Understanding Operations, Logistics & Supply Chain Management

Understanding Operations, Logistics & Supply Chain Management

ESSAY

INTRODUCTION

Operations, logistics and supply chain management are the crucial components of every organisation. The following essay aims to elaborate on the two key operation, logistics and supply chain management issues faced by the operations and supply chain managers in the Bentley organisation. New product development and logistics mix are the two problems that will be illustrated below with a detailed analysis of various components like infrastructure, service delivery systems and manufacturing process. It is important to talk about these issues as Bentley, being a large scale organisation has to develop tremendous operational, logistical and supply chain management strategies to run effectively and carry out the daily operations of the business. The essay will be concluded by providing recommendations for the organisation to overcome these issues with the help of triple bottom line theory.

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

Bentley Motors Limited, founded in January 1919, is an England based luxury car as well as SUV maker and distributor. The organisation employs more than 4,000 people worldwide who plan, design, hand-build and sells their vehicles. Bentley continues to respond to the challenges, day after day, be it evolving fashion trends, emerging technologies, environmental constraints or consumer desires, while staying faithful to the organization's mission. Bentley's eye for detail and engagement focuses on every part of the brand, from the goods and services to their activities and interactions. In search of a progressive, modern world, Bentley is developing a future powered by new technology, resources, energies and skills: one in which the highest degree of luxurious mobility is accomplished using sustainable approaches (Volkswagen, 2020).

Management of operations is a field of management which is concerned with the planning and supervision of the manufacturing process and the redesign of company operations in the manufacture of products or services. Logistics administration plays a critical role in the company's activities as it requires careful supervision of the merchandise, including exiting and entering the enterprise premises, thereby maintaining the organization operating smoothly as a whole. Supply chain management, on the other hand, is also important because it simplifies everything from commodity flows to unforeseen natural catastrophes (Azmi et al., 2017). Although Bentley has many distinct automotive, popular all over the world, there are several places for enhancement in the supply chain, operations, and logistical management department of organizations. The organizations' operation and supply chain managers face two major issues; Issue of development of new product development and process; and issue in the logistics mix of Bentley. The logistics mix includes channels, networks, transportation, managing inventory and capacity (Azmi et al., 2017).

New product development and process: Firstly, one of the most powerful but challenging company operations is to continually produce premium new engineering products and to have a foothold in your niche market. Bentley's geographic growth has led to tremendous expectations and distinct consumer preferences for the company's vehicles, which is why it needs to deliver new goods to the market on an on-going basis. Since Bentley Motors is committed to designing and producing the most attractive high-performance vehicles in the world, the current method of product production is limited to a certain level (Gao and Bernard, 2018). New goods and services creation requires immense investments, time, new ideas, innovative methods, etc. In the automobile industry, the development of these new goods requires spending large amounts in advance, since one does not know whether the product will be competitive on the market after launch. According to many surveys, for many reasons, more than half of new product inventions, regardless of the form of market, crash, this demonstrates how daunting it can be for Bentley’s new tech product design teams to succeed. Other than this, it imposes great challenges and problems for Bentley to manage the product quality as strong while keeping prices justified and introducing fresh and creative features to the vehicles (Gao and Bernard, 2018).

Logistics mix: Secondly, Bentley's other main challenge is handling the logistics mix. One of the most dynamic in the world is considered to be the automobile supply chain for producing automobiles, trucks and other vehicles. Because of both the scale and breadth of the cars, finished vehicle delivery for Bentley comes with an additional degree of difficulty. The first challenge in the logistic mix is inadequate visibility and portion routing, resulting in development phase delays. A typical vehicle, for example, has around 30,000 individual components, either made by Bentley or imported from other locations and organizations (Al-Doori, 2019). The manufacturing and delivery of vital materials can be slowed down by a delay in only one part of the supply chain, resulting in the production line being shut down. Another big logistics concern is inventory control and management of the supply chain. Bentley's vehicles and other items require careful storage and warehouse control that requires proper handling, care and resources. Holding car parts and vehicles under warehouses for a long time often limits their worth and causes a loss for the business, which is why Bentley wants good supply chain control and inventory management. Low supplier networks can lead to instability in the supply network and processes in some places and more in other industrialized economies (Velda and Dhiba, 2017).

The above challenges pose a great challenge to the service and supply chain management departments of Bentleys as they represent a significant impediment to the organization's growth and progress. Bentley has tried to resolve these two challenges of innovative vehicle creation and logistics management in order to stand against its rivals in the global automotive industry. The lifeblood of an automobile company such as Bentley is product creation. In order to have a broad customer base and improve its brand image and increase market share, it includes a line of goods or several services. Following are the various components that clarify how the operation at Bentley functions and works and also how it supports the market it is serving now (Tien et al., 2019).

Operational Functioning: The word used to explain how the organization's central operation is structured and operates is the operation function. It is in processing where the raw materials are converted into a commodity that can be used. The value of having the right product mix plan for assessing multiple go-to-market tactics to determine the ideal product mix at the consumer, state, or national level was recognised by Bentley product development executives. The supervisors focus on organisational planning generally around ordinary fields such as product and distribution maintenance. Volkswagen issued £ 1 billion in investment cash to make operating operations smoother and more effective at Bentley (AMC, 2021).

