This assessment will cover following questions:
- Bentley Motors limited is a British designer who is a manufacturer and deals in marketing of luxury cars and SUVs. What are supply chain management issues faced by the mentioned organisation.
- Explain service delivery systems or manufacturing processes used byBentley Motors limited.
- Give appropriate suggestions in relation to how business can improve its performance.
- Analyse the incorporation of economic, social and environmental factors in business practice.
INTRODUCTION
Operations can be defined as business activities in which an organization engages itself so that it can convert its raw materials into finished services or products in order to sell them to its targeted customers in order to increase its revenue and profit margin (Grant, Trautrims and Wong, 2017). It is one of the most important parts to be focused on. This helps the organizations to provide complete quality products to their customers. When the goods are completed with the help of logistics, they are transported to their end consumers. Logistics can be defined as a process through which planning and execution of goods storage and transportation is done so that end products can be transported to consumers. Operations and logistics are interrelated to each other i.e. after the completion of final goods from operations, logistics come into the picture where storage and transportation of final goods is managed. But for proper flow or transportation of goods, it is important for organizations to focus on and adopt Supply chain management (SCM). SCM is a kind of management in which the flow of services/goods as well as all the processes in which raw material is converted into final goods. Both logistics and supply chain management are interrelated to each other and it is important for organizations to effectively manage the flow of goods and storage (Christopher, 2016). This assignment will focus on reviewing all kinds of theories related to Operation, Logistics and Supply Chain Management and will focus on New product/ service development and process and managing quality. For this assignment, an organization from the Automotive industry will be chosen which is Bentley Motors Limited.
MAIN BODY
Organization
Organizations in the Manufacturing industry are those who engage themselves in manufacturing or transforming raw goods or materials into new products. Automobile companies come into this category. Automobile companies also known as automotive companies are those companies that sell or make automobiles like cars etc. Bentley is one of those automotive companies that manufacture automotive products. Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer that manufactures luxury cars. It was founded in 1919 by H. M. Bentley and W. O. Bentley in England, United Kingdom. Bentley was acquired by Rolls-Royce in 1931 and later it was acquired by Volkswagen Group in 1998.
Review of relevant Operation, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management theories
Operational, logistics and SCM issues faced by Bentley are quite minor but there are few operational areas that are required to be focused on in order to maintain their brand value, customer base etc. First is in the development of new products or services process. It is quite challenging for Automobile companies to continuously work on the development of new products and services and another issue which is required to be focused on is the management of quality (Choi, Chiu and Chan, 2016). It is important for automobile companies to focus on the quality of their products and services as customers in this industry mainly focus on three important factors that are: price, quality and uniqueness of the product. If any of the one factor is missing then customers can switch to another substitute product.
New product & service development and process
It is one of the most important operational functions that play a vital role in the market in which they serve as customers of this industry always seek new products or services. Bentley uses a pay-per-service system in which customers need to pay for each and every individual service that is opt for. The service delivery system used by Bentley is in three steps: first is to maintain the quality of service which is being provided to the customers (Mangan and Lalwani, 2016). Second is employee engagement in which the attitude of employees is monitored, engagement of employees in providing service to the clients is seen and last is to provide customers with the best experience.
The theory that can be used by Automotive company like Bentley for the development of new products or processes is House of Quality. House of Quality is a well-known process that can be used by organizations for the development of products. This process helps automotive companies like Bentley to develop a product or process through which they can manufacture a product or service that fulfils their customer's desires, needs and requirements in an appropriate manner. It focuses on developing a plan in which customers' needs and desires are translated and prioritized and then this plan is executed so that a new product or service can be developed as per the requirements, needs and desires of the customers. It is one of the most important theories which is required to be followed by Bentley so that they can focus on the desires and requirements of their customers and on the basis of it they can further focus the development of new products or services which will be liked by their customers (Yazdani and et.al., 2017). This theory is important for Bentley because they are well known to deliver products as per the requirements of their customers and not only this, they also design their new products or services in such a manner that it is liked by their customers and fulfil their desires. So, it can be said that HOQ can be used by Bentley for a few main purposes that can used in the development of new products or services. First is to understand their customer's desires and priorities so that on the basis of it an ideal solution can be developed. The second is to translate these desires and priorities into new goals and technicalities of new product/service development. The last is to develop a structure and allocate resources that can be used by them for the development of new products or services.
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It is another important operational function that plays a vital role for Automotive companies like Bentley as it is important for their customers before they buy any kind of products or services provided by the company (Fernie and Sparks, 2018). It is important for organizations in this industry to focus on maintaining the overall quality of the products they sell to their customers as well as the service that they provide to their customers. No matter how attractive the product is, it is important that the quality of the product or service should be excellent, especially for organizations like Bentley who have already established their brand value and most of the customers who tend to buy their services and products only buy it because of their design, quality and features that the product. If there is any kind of issue or problem associated with the quality of the service or product then it will directly affect customer satisfaction and brand value (Swink and et.al., 2017).
