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The report is about Operations, Logistics and SCM mainly focused on the production systems with its application

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Operations, Logistics and SCM

Introduction of Jaguar Land Rover:

Jaguar is the brand of luxury and sporty vehicles of Jaguar Land Rover with its head office located in Coventry, England.  Jaguar was founded in 1922 when they started to produce sidecar motorcycles and then later on entered in the industry of car manufacturing.  Jaguar has gained success in many countries in first 7 decades of its operations due to its technological advanced cars and effective marketing skills. At the start of 1990, Jaguar was acquired by Ford motors and it kept on achieving growth internationally due to accumulation of skills and expertise with Ford Motors.  Ford motors acquired Land Rover in 2000 to further expand its business and achieve economies of scales by joining the operations of their car brands. After eight years, Ford motors decided to sell its both companies to Tata motors which is an Indian car manufacturer in 2008. Tata motors decided to make a combined company with name Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar.com).

Jaguar Land Rover is British car manufacturing company came into existence by the combination of two car companies which is designed, produce and engineered in UK.  Jaguar was producing all Jaguar cars until there is merger in operations of Jaguar with Land Rover to make Jaguar land Rover since 2013. Jaguar is well renowned for its luxurious and sporty design cars all over the world while Land Rover is considered as the pioneer of manufacturing SUV cars.  Both successful companies decided to merge with each other to combine their strategies, operational and innovative technological expertise. During the ownership of Ford, both companies’ uses to have joint facilities for engineering at Coventry in England which does not only save cost but also help to engineer better with more skillful professionals. The assembly plants of Jaguar cars are located in Castle Bromwich and Solihull. These combined facilities are made to achieve economies of scale by utilizing the assets for maximum number of units (Jaguar.com). 

Since their merger by Tata motors, company is expanding at a huge growth rate all over the world. The expertise of Tata Motors in selling cars in India has helped Jaguar to maintain its position in Indian which is one of the largest markets of World.   Many experienced and skill full operation managers are transferred to India to supervise operational processes all over the world especially in Turkey, Kenya, Malaysia and Pakistan.  Those experienced managers are not only supervising the operational process but helping and training the local managers to cope up with the standards and pace of Jaguar across the globe (Jaguar.com).

Jaguar Land Rover is offering cars which include E Pace, F Pace, E type, XF, XE, XJ and R models.  Their main competitors are Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes which also belong to luxury group of car manufacturers. Jaguar land Rover aims to reduce the emissions of CO2 from their cars by 25 percent to protect the environment.  They are aiming to produce intelligent vehicles to enhance the experience of drivers (Jaguar.com).

Operations management:

Operations management is one of the most important elements of building a successful business as it administers the activities of business to produce the maximum productivity within an organization specially. It is mainly focused on the production systems which makes it even more important in case of Jaguar cars.  Two important concepts of Operations management with its application on Jaguar are explained below.

New Product development process:

New product development is a critical success factor for any organization especially in a manufacturing business. It can help a company to overcome the declining sales or tuck growth of already producing products.  Without an effective process for developing new product, an organization would face a higher risk of new product failure.  The process gives the maximum productivity when companies are able to involve all functional units within an organization. Inputs from marketing, engineering, production and finance need to be capitalized properly. A new product can be developed effectively only if marketin department research and know the requirements of its customers. Requiremtns should be communicated to design and engineering departments to make a design. Then it should be consulted with production department to know how this design will be produced. Is it feasible or practically impossible? New product development process is becoming dispersed geographically and it will restrict the effectiveness of new product in long term if is prepared by few people within a single functional unit of firm (Hauser & Dahan, 2007).