Service Systems for Delivery: Bentley insists on offering high-quality goods as well as on the nature of the luxury with keeping the costs justifiable. The central priority of the company is to fulfil the needs and inclinations of its clients and to be able to successfully meet their desires and wants. Through making supplies fast and support processes readily available to consumers, the company has made significant strides in its supply chain management. Managers collaborate closely with the distribution teams to ensure that there is no compromise on the goods and the quality of services (Carbone and Martino, 2003).

Manufacturing Processes: In the early era of Bentley's struggle on the market, the cash infusion from Volkswagen brought home the news that things would just have to change within the company itself. Bentley was manufacturing between 800 and 1,000 cars a year at that time, a number that had to raise to boost the overall profitability of the company. Bentley has so far taken this as a significant problem and raised the number of vehicles it manufactures in a year and aims to make constant attempts to raise the figures ever further. It has always followed the best possible standards for the quality of its vehicles. The design of the cars at Bentley Motors is carried out in compliance with the market's requirements and needs and even according to customer orders (AMC, 2021).

Infrastructure for Management of Delivery Systems: The distribution system technology at Bentley is being transformed by interconnections between supply chain operators, delivery agents, computers, and other platforms and networks of communication. Strategies for developing powerful and low-latency integrated message delivery networks have been developed by the company. This methodology allows for large-scale absorption, curation and translation into systematic data and processes of data relevant to traffic and roadways (Du, et al. 2017).

RECOMMENDATIONS

As Bentley is a well-known company in the global automotive sector, the magnitude of consumer developments and the demands of consumers and technical changes are greater than those of other sectors, so the organization needs to recognize main variables in lean production from the point of view of the industry managers of innovative product creation ventures. To resolve the overlying operations, logistics and supply chain management issues at Bentley, the lean theory of production and triple bottom line theory can be brought to use.

The Lean Philosophy focuses on optimising the velocity of output processes by reducing waste. It offers methods for evaluating information flow and delay times in a process for each operation. In order to improve the quality and effectiveness of process operation, Bentley engines can apply the lean principle to their manufacturing process. Next, approaches and techniques should be implemented to objectively analyse procedures and decrease inefficient practices that bring little benefit to their clients. By doing so, manufacturing practises are recommended to be more effective, save resources and have an improved consumer experience (Panwar et al. 2015).

Figure: Lean Principles, (The Lean Way, 2021)

Next, to understand how the systems operate and to define meaning, it is important to construct value stream maps. The Lean theory's next idea is flow, which Bentley will use to maintain a continuous and smooth flow. Finally, attempts must be taken to consider the consumers' desires and their true demands. The definition of perfection would be a simple idea for them until Bentley begins following the above concepts (Panwar et al. 2015).

Triple bottom line thinking suggests that an enterprise should incorporate traditional financial performance metrics with ones that assess social responsibility and environmental stewardship. It includes the main mechanisms used to render the final amount of profit during sustainable business approaches in the company type. This will allow Bentley to improve revenue from culture, the environment, and the economy. Triple Bottom Line is not designed to underestimate benefit, but to bring external metrics into the total health image of a business. For humans and the world to succeed, a business must be financially stable and efficient. For an organisation to fulfil its Triple Bottom Line obligations, all three must operate in unison (Slaper and Hall, 2011).

In order to be a responsible company, Bentley should promise that it takes care of the earth and that it pays heed to the circumstances of natural capital. For the sake of the environment, it will undertake sustainable business practises, which would also give them an upper hand over their rivals. Secondly, since they are the biggest assets for each company, they need to do something for the workforce and society. In terms of equal opportunity employers, equitable allocation of salaries or addressing health and poverty problems from the city, Bentley will return these persons. Finally, since it is an important corporate task for the corporation to thrive and to provide a role in sustaining the economic structure, Bentley engines must generate money for the company (Slaper and Hall, 2011).

CONCLUSION

With the help of the above essay, it can be concluded that it is very crucial for an organisation to maintain its operations, logistics and supply chain management in order to achieve organisational success. The essay talked about new product development and logistics mix, the key issues in the operations management of Bentley Motors and the ways in which the organisation is trying to improve these issues. The essay lastly included recommendations consisting of theories like Lean theory and TBL concept to suggest ways in which Bentley can overcome these issues.

REFERENCES

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Carbone, V. and Martino, M.D., 2003. The changing role of ports in supply-chain management: an empirical analysis. Maritime Policy & Management, 30(4), pp.305-320.

Du, Y., Chowdhury, M., Rahman, M., Dey, K., Apon, A., Luckow, A. and Ngo, L.B., 2017. A distributed message delivery infrastructure for connected vehicle technology applications. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 19(3), pp.787-801.

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Slaper, T.F. and Hall, T.J., 2011. The triple bottom line: What is it and how does it work. Indiana business review, 86(1), pp.4-8.

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Velda, A.M.E. and Dhiba, Y., 2017, April. Supply chain management performance in automotive sector: Case of Morocco. In 2017 International Colloquium on Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LOGISTIQUA) (pp. 106-111). IEEE.

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