Operational and Supply Problems at BMW in UK Paper Example

Introduction

The efficacy of an institution in accomplishing its objectives can be attributed to proper management of its logistics mix and quality management problems in the course of executing its functions. Operations management is executed when designing and managing the production or manufacturing processes in an organization, so as to create goods and services. Contrary, logistics management is executed to meet as well as fulfill clients' demands. That is through the implementation, planning and control of transportation and storage infrastructures with an aim of promoting the customers' ease of access to an organization's goods and services.

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Company Information and Background

The plant is located in Cowley, Oxford, England and it is owned by the renowned German vehicle manufacturer, BMW (Samson & Daft 2012). The plant is also the primary assembly facility for all the BMW Mini vehicles. The Mini vehicle engines used at the BMW Mini plant are manufactured at Plant Hams Hall whereas the body pressings as well as sub-assemblies are performed at Plant Swindon (Samson & Daft 2012). Ultimately, the final assembly, body shell production and paint work are executed at the BMW Mini plant Oxford, where retail and distribution of the final products are made.

Today, the BMW Mini Plant manufactures luxury cars that are highly demanded by clients in all demographic segments (Winden, et al. 2010). The backing of the BMW brand in the production of the Mini cars has made the vehicles to be associated with luxury, quality, reliability and strength (Winden, et al. 2010). Additionally, that is the primary reason why the cars have a high market demand both locally and internationally. Also, the BMW's Mini cars are positioned as fun and economic options for clients who would like to experience other more expensive luxury vehicles but cannot afford them.

The BMW Mini Plant today, is considered to be among the largest car producers in the UK. The BMW Oxford plant produces over 1000 Mini cars per day and has approximately 3800 employees (Gong 2013). In 2015, Mini represented approximately 12.5% of the UK Car production (NHS 2016). Subsequently, this made the corporation to be the third largest car manufacturing company in the company. Also, in 2015, the BMW Mini Plant manufactured 201,206 cars and 80% of those vehicles were exported for international clients (NHS 2016). Ultimately, this phenomenon portrays that the BMW Mini Plant relies on good infrastructure to distribute its completed products.

Logistics Mix

Logistics is the detailed organization as well as implementation of a multifarious operation in an organization (Lai & Cheng 2016). It is also the organization of the flow of operations between an organization's site of process to the products' point of consumption in an effort to meet the clients' requirements (Lai & Cheng 2016). Having a good supply chain in an organization is imperative for the attainment of a good sales turnover. Subsequently, good sales translate into an increased profitability for an organization and the overall growth and development of an establishment. The success of BMW's Mini Plant in Oxford can be accredited to the company's implementation of an ideal logistics infrastructure, which can be manifested through the corporation's supply chain.

The manufacturing of BMW Mini cars at the Oxford plant is notable for many reasons. Among them is the reason that most of the BMW Mini cars produced at the Oxford plant are made based on customer orders with defined options and customizations. When distributing such products, the UK based BMW Mini Corporation follows the BMW global production and distribution system that fixes all the production arrangements six days before the cars assembly (Ludwig 2017). Nevertheless, the distribution infrastructure permits clients to request for changes in their customization details of their ordered cars before they are packaged and transported.

The BMW Mini Oxford's supply chain is also notable for its efficient long distance and international distribution network. Additionally, this is because the BMW Mini Oxford's plant does not possess a press establishment on the site. Instead, the BMW Mini Oxford plant obtains most the car's body parts at the Swindon plant, which is 50 kilometres (30 miles) away (Ludwig 2017). Additionally, some of the body parts used by the BMW Mini Oxford plant are imported from Germany and Central Europe (Ludwig 2017). Nevertheless, the BMW Mini Plant has an array of just-in-sequence as well as just-in-time suppliers from the UK.

The BMW Mini Plant also has numerous transportation trucks transporting essential car assembly parts from Asia and North America. Engine supplies for the BMW Minis are also obtained locally and internationally, with petro engines, which make up about 60% of the vehicles at the Oxford plant being transported from BMW's engine factory (Ludwig 2017). In this case, the company's primary engine factory is situated in Hams Hall, Midlands, which is a long distance from BMW Mini Plant's site in Oxford (Ludwig 2017). Furthermore, the remaining 40% engine components for building BMW Mini cars are obtained from Steyr, Austria (Ludwig 2017).

There are approximately 270 transportation trucks that arrive at the BMW Mini Plant in Oxford every day from such distance locations including ports (Ludwig 2017). For instance, approximately 95% of all BMW Mini Plant's raw materials originating from Europe come via the port of Calais, France (Ludwig 2017). Such statistics portray that the BMW Mini Plant has a complex supply chain in reference to its logistics. Additionally, the UK is considered to be the largest market for the BMW Mini cars. Nevertheless, the corporation also exports thousands of cars internationally with its largest export markets being in the United States, Germany as well as China.