 

New Product development process in Jaguar:

Jaguar is an icon in automotive industry which continuously looks at technological advancements to continuously improve their products along with development and production process. It in the tradition of Jaguar Land Rover to continuously innovate its products and come up with latest models equipped with highest technology and premium design fulfilling the needs of customers. Collaboration of Jaguar Land Rover with Virtual Engineering Center in terms of expertise and access to supercomputing facilities and enabled them to produce new designs for Jaguar. CAE is an integrated process developed by VEC for maximizing the performance in terms of safety using workflows. Virtual engineering has allowed Jaguar Company to check the performance of proposed new product by minimizing physical prototypes. It helped Jaguar to reduce its manufacturing cost and lead time to introduce product in market.    This shows the strong new product development process of Jaguar who are not only relying on internal functional units but collaborating with companies who have access on latest technology which can be used effectively to bring a new product with minimum cost and maximum effectiveness (Hartee Center).

Quality management:

Quality management makes it sure that a company’s products or services are consistent with the requirements of customers. Not only the product but the processes of producing products must meet the standards and should work according to developed standard operating procedures. The process of managing quality has four main components which are quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement . it all starts with planning and defining what is quality according to our customers. Then making it sure that the quality is achieved and evaluated. After evaluation , importants steps must be taken in order to improve and maintain quality (van der Wiele et al, 1995). It mainly focuses on the systems which improve the quality of each process ultimately leading to low cost due to low waste and consistency in products and services. The quality can be managed by focusing on customer requirements, engaging people involved in each process, evaluating and improving required standards (Cole, 1999).

Quality management at Jaguar:

Jaguar always aimed to achieve excellence in luxurious designing and quality.  They focus to deliver design, luxury and quality in every car. Each car of Jaguar is made to order which means it has different requirements which makes it more difficult to manage quality.  It is important to scrutinize every car when it is on the assembly line to manage quality and requirements.  During production of cars in Jaguar, each car will under a process of quality check with giving attention to little details and precisions.  If any flaw is found at any stage of production, the production of car discontinues and goes back to fulfill the requirement of quality.  After fulfilling the quality , it is checked and then double checked to make sure if the flaw has been eliminated.  At the end of production process, a whole team of inspectors is dedicated to inspect each element of requirements and quality in each car. Until they do not a give clearance certificate for each car, it does not get out of production unit.  (Jagaur.com)

Supply chain relationship management:

Managing strong and effective business relationships across the supply chain has vital importance in gaining competitive advantage for any business. An organization’s relationship with its suppliers, transporters, distributors and retailers depends upon the internal as well as external environment. The culture of an organization working as a team makes it possible to manage good relationships with its suppliers. The culture of mutual well being of supplier chain should be promoted across the supply chain to achieve growth objectives for each partner of chain (Christopher, 1998).  Efficient flow of communication and goods across supply chain creates a positive impact in terms of cost and quality management to each entity of supply chain. Misinformation can cause delays in providing material which can cause delay in production ultimately leading to lose sales. Establishing clear, robust and achievable terms and conditions of relationships across supply chain are important for developing good relationships.  Highly productive supply chain relationships can be managed if it involves mutual trust and tolerance, two way communication, frequent contact, mutual problem solving attitude and sharing success with each other. In case of problem , each partner should try to address the problem of any member instead of changing its supplier and developing a new relationship (Burnes & New, 1996).

Supply chain relationship management at Jaguar:

Jaguar understands the importance of managing relationships across supply chain. They believed that they are not as big manufacturer as its competitors so they have to rely on relationships and must build more effective relationships as compare to its competitors. Jaguar Land Rover won an award for best supplier relationship management in awards for CIPS supply management.  Grupo Antolin is their key supplier for providing interiors for their cars. During to increasing demand of cars and customization from customers in interiors, Grupo Antolin started to face issues and deliveries were started to be late. Usually, Grupo Antolin has to fulfill the order within 6 hours but they have been failing continuously. Instead of selecting another supplier, JLR decided to send their managers to spend few days at Grupo Antolin production facility and observe the bottlenecks which are causing problems. They diagnosed the problem and came up with solution of building a new assembly line at Grupo Antolin which helped Grupo Antolin to fulfill the requirements of interior’s order JLR. It did not help them to decrease the cost JLR were bearing due to late orders but it helped them to build trust and strong relationships with its supplier (Will, 2017). 

