Understanding Operation Logistics

INTRODUCTION

Operation management is referred to the administration in business practice where it is perturbed with conversion of raw materials and labour into services and products for creating highest level of efficiency and profit earning by the organisation (Kang et al. 2016). The supply chain management includes broad range of activities that are needed for planning, controlling and executing proper flow of a product from including raw materials and production for its manufacturing to its distribution to the final customer in limited time and cost-effective way (Stadtler, 2015). Thus, supply chain management is vital in operation management as it acts to lower the cost of purchasing as well as product of the company to finally deliver it in the market to earn profit by the organisation. The logistics are referred to the commercial activity of transportation of goods and services involved in supply chain and operation management (Wang et al. 2016). In this easy, the way operation management, logistics and supply chain management is done by Jaguar Land Rover Plc to manage its quality and development of new products is to be discussed with reference to theories and models. The way triple bottom line factors are influencing the operation management of Jaguar Land Rover Plc is also to be explained. Lastly, recommendations for Jaguar Land Rover Plc is to be discussed to inform the organisation they are to work in future to ensure better performance. with business dissertation help.

Jaguar Land Rover Plc is a multi-national automobile organisation and is a subsidiary of Tata Motors which is an India Automotive Company. The company was founded in 2008 and its headquarters is located at Whitley, Coventry, United Kingdom. The products manufactured by Jaguar Land Rover Plc include luxury vehicles, sports car and utility vehicles. In 2017-18, the production output of Land Rover is 439,749 which is up by 2% than the previous year (jaguarlandrover.com, 2019). This indicates that the Land Rover brand of the organisation has high demand in the automobile industry due to which its production output has been increased. In 2017-18, the revenue collected by the Jaguar Land Rover Plc is £25.8 million compared to £24.3 billion in 2016-17 and the profit before tax of the company was £1.5 billion that is lower by £74 million than the previous (jaguarlandrover.com, 2019). This indicates that though the revenue has increased but there is less collection of profit by the company in the fiscal year 2017-18 meaning they have failed to perform in a better way than the previous year in the market.

In order to improve performance and profit collection, the operation management of Jaguar Land Rover Plc is focussing on managing quality and development of new products. The quality management of products is vital aspect in business operation because the improved quality attracts the customers to buy the products as they feel their needs and demands are fulfilled and the money spend is done productively (Zeng et al. 2015). Thus, in this respect, Jaguar Land Rover Plc is using different TQM (Total Quality Management) tools and techniques to improve operation management for controlling high-quality. The development of new products is essential for companies so that they can maintain a consistent stream of sales and growth over time (Galankashi et al. 2016). This is because needs and market priorities change continuously and the organisation to cope with the changes have to deliver new products so that variety of different products can be availed as per the varied demands of the customers. Thus, the operation management of Jaguar Land Rover Plc is focussed on developing new products so that they can products goods as per the changing and varied needs of its target customers ensuring their continuous growth and sales in the market.

The quality control in operation management of the organisation is mainly done with the aim to prevent and reduce defects at the source, make improvement of products based on feedback and implement correct action procedure in manufacturing products (Shah et al. 2016). The operation management in Jaguar Land Rover Plc to manage quality of its products is using Total Quality Management (TQM) tools and techniques such as fishbone diagram, control chart and check sheet. As asserted by Surange (2015), fishbone diagram is mainly used as a visualisation tool to understand and categorise the key cause of a problem for identifying its roots factors which led to raise it. This is beneficial as it helps to clearly and logically link as well as develop relationship among key causes and results displayed in the diagram. It is evident as Jaguar Land Rover Plc used the fishbone diagram to co-relate the causes that led to lower their quality of automotive products and found that their lack of investment in maintaining quality measures, too much cutting of cost to develop low-cost vehicles, poor dealer setup and slow reaction to changes in the market is posing hindrance for them (jaguar.co.uk, 2019).

