Introduction Over the years, the U. S. auto industry's market has been experiencing fluctuations due to many reasons including: price, quality and foreign competition. General Motors Corporation (GM) which had been the leading car and truck manufacturer had been experiencing declining market share and facing stiff competition from both U.S manufacturers and foreign imports such as the Asian auto producers that included Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The main reason for increased foreign competition was that foreign cars were more fuel efficient, smaller, less expensive, and often more reliable than their American counterparts. In an effort to eliminate waste and maintain competitive advantages, GM introduced lean manufacturing by incorporating elements of the Toyota Total Quality Production System that had been adopted by several Japanese auto manufacturers to increase production efficiency. The lean implementation effort resulted in both operational and an environment improvement but the company still faced challenges inherent with the automotive supply chain including: risk, visibility, inventory management, cost containment, customer demands and globalization. GM currently expects its suppliers to adopt a lean philosophy to ensure it becomes the low-cost producer of quality products. It employs Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing and utilizes distribution strategies including maintenance of regional distribution facilities and third party management of logistics. [1] An efficient supply chain is no longer capable of handling the complexities of changing global trends hence it is therefore necessary to incorporate a smarter supply chain. Background and Current Situation In November 18, 2010, GM completed the world’s largest in... ... middle of paper ... ...February 2014. http://www.gm.com/company/aboutGM/our_company.html [2] “General Motors Company: 2012 Annual Report.” General Motors Company. December 2013. http://www.gmannualreport.com/downloads.html [3] “The U.S. Automotive Industry Needs Updated Finished Goods Benchmarks: Automotive supply chain.” Supply Chain matters. January 17, 2014. http://www.theferrarigroup.com/supply-chain-matters/2014/01/17/the-u-s-automotive-industry-needs-updated-finished-goods-benchmarks/ [4] “Interactive chart: General Motors Company.” money.msn.com. February 27, 2014. http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/key-ratios?symbol=US%3aGM&page=ManagementEfficiency [5] “The Smarter Supply Chain of the Future: IBM Global Chief Supply Chain Officer Study.” IBM Institute for Business Value. January 2009. http://www-07.ibm.com/sg/manufacturing/pdf/manufacturing/Auto-industry.pdf
Over the years role of supply chain has been altered. The distribution has switched from shipping from one focal point, now technology has shortened the process that will to ship directly from the manufacture to the customer that will tie in to the distribution channels. Though distribution is costly, a person would think all the risk will be eliminated. Contrarily to what people may think, distribution have many risk it must account. When the product is unloaded onto the truck, it’s the trucker sole responsibility to ensure the customer receive their product. Distribution initially start at beginning when it is
· Big 3 automaker (Ford, GM, Daimler Chrysler) looking to better management of supply chain (the series of transaction & interaction between suppliers, buyers, and intermediaries) to minimize costs while improving quality
Prior to Ford partnering with Penske, all of the automotive companies 20 plants in the United States handled their own logistics. This caused unnecessary costs in the transportation and material-handling sector of the company due to the fact that suppliers...
Lockheed Martin’s supply chain is responsible for approximately $11.2 billion annually with nearly 1,500 production suppliers and 900 non-production suppliers all over the world (Lockheed Martin, 2014). Lockheed Martin designed their supply chain using lessons learned from preceding programs, that addressed on-time delivery, and quality assurance. Once a contract is signed with a supplier, Lockheed Martin issues a Material Resource Planning requirement to initiate the procurement process. Engineers travel to each of the sub-contractors and perform quality and reliability testing on their components. ALIS has increased the overall effectiveness of the supply chain by automating tracking of parts. Lockheed Martin has also increased
In the 1960s through the 1970s, companies realized strong engineering, design, and manufacturing functions were strong market strategy keys to create and capture customer loyalty. As the demand for new products rose in the 1980s, these market requirements were to increase their flexibility and responsiveness to adapt existing products and processes or to develop new ones in order to meet customer needs. As manufacturing improved in the 1990s, managers began noticing material and service inputs involving suppliers and their major impact on an organization’s ability to meet customer needs. As a result of these changes, organizations now find that it difficult to manage their own organizations. First, they must be involved in the management of their network of all upstream firms that provide directly or indirectly, as well as the network of downstream firms, which are responsible for delivery and market service of the product to the end customer. In order to succeed, managers have to realize that they cannot do it alone and they must work together on a daily basis with the whole organizations in their supply chains. Because supply chain management involves all functions within an organization, managers need to know what a supply chain is, why it is important, and the impact of supply chain management on the success and profitability of their organization. Today, Wal-Mart topped the list of the America’s biggest companies on the Fortune 500 list, “with sales of almost $345 billion — more than a quarter of a trillion dollars” (Forbs). Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is becoming recognized as a core competitive strategy.
