Operations Management Case Study: Early Supplier Integration Analysis

This report analyzes a case study concerning early supplier integration within the context of operations management, specifically focusing on the design of a skid steer loader. It highlights the importance of operational management in designing and controlling production processes, emphasizing the conversion of inputs into outputs to meet customer requirements. The discussion centers on crucial supplier screening strategies, including capacity, past performance, technical expertise, product delivery, and price sensitivity. The report further explores decision categories such as process, quality, capacity, and inventory, and how concurrent engineering can reduce design time. It also outlines strategies for achieving competitive advantages, such as improved quality, raw material options, and efficient marketing, concluding with a focus on continuous product improvement through customer feedback.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
RUNNING HEAD: OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 1

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................5
1

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The report will discuss about the case study related to the Early Supplier Integration in the
Designing of skid skeer loader. The operational management is important, as it is mainly
concerned with designing, and controlling the production process with focus on the goods and
services. It involves the responsibilities to bring the changes to meet the customer requirements
where the processes converts input into output.
Discussion
The important criteria or the strategies which needs to be used for screening suppliers for
integration into the early phases are: Capacity, Past Presence & Performance: It is considered
important for the industry and the product. Even, it is seen that Nolan has not manufactured such
products, but one can assess the levels through seeing the other products (Stevenson, Hojati &
Cao, 2007). It takes references of the previous customers and then checking on the performances
of the earlier projects as well. Technical Supplier Expertise: It is applied to take hold of the
development with the organization working on the benefits that are related to knowledge and
suppliers. There is a need to share costs and technology effectively. Product Delivery & Price:
This is for demonstrating about the versatile functionality of the product, where Deere knew that
he will be able to demonstrate and then deliver the products for the actual work on the site,
which was primarily important for better sales incentives. The demands of the skid loaders was
seen to be highly price sensitive which led to the minimization of the costs of goods which were
sold without sacrificing timely delivery of high quality which was completely imperative
(Snyder et al., 2016).
Nolan has been working in the supply management for the time of past 7 years where he was
also aware of the different principles which are used for the involvement of the suppliers in the
development of product (Fahimnia, Tang, Davarzani & Sarkis, 2015). The manufacturing
decisions and other touted benefits are determined at the lower cost structures which lead to the
reduced efficiencies of operational forms. They are not all the suppliers who need to be involved
but only for the new product development processes. The involvement of the suppliers should
not be the lip service, but a proper selection of suppliers should be integrated. There are different
categories for decisions that are used for properly identifying the new operations: The process,
quality and the capacity or inventory. The processes are mainly going to focus on the different
2

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
decisions to determine the physical processes or produce the new skid steer for better workforce
policies and procedures. The decisions are long range and are not easy reversed with significant
capital investments. There is a need to work with larger capital investments as well (Govindan,
Soleimani & Kannan, 2015). At the time of process, it can be determined which parts are
important for the initial process and how they can help in determining about certain suppliers.
The concurrent engineering can lead to reducing the original designing or the redesigning design
by more than 30%.
The operational strategy is set for achieving the competitive advantage with certain
benefits like: The increased quality with options of raw materials can be the components for
gearing the future expansions and making it easy for some parts for different brands and models
(Heckmann, Comes & Nickel, 2015). Custom Gear need to search and develop the surveys with
trusted suppliers for a better but cheap raw material. Changing the machines or upgrading them.
Here, the consideration is about handling obsolete and not only user-friendly products which
might be costlier than buying a better technology machine (Ho, Zheng, Yildiz & Talluri, 2015).
The marketing and the implementation also attract the customers with reduced changes in the
order at the time of processing and setting the standardized changes that are for satisfying the
needs of the customer. They are for handling the protocol of customization before any processes
of the product.
Conclusion
The product packaging includes the continuous monitoring with smaller improvement like
getting the feedback from customers on the usage about what problems they encourage and how
one can improve with the proper period of usage (Handfield, Coursin, Lawson & Peterson,
2015). The case study describes about the operational management which needs to be done
through handling the different ranges of product, price and the promotions.
3

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
References
Fahimnia, B., Tang, C. S., Davarzani, H., & Sarkis, J. (2015). Quantitative models for managing
supply chain risks: A review. European Journal of Operational Research, 247(1), 1-15.
Govindan, K., Soleimani, H., & Kannan, D. (2015). Reverse logistics and closed-loop supply
chain: A comprehensive review to explore the future. European Journal of Operational
Research, 240(3), 603-626.
Handfield, R. B., Cousins, P. D., Lawson, B., & Petersen, K. J. (2015). How can supply
management really improve performance? A knowledge‐based model of alignment
capabilities. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 51(3), 3-17.
Heckmann, I., Comes, T., & Nickel, S. (2015). A critical review on supply chain risk–Definition,
measure and modeling. Omega, 52, 119-132.
Ho, W., Zheng, T., Yildiz, H., & Talluri, S. (2015). Supply chain risk management: a literature
review. International Journal of Production Research, 53(16), 5031-5069.
Snyder, L. V., Atan, Z., Peng, P., Rong, Y., Schmitt, A. J., & Sinsoysal, B. (2016). OR/MS
models for supply chain disruptions: A review. IIE Transactions, 48(2), 89-109.
Stevenson, W. J., Hojati, M., & Cao, J. (2007). Operations management (Vol. 8). Boston:
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
4