The fishbone diagram helps to make in-depth analysis and facilitates brainstorming (Rodgers and Oppenheim, 2019). This is evident as Jaguar Land Rover Plc used the fishbone diagram and its team of employees through in-depth analysis of the problems regarding quality and brainstormed that improved expenditure on innovation and development of new products as per market changes, improving dealer setup and reducing cost-cutting management is going to help them in managing quality. As commented by Kaushik and Kumar (2017), the fishbone diagram helps to prioritise relevant causes which lead to help in addressing the predominant and underlying cause at the first. It is evident as fishbone diagram used by Jaguar Land Rover Plc lead its employees understand they at first they need to make innovation in their existing products as per changed needs of customers in the market to manage and improve their quality. This is because the organisation found that not making changes in their products to improve engine reliability, instrumental panels and being on the back foot of not electrifying their cars by installing lithium batteries is reducing the quality of their cars in the market compared to its competitors such as Mercedes and BMW (landroverofnaperville.com, 2019).

The Check sheet is a nature of TQM tool that is used for collecting data in real-time at different locations where the data is being generated. It is mainly a blank document which is designed for keeping easy and efficient record of any desired information which can be quantitative or qualitative in nature (Pal and Jasial, 2015). In Jaguar Land Rover Plc, they operate a check sheet for ensuring whether or not all the quality features of their products such as fluid level and fills, competency level, engine features and others are efficiently met. This is done so that proper quality assurances as promised to the customers can be effectively managed as by rechecking the sheet they can identify which quality features has not been met and required to be improved for final delivery of quality ensured product in the market.

The Control Chart in TQM is the statistical process control tool that is used for determining whether or not the business process or manufacturing services are in a proper state of control. Moreover, the chart when mentions that the business is not controlled then its analysis can assist the company to determine sources that are resulting in degraded quality and performance of the company (Kumar, 2018). This is evident as by using the control chart Jaguar Land Rover Plc identified that in the Chinese market the key cause of their failure in providing quality automobiles in not because of lack of proper manufacturing knowledge or incompetence to execute basic skills. However, it was due to improper cost-cutting and poor dealer set up to supply their car in proper manner to its competitors.

The operation manager of Jaguar Land Rover Plc in new product development process follows the 4V’s of operation management which are volume, variety, variation and visibility. The volume mentions the way in which volume output dimensions of the new product is to be managed so that the total output is more and the manufacturing cost is lowered (López et al. 2015). This is effective as it would lead the company to spend less finances in manufacturing the volume of their new product providing them opportunity to retain higher profit margin. In Jaguar Land Rover Plc, the operation management during new product development ensures that all the employees work systematically and repeat their actions to produce high volume of products so that the cost of production can be lowered as well as quality can be maintained uniformly (annualreport2018.jaguarlandrover.com, 2018). This is because streamlined and repeated way of working creates a uniform system among employees that ensure quality of products to remain common with an opportunity to create increased speed of production (Kent, 2015).

The variety dimensions mention the difference between standardised versus non-standardised products and services which offers flexibility in buying. The products that are standardised in nature often are seen to attract less cost and create less profitability however the non-standardised products and services are seen to have increased transformational cost but offer high profitability (Lampón et al. 2017). This is because the non-standardised products are not similar in nature and they can be easily differentiated from the existing products helping to create a perfect competition while buying by the customers. In case of Jaguar Land Rover Plc, they use the concept of developing non-standardised products during process of new products development. This is done so that the new car manufactured is different from their other existing models helping them to provide variety of options for the customers to choose while buying. It also ensures to attract wider range of customer ensuring greater sales of the product as the increase in variety meets different preferences of wide number of customers (annualreport2018.jaguarlandrover.com, 2018; Nwokah and Aeenee, 2017).

The variation dimension mentions the difference in business model and the effect of it in the volume and cost of the business while addressing variation. The benefit of low variation in business is that it allows the organisation to maintain lower cost (Tandon et al. 2017). In case of Jaguar Land Rover Plc, they offer standardised products with low variation during the process of new product development. This means that they manufacture new models of automobiles based on the general needs and demands of their target customers identified through market research. This helps the company to maintain standardised pricing of their new product as better control over cost expenditure is easily able to be managed by the organisation (Dwivedi et al. 2018). In contrast, Envisage Group Limited in the UK is found to develop custom made cars based on the customer’s demands which leads them to develop low volume of products at higher prices as each of the cars are unique to satisfy the preference of one individual and not all (envisagegroupltd.com, 2019).