Logistics Mix:

Logistics is the process of developing plan, implementing and controlling the efficient transfer and storage of products or services or information from manufacturer to consumer in order to fulfill the requirements of end consumer.  It involves the elements of managing materials, distribution of products, mode and schedule of transportation, warehousing, and order processing (Hensher & Brewer, 2001). An effective management of logistics mix will provide cost effective and timely delivery of good at required places.  It will increase the satisfaction level of end consumers as well as business consumers. Lack of proper logistics management can cause in failure of providing products to customer at the time of requirement. Impactful logistics management can create a competitive advantage of an organization over its competitors   it is documented that significant cost can be saved by effective logistics management (Christopher, 1998).  .

The timely requirements of material for production system is necessary otherwise delay in production will cause a cost to business and delays in fulfilling orders due to which company can lose orders. For effective logistics system, purchase orders must be managed by calculating the quantity required at what time and place (Lee & Billington , 1992). 

Management of physical goods should be done effectively to manage a cost effective logistics mix. When the products are manufactured, it is under the responsibility of logistics department until they are shipped. They have to manage it in way that company must not bear high cost of inventory management and warehousing. The concept of having least inventory is vital in success of logistics mix of any organization (Gadde & Snehota, 2000).

Logistics Mix at Jaguar:

Organizations that provide logistics services to JLR played a vital role in the success and growth of company all over the world. Because of their effective services, JLR is able to successfully meet the requirements of their customers on time within the affordable cost.  JLR prefers to expand the relationships with its logistics providers for further future services so that it can reap the benefits of effective logistics and grow all over the world and keep its quality consistent.  Growth at this high level across the world requires the logistic of JLR to be very responsive and accurate. JLR included more technological methodology in running its logistics operations so that advancement in technology can increase the efficiency. Company has a strategy of outsourcing its logistics requirements to meet the demand effectively by hanging it over to specialists of the field (Ludwig, 2001). 

Company has outsourced it inbound logistics by integrating with DHL which has to manage its transports, handling of stock and providing it to plants at the time of requirement.  For outbound logistics and premium movements, the contract has been done with logistics provider according to regions such as Volvo logistics in Europe (Ludwig, 2001).  JLR has set few requirements and standard for its supplier for effective management of logistics. These requirements are

                All transporting vehicles should be side loaded

                Its supplier responsibility to load goods with safety

                Effective utilization of space of vehicle is supplier’s responsibility

                Pallets should be faced outwards for effective and easy unloading

                JLR must not receive parts or product in arrears.

                Collection and capacity of vehicle will vary according to the requirements of JLR at plant.

                The time management for production operation at JLR is critical to its success , growth and profits, so suppliers should fulfill the agreed terms and conditions for collection of good on agreed times.

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Conclusion and recommendations:

The importance of supply chain management can never be ignored that is why Jaguar Land rover has out such an emphasis on managing relationships with its suppliers and working effectively throughout its supply chain.  Despite of effective operations, logistics and supply chain manger, below are few recommendations for Jaguar Land Rover to further improve its efficiency

                Use automatic purchasing systems with the help of RFID to improve efficiency furthermore. RFID system helps companies to plan regarding inventory much more effective.

                Apply Enterprise Resource Planning system which can better manage material requirements and increase transparency. It can minimize corruption and further increase the reduction in cost of materials management.

                It is of vital importance for Jaguar to raise awareness in organization as well as across the supply chain for cost impact. How a delay can impact cost?  How more storage can harm the whole process? How bad logistics can increase the cost?

                To further improve the efficiency of production and inventory management, a whole plan should be developed to implement JIT inventory management system. A detailed planning must be done with the involvement of suppliers and other partners of supply chain. This implementation can give Jaguar Land Rover a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors.

Application of above mentioned recommendations regarding the issues can further improve the effectiveness of Jaguar Land Rover which can help them to decrease their operational cost to achieve competitive edge.

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