The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive and challenging. In the recent past, manufacturers have found themselves facing the threat of dwindling profit margins due to unfortunate global events such as the 2007 global financial crisis and the on going Europe economic crisis. The need to improve operation efficiency so as to ensure current and future investment yield the highest rate of return has therefore become extremely important. Manufacturers are now actively engaged in, managing their costs, Research and Development, adopting best procurement strategies, among other Actions. While such actions might eventually lead to positive results, additional business value can be achieved through proper management of the supply chain (Waymer, Ivanaj & Mussa 2009; Krivda 2004).
In order to have both an effective and efficient supply chain, managers should be focused on trying to achieve not only a cost effective supply chain, but a flexible one. In today’s economy, because the market is so volatile, trendy, and competitive, flexibility is the key to success. In order to respond to customers’ ever-increasing requirement demands, market leaders have positioned themselves well by continually investing in new key performance indicators, additional technology, improved supply chain networks, and streamlining efforts (Source One INC, 2013). This helps to maximize flexibility and overall responsiveness. With increased flexibility, leaders recognize that supply chains must be adjusted to meet different customer needs. In my research I will analyze Gate Gourmet’s use of information technology and the importance of supply chain integration.
It is simple to see logistic and supply chain networks in action such as warehouses storing, shipment transporting products and customers consuming those products and services. This is determined by how the management of the company plans its upcoming activities and transforms their inputs into outputs efficiently to the global market. Therefore, this is no exception for a high-end automotive component, industrial products and automotive manufacturer like BOSCH, Canada. This report will outline the supply chain flow and purchase in BOSCH Canada. However, there are several challenges such as failing to manage inventory well and the inaccuracy of demand forecast faced by the company. Therefore, several recommendations are discussed within this report in order to expand the business widely.
Today component suppliers offer their own design solutions, do value engineering, and instead of supplying only components, they are beginning to supply automotive systems. With more global companies designing products for India, it offers opportunities for the Indian component makers to build on their R&D capabilities by participating in the design and development process. The OEMs are rationalizing their vendor base to improve operational efficiencies. As a result, the supply chain management (SCM) responsibility is increasingly shifting on the component suppliers. In the coming years, the industry...
(1999).Advanced supply chain management: How to build a sustained competitive advantage. San Francisco, CA: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Supply chain management at Ford Motor in very essential in the success of the company. However, Ford operation leaders within Ford Motor are working in designing and executing the strategies of the supply chain that increases productivity, decrease risk and successfully respond to the fluctuations that are in demand. Moreover, the supply chain management surrounds the shaping of demand and supply as well as with the optimal design of the products themselves, establishing a broad range of responsibilities. Ford Moor operations leaders treat their supply chain networks which include the logistics providers and the contracted manufacturers as partners, so that they are able in aligning goals and successfully plan and collaborate across these groups.
There are many ways to improve supply chain in the competitive environment. Lean synchronization is considered one of the best techniques. In this essay, I will focus on lean philosophy. Lean philosophy target are producing perfect quality of products and reducing waste. The most important part of lean philosophy is focus on eliminate all of the waste. Waste can
In brief, Kellogg’s is the world’s leading breakfast cereal manufacturer (The Times 100, 2010). Kellogg’s has manufacturing plants in the UK, Canada, Australia, Latin America and Asia (The Times 100, 2010), thus Levy (2007) settles Kellogg’s must have established an international supply chain as a response to the globalisation in which needs to act responsibly. Furthermore, this essay will also demonstrate Kellogg’s lean production system, and how exploits that. Interestingly, Krajewski et al. (2009) has drawn attention to the fact that lean production is an operations system, which assists to exploit the value of the company, in this case, Kellogg’s activities by eliminating waste. Referencing to Paton et al. (2011) agrees lean production is based on a series of practices which mostly seen at Kellogg’s as a management approach, namely; just in time (JIT) which will be included in this essay. The rationale behind the choice is, The Times 100 (2010) highlights; Kellogg’s lean production enables the rearrangement of processes and removes waste. As it is known that in the supply chain, there are parts where waste can be found (Paton et...
“The General Motors (GM) is the world's second largest auto manufacturing company which business has been speeded in 6 continents, about 120 countries, approximately 215 000 workers around the world which are speak in 70 languages across the 23 time zones. From electric autos to overwhelming obligation full-estimate trucks, General Motors gives a total scope of vehicles that addresses the issues and desires of drivers on a really worldwide scale. There are 10 particular car marks under the General Motors corporate umbrella: Chevrolet, Buick, Opel, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun, Vauxhall, Holden, Wuling and Jiefang.. General Motors Corporation was framed on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding organization controlled
Kemppainen, K. and Vepsalainen, A.P. (2003), “Trends in industrial supply chains and networks”, International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 33 No. 8, pp. 701-20.