The BMW's Mini models are also assembled in Born, Netherlands at the Nedcar Contract Manufacturing Plant. In addition, to manage the Born and Oxford supply chain, the BMW Mini Plant employs a number of standard supply as well as delivery processes. The first process is the JIS/JIT procedure where trucks transporting the manufactured BMW mini cars are used to move the cars from Oxford to Born and to other distribution centres. Second, BMW Mini Plant also uses the steered network process where the company uses trucks to deliver the finished mini cars to their buyers in a high frequency.

Lastly, the BMW Mini Plant uses the base network process for consolidating the car parts that are required in the manufacture of the BMW Mini cars. Additionally, the parts are also transported by trucks from the docks to consolidation centres. Conclusively, it is evident that road transport is the widely used form of transportation for the finished BMW Mini cars from the BMW Mini Plant Oxford. The mode of transport is preferred because it is convenient, inexpensive and safe when transporting goods inland. Nevertheless, transportation of the BMW Mini cars in the international markets is done by ships through water transport.

Quality Management

It is the concept that ensures that the outputs, benefits as well as processes by which products and services are delivered by an organization fulfils the customers' requirements and also satisfies their desired purpose (Kiran 2016). Quality management leads to the development of quality products, when measured in terms of their reliability, durability as well as performance (Kiran 2016). In the BMW Mini Plant Oxford, quality is an imperative parameter that differentiates the organization from its competitors in the automobile manufacturing industry. The company uses essential quality management tools in ensuring that there are changes in the organization's systems and processes that lead to the creation of superior BMW mini cars.

The primary quality management concept that is utilized by the BMW Mini Plant Oxford is total quality management (TQM) and it has enabled the company to exceed its clients' expectations. As a result, since the plant started manufacturing mini cars in 2000, customers have been satisfied by the brand (Wynn-Williams 2016). The development of quality products has also ensured that the BMW Mini Plant Oxford to survive the intense competition in the industry from corporations like Aston Martin, Caterham, Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, Lagonda and Daimler. Ultimately, the creation of quality cars by the BMW Mini Plant, Oxford has enabled the organization to maintain customers' satisfaction, elevate the clients' loyalty and minimize the cost of replacing faulty cars.

Total Quality Management

It is the primary quality management concept that is employed by the BMW Mini Plant, Oxford. The concept defines an organization's management methodology for its long-term ideal performance in reference to its client's satisfaction (Kaynak & Rogers 2013). It is also a principle of management that is based on premise that all personnel in an organization must be committed in ensuring that they maintain high quality standards when executing all aspects of a company's operations (Kaynak & Rogers 2013). In the BMW Mini Plant Oxford, as a TQM strategy, all workers in the organization work collaborative in improving the car manufacturing procedures and also in improving the culture of their working environment.

The TQM concept has seven fundamental elements that include customer focus, relationship management, leadership, evidence-based decision making process (EBP), people's engagement, improvement as well as process approach (Ribiere 2018). Among them, the BMW Mini Plant, Oxford enforces the customer focus, relationship management, improvement and proper leadership elements to promote its efforts of producing high quality cars for its clients. Customer focus concept of TQM defines the orientation of an organization towards serving all its clients' needs. Moreover, putting all the needs of the clients first has to a large extent elevated the overall success of the BMW Mini Plant, Oxford in the UK automobile manufacturing industry.

Unlike its competitors like Aston Martin, Caterham, Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, Lagonda and Daimler, BMW Mini Plant, Oxford has made the placement of all its customers' needs a prerequisite when executing all its manufacturing functions. Subsequently, since BMW took the management of the BMW Mini Plant, Oxford, the Mini Plant has been in a position to fulfil all its car buyers' quality demands. The phenomenon can be portrayed by the company's exemplary market performance in terms of its sales turnover recorded every year by the corporation (Dorrenbacher & Geppert 2017). Also, there are six essential activities that are executed by the BMW Mini Plant, Oxford that are aimed at promoting the level of customer focus recorded among the corporation's personnel.

The stated customer focus promotion activities include measuring and evaluating the level of satisfaction among the organization's customers. Other activities include striving to exceed the level of BMW mini customers' expectations, creating and managing clients' relationships and meetings all the customers' requirements when manufacturing customized cars. Also, the BWM Mini Plant personnel strives to identify as well as understand the current as well as future needs of the company's customers. Lastly, the company through its personnel strives to align its corporate objectives with the needs and expectations of all its clients. In this case, that is to ensure that the company only manufactures cars that are desired by the customers in the market.

Improvement is also an element of TQM that defines the process of improving the methodology used to create products in...