The visibility dimension mentions the customer’s ability to watch and track their order through the supply and operation process (Crotty, 2018). In case of Jaguar Land Rover Plc, while operating new products it is seen that they offer full visibility to the customers by helping them track their order through their website. It is beneficial part of the operation management as by allowing the customers to track their products the company is able to make their business trustworthy and reliable (landrover.com, 2019). This because full visibility of the products helps the customer get informed in which state their product is and how long they have to wait to get the products that offer them peace of mind as they know whereabouts of their products for which they have already paid. The increased visibility of the new products by Jaguar Land Rover Plc helps them to avoid unnecessary calls from the customers who try to enquire the status of their products.

In Jaguar Land Rover Plc, they have planned to invest £1 billion in the UK to build electric cars in Britain. This is an effective economic decision to be made by the organisation to ensure its sustainability in the market as the UK sales and demand for electric vehicles has risen exponentially. It is evident as in 2018 in the UK reports informs that 1 in every 12 car purchased is electric vehicle. Moreover, in 2017 it is reported that 23% of the car registered in the UK are electric vehicles (bbc.com 2018). The figures indicate that there is rise in the demand and use of electric car and by investing in this aspect the decision by Jaguar Land Rover Plc is effective to improve its sales and enhances its growth in the market ensuring sustainability of their business.

The Jaguar Land Rover Plc in respect to environmental dimension is seen to have adopted various sustainable strategies one of which is recycling aluminium. They have established closed-loop waste recovery and recycling system at their Castle Bromwich production centre and has developed trail process of developing new-aluminium Range Rovers at Solihull manufacturing unit for this purpose (smmt.co.uk, 2017; resource.co, 2016). This is effective for them to manufacture low-weight vehicles as well as protect the environment from increased development of aluminium waste creating an environmental sustainable business in the market. The environmentally sustainable products are often able to attract wider range of customers as they feel that by buying the products they can fulfil their needs as well as protect the environment from getting damaged (Bellos et al. 2017). Thus, this initiative of the organisation in respect to environmental dimension is going to help the in attract wide range of customers in turn assuring its growth and improved sales of products in the market. Moreover, Jaguar Land river Plc has adopted the measure of reduce, reuse and recycle to lower waste generation and have developed strategies to manufacture low-emission vehicles and electric cars to involve in decreasing pollution of the environment (landrover.com, 2019a). This indicates that the organisation is taking effective initiative to develop its business in an environment-friendly to reduce carbon footprint and improve quality of life.

This is evident as in 2013 74% of the employees in production units and 81% of the salaried staffs reported the company work in a positive way for them to fulfil their needs and demands (jaguar.co.uk, 2019). Further, it is seen that the organisation supports various UK local charities and through their Jaguar Land Rover Employees Charities Committee have donated effective finances to act in resolving various social issues in the country (birminghamupdates.com, 2019). This indicates that the business is executing effective social responsibility to ensure better of society and its people in the UK. It would lead to create a positive image of the organisation in the market which would eventually lead to their sustainability and growth in the market. This is because people would like to buy from them as the consumers think that investing in companies who show greater social responsibility makes them a part of the company to act in contributing to the society (Cordeiro and Tewari, 2015).

The recommendation for Jaguar Land Rover Plc is that they are required to consult with potential advisers and include a venture partner for their operation. This is because the venture partner would be able to provide financial support to improve their business. They would also contribute to improve their quality of vehicles by lowering their extreme cost-cutting activities that have been adopted by the company due to lack of lower financial growth in the past few years which has led Jaguar Land Rover Plc to face hindrance in managing quality. Moreover, the company is recommended to seek alternative funding resources so that they can raise increased finances to contribute to growing the electric car manufacturing unit of their organisation to attract increased customers.

The above discussion informs that Jaguar Land Rover Plc is automobile company established in England. The operation management of the company is using the fishbone diagram, Check sheet and control graphs to identify the causes of problems in managing quality of their products. Jaguar Land Rover Plc is also focussing on 4V’s of operation management to develop its new products in an effective way. In relation to economic dimension, the company is investing in electric vehicle manufacturing and in relation environmental dimension Jaguar Land Rover Plc is investing to reduce wastes and recycle them to ensure sustainable development in the market. It is recommended that they need to include a venture partner and draw in more finances from alternative funding sources in the market to ensure better growth and sustainability of the business.

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