The theory that can be used by Automotive companies like Bentley for managing the overall quality of their products and services is the TQM (Total quality management) theory for Managing quality. Total quality management theory is a kind of continuous process that helps an organization to detect, reduce or eliminate any kind of issues or errors in the manufacturing of their products, improving their customer experience and ensuring that all the employees of an organization are maintaining their work and speed. TQM focuses on all the functions and stakeholders involved in the manufacturing and production process are accountable for their work are maintain the quality of their final goods, products or services. Bentley follows a Total quality management approach to maintain the overall quality of their products and services. With the help of TQM, they ensure that all the employees engage themselves in servicing their customers in order to provide the best quality service and products to their customers in order to maintain their standard and enhance their customer satisfaction globally (Coyle and et.al., 2016). The total quality management approach focuses on whole organizational management. This theory focuses on maintaining quality of products, services, and organizational outcomes quality as well as also focuses on maintaining continuous improvement processes for all of their internal functions and practises. For this various industry standards are set at multiple levels in such a manner that all the laws and regulations are adhered to by the organization. This helps the organization to maintain the quality of their products and services that they offer to their customers.
Solutions of Operations Management
For this assignment, qualitative techniques will be used to find solutions to the operational management issues. For qualitative data analysis, secondary data will be used in order to find solutions for operational management. Data from online articles and newspapers will be collected and other than this relevant theory will be used to explain the key area and its importance in detail these theories will help in laying emphasis on issues, areas to be focused on for improvement and many more. Other than this various examples of other organizations will also be used that can be applied to Bentley in order to find solutions for all kinds of operational management issues.
In order to resolve any kind of issue faced by the organization it is important for them to adopt sustainable business practices in order to gain a competitive advantage and attract more and more customers. Adoption of these sustainable business practices will eventually bring changes in the overall operations of the organization. These practices help the organizations to cut down excess wastage cost, and energy consumption which eventually helps the organization in creating a positive impact on the triple bottom line of the organization (Song and Parola, 2015). Sustainable business practices not only help the organization to motivate their employees but also help them attract more customers and bring improvement within their current business practices. In order to bring improvement within their new product/process development process and maintain the overall quality of their products and services Bentley can focus on adopting a Triple bottom line approach or framework. TBL is a kind of theory or framework that helps organizations commit themselves to focusing on environmental and social concerns as much as they are concerned about their revenues and profits. This framework can help Bentley to develop new products or services as today more and more customers are becoming environment-friendly and prefer products that are environment-friendly (Cosimato and Troisi, 2015). This will help them to attract more customers towards their products which will eventually help them to enhance sales of their new products. Bentley uses the Triple bottom line for evaluating their overall organizational performance that concerns environmental, social and economic issues. Various automotive organizations like Bentley consider these components as meaningful components for sustainable development. Focusing on these components can also help Bentley to bring changes within the development of new products so that they are economically feasible for their customers and are in the range or budget of their customers. This will also help them to increase their target customers for the new product or service developed by them by focusing on environmental factors they can work on enhancing the overall quality of their products/services which will also help them to enhance their quality of products/services.
There are three factors that together help in forming the triple bottom line. Bentley needs to work on all three triple bottom lines together for sustainable business development. The first line is of profit. It is one of the main lines which is required to be focused on by the organizations as it helps in maintaining corporate profit, profit and loss accounts. Another line is of people. It helps the organization in measuring and evaluating to what level an organization is socially responsible and focuses on their people throughout of their operations and last is the environment in which it is evaluated and measured that at what level an organization is environmentally responsible (Hazen and et.al., 2018). This will help Bentley to bring changes within their produce development process in such a manner the new products developed by them are environment friendly, quality is maintained and which will further contribute to enhancing the sustainability of their business.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Here, are a few recommendations that can be used and implemented by Bentley so that they can bring improvement within their business by improving their overall performance. These recommendations will help Bentley to maintain the quality of their products and services as well as focus on the development of new products/services processes.
They can focus on bringing improvement within their training and development program which is used by the organization to train their employees. They should focus on developing or improving the skill sets of their employees as per the requirements of their business so that each and every employee can work with their best potential. This will help them to provide the best service to their customers and maintain the quality of their products and services. They can also focus on creating a culture of quality with the help of the TQM approach. This culture will motivate the employees to suggest new ways of bringing improvement within their current process or function. Not only this all kinds of employees should be welcome to suggest both small or large kinds of improvement suggestions that can be used by the organization and are fruitful to bring improvement within their business. They can also focus on improving their relationship with their suppliers i.e. working closely with the suppliers so that quality of raw materials or components can be maintained that meet the quality standards of the manufacturers. These points will help Bentley to bring improvement within their business process.
CONCLUSION
From the above assignment it can be concluded that it is important for manufacturing industry organizations especially automotive companies to maintain interrelation between operation, logistics and Supply chain management as it not only affects the overall revenue and profit but also affects the overall satisfaction of their customers. It is important for automotive companies like Bentley to focus on maintaining the overall quality of their products and services at the operational level itself as it further helps in maintaining the quality of products and services that are offered to their customers. It not only affects the quality of products but it also affects the overall satisfaction level of their customers. It has been analysed that there are two areas that are quite important for Organizations like Bentley to focus on in order to maintain their brand value, customer satisfaction, sales and revenue that are: New product/ service development and process and management of quality of their products and services. They need to focus on the development of new products and services to attract new customers and fulfil their customer's desires and requirements and simultaneously they also need to focus on maintaining the quality of their services and products because customers of this industry lay emphasis on price, quality and uniqueness of product or services. It has also been analysed that there are various theories that can be used by Bentley to improve their product quality and use which can develop new products or services. Using the House of Quality theory, they can focus on developing new products and services and using the TQM theory they can focus on managing the overall quality of their products and services.