive in meeting the customer demand for the products in sectors
such as “banking systems”, “hospitals”, “companies, working with suppliers, customers, and
using technology”. The operations function in an organization is identified with “supply chains,
marketing, finance and human resources” which works for ensuring maximum satisfaction to the
customers. In terms of manufacturing and service industries the operational decisions and
strategies include “product design, process design, quality management, capacity, facilities
planning, production planning and inventory control”. The aforementioned services are required
to analyse the present situation to find better solutions for understanding customer demand and
“improve the effectiveness of manufacturing or service operations” (Slack 2015).
The effectiveness of operational models such as “total quality management (TQM)” is
depicted to be conducive for managing quality and bringing efficiency among the products
manufactured. This strategy includes enhancement process on “organizational basis, this
includes: participation, work culture, customer focus, supplier quality improvement and
integration of the quality system with business goals”. The product line service approach is
applicable to food chains such as McDonald's, which requires to follow a limited and standard
menu, “an assembly-line type of production process” in the “back-room”. In the front-room it is
identified with high customer service, cleanliness, courtesy and fast service (Stevenson and Sum
2015). Minimization of cost is also seen to drive customer demand which is often brought by
application of operational management concepts such as “Business Process Re-engineering”.
This is identified as a management strategy “focusing on the analysis and design of workflows
and business processes within an organization”. The business process engineering works for

4OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
optimizing the overall manufacturing process and finding out the most cost-effective way of
manufacturing the products. In addition to this, an individual production system is often
conducive in production systems which include operations which are carried out as per customer
demand. It is often referred as flexible manufacturing system and applicable to generally high-
end orders which has less demand and can be manufactured at any given point of time (Smith,
Maull and CL Ng 2014).
Evaluating the application of lean operations and supply-chain
As stated by Garza-Reyes (2015), the lean approach and operations management is
associated to elimination of waste and most suitable for one of exiting our service process. This
concept takes into account the waste created as an overburdened and bringing unevenness to the
workloads. The lean approach in the operations management “takes the concept of JIT and re-
examines it from the perspective of customer value”. The first step in this process involves
considering the aspects which add real value for the customers. For instance, customers seeking
to buy studio speaker will be looking for the quality of sound, affordability and durability. Based
on the principle of lean manufacturing every step of the production process had something to the
value which is desired by the customer. The conceptualization of lean manufacturing “arose in
Toyota between the end of World War II and the seventies”. This concept often idealizes that
admonition off waste improves the quality thereby reducing the time and cost of production. The
implementation of lean manufacturing is often seen with exhaustive list of tools such as “SMED,
value stream mapping, Five S, Kanban (pull systems), poka-yoke (error-proofing), total
productive maintenance, elimination of time batching, mixed model processing, rank order
clustering, single point scheduling, redesigning working cells, multi-process handling and
control charts (for checking mura)”. The second most well-known approach of the lean
manufacturing system is recognized with “The Toyota Way” (Gao and Low 2014). This
approach has focused on improving the overall flow in the supply-chain, bringing smoothness
and work, “steadily eliminating mura (unevenness) through the system and not upon waste
reduction”. Some of the most evident techniques under this includes “production leveling, "pull"
production (by means of kanban) and the Heijunka box”. The fundamental approach for the
improvement methodology includes basic application of lean manufacturing systems for
improving the overall production process (Deresky 2017).

5OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
It needs to be further understood that “lean supply chain management” is not only for the
companies that manufacture products but also applicable to the “businesses” who wants to
“streamline their process by eliminating waste” and including various types of non-value-added
activities. It has been discerned that companies have several areas in “supply-chain where waste
can be identified as time, costs, or inventory”. Several businesses are seen to follow complex
purchasing operations and many large companies often purchase from local suppliers. In several
cases, purchasing function in their headquarters is seen to be duplicated at the lower level,
thereby creating a significant amount of wastage. By maintaining two purchasing departments
vendors can often provide different information (Sadikoglu and Olcay 2014). There may be
multiple contracts, one central and several other local contracts which may lead to variation in
the prices depending on the location. The susceptibility to the varying nature of information
needs to be stored in the computer system so that “employees do not know which vendor is the
one that they should use or be in contact with”. Henceforth, it needs to be understood that
maintaining multiple purchasing departments may lead to substantial waste within the
organization and companies practicing in “supply-chain management” reduce their procurement
function so that each vendor has only one source of contact, and contract which offers a
consistent price in all the locations. Similarly, in warehousing process “lean approach” has a
significant role in eliminating the “waste of resources and non-value-added steps”. It needs to be
understood that recommendation of excess inventory requires more resources and money for its
storage and maintenance. The reduction of unnecessary inventory by following the principles of
lean approach is conducive in minimizing space and handling process thereby minimizing the
overall costs (Dale 2015.)
Similarly, in transportation businesses seeking to implement lean operations have made
efforts to improve the customer satisfaction by improving the shipping decisions. The orders are
shipped without combination of additional instructions which would reduce the costs and
expenses of shipping operations. Businesses often tend to use a number of shippers unnecessary
then they can reduce their shipping options and drop overall cost of operations. Therefore, the
application of lean supply-chain management is required by the businesses to examine each step
in the supply-chain and recognized unnecessary resources, raw material and time. In general, the
companies applying the lean manufacturing process in a successful manner has been able to
increase overall profitability of the business (Benavides-Velasco et al. 2014).

6OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Recommendation and Conclusion
The main recommendation for the management for improving the overall supply-chain is
to adopt lean manufacturing process. It needs to adopt a similar strategy such as The Toyota
Way. This approach will be conducive in improving the overall flow in the supply-chain,
bringing smoothness and work, “steadily eliminating mura (unevenness) through the system and
not upon waste reduction”. Some of the most evident techniques under this strategy will focus on
“production leveling, "pull" production (by means of kanban) and the Heijunka box”. As it has
been evident that the company also takes the initiative of making use of any scrap part which
may be re used for any other car part. The given diagram shows the relationship among the
decision making and value chain. The different types of other downstream activities are seen
with postprocessing, vendor processing, tooling of order, tooling vendor and possibility of
reconfiguration of the present material which is to be used in the car. It needs to ensure that it can
minimize the overall wastage which is identified in terms of scrap.
The important depictions for the selection of modified auto parts is seen with more
number of high-value automobile customers in the UK prefer to customize their car for
“extensive performance, mechanical and aesthetic improvements”. Several companies such as
Prestige wrap and customs, Mad Motors, Fully Loaded Car, Urban Automotive and Custom
Exotics manufactures their own car parts can be easily fitted with all the popular models of
automobiles. The various types of value chain aspects have been taken into consideration with
activities described as per the flowchart.
Process map for supply-chain of the product including downstream and upstream
operations has included placing the purchase order by the customer for parts such as suspensions,
brakes, spoilers, chassis, seats, exhaust, tires, rims, lighting and paints. The next sequence is
followed by checking the acceptability of the customer based on inventory status. The next
process in the downstream operations include conformation with the customer for prescribed
changes which are to be done in the automobile. The next sequence of the steps includes carriage
and checking of the validity of the overall order process. The company also takes the initiative of
making use of any scrap part which may be re used for any other car part. The given diagram
shows the relationship among the decision making and value chain. It is also discerned that the
main activities in the upstream operations include inspection, verifying that inspection is done in