Introduction:
Over
the period, the global regime has witnessed significant advancement in
development and this can be suggested by the advancement in technological
capacities. Additionally, globalization has enhanced the aspect of development
because it has necessitated the capacities of development and regional
integration of national economies. In the wake of all these developments in the
national economies, the establishment of the various companies has been
conceptualized and one of the significant companies that have undergone
significant transition is the consideration of Ford automobile company (Banham, R. (2002)). The company was funded by
Henry Ford in 1903 and it has since grown and developed to e one of the leading
automobile companies around the globe, with headquarters at Dearbon, Michigan.
The company is characterized with a total of 370,000 employees globally and with
revenues to the span of about 144 billion. The operations of the company are also
diversified in over 200 countries so as to facilitate the ability of the company
to obtain immense revenues and profits from the services of its subsidiaries
and to maintain the core business of the company as far as the design and manufacture
of the automobiles is concerned in relation to the consumer market demands.
The
logistics and supply chain operations of the company
The
establishment of the organizational structure is extremely critical for
enhancing understanding of the company. This aspect is critical because it
enhances participation of the leaders and the employees of the organization.
Normally, the employees of the organization are charged with the duties that
are critical in enhancement of the goals and objectives of the organization and
the consideration of establishing the performance of the organization. The
leadership aspect is important in the consideration of organizational structure
and this has revealed that ford motor company has effective leadership that
integrates information and policies to the junior employees (Banham, R. (2002)). The critical decisions in
the organization are initiated by the chief executive offices and the other
staffs conducts the duties of implementing the policies drafted because this
translates into the realization of organizational goals.
Since the establishment, the venture has grown
and developed to specialize in the manufacturing of heavy tracks, tractors and
luxury cars. In addition, the venture has acquired other franchises like Mazda
in Japan and Aston Martin, with a production capacity of 260 million vehicles
so far. The attributes of development of the organization can be ascertained to
mean realization of the organizations goals and objectives and this denotes
success in the industry. The vision of the organization is to continue
improving on their products and services to enhance satisfaction of the
consumers (Banham,2002)). Analysis of the
records has shown that the organization has continued to value stakeholders and
customers because they form a formidable strength in the organization and their
activities leads to the establishment of organizational performance. Since the
establishment of the corporation in the United States, the organization has
employed measures that have enabled expansion to the other territories like the
Australian establishment. The establishment of ford automobile in Australia has
been of immense benefit because it has significantly enhanced organizational
performance. Analysis of the background information about the company has
revealed that the organization has continued to experience significant loss in
market share since the period of 1987.
In
order to provide end to end service parts supply chain solutions, the company
has devoted its operations to the use of the Sap software. This has helped the
company to incorporate the areas of service planning parts in the European
continent with the first Sap warehouse managed system currently running at to
ensure full production of the company’s products especially in France. The
company is also considering integrating the use of the software in its
operations based in the United States so that they can also implement the use
of the software in operations such as service planning. In order for the
company to also be totally informed on the partner logistics activities
especially in the upstream supply chain, the company has also come up with a
SAP supplier network collaborator that will help in managing the supply chain
events.
In
order to ensure that its supply chain processes were effective and efficient so
that the company would be able to enjoy better profits, the company underwent an
overly ambitious restructuring of all the company processes that was began in
the year 1995.The company chose to undergo various mergers which took place in
the North American, European an other regions of he globe that majorly dealt
with the company’s automotive operations in order for the company to become one
single operation globally. This way, the company was able to integrate process
like reengineering and globalization in order to ensure that the corporate
structure of the company was focused on being more cost saving(Coyle et al,
2008). The supply chain of the company also was intensified to make sure that
the product development processes were consolidated to constitute five vehicle centers
with each center being responsible for the development of cars and vehicles
that would suit and apply a certain consumer market and not just develop general
vehicles. The supply chain structure also involved the idea of making the
operation process of the company and the products consequently a common occurrence
to the global world. This way the company was able to eliminate redundancies
and be able to realize the economies of scale that accrue to companies that are
geared towards large scale productions since this meant that all the processes
were uniform and what was produced was only what was needed by the consumers.
Through the issue of economies of scale as created by the company, the company
was able to enjoy lower marginal production costs with the firm’s increased
production processes. The global approach that was also implemented and
enforced by use by the company also ensure d that the company was able to
overcome the limitations that are imposed to the operations of the company as a
result of the geographical location. In the same way also the teams of the
different countries in the country had to work together regardless of their
location and this therefore made the company more effective in meeting the set
targets and also in the issue of managing the supplies and logistics of the company
(Coyle et al, 2008).
To
ensure that the supply processes were consequently monitored and executed as
per the desirable company standards, the company also instituted the use of
information technology for the effective management of all the company’s processes.
The technology that was implemented was meant to supervise and control or the
reengineering process (Coyle et al, 2008). Through this means, the company was
able to effectively mange the inventories that were need in the manufacturing processes
since the technology made it easier for the authorities to enhance the flow of
the company materials and subsequently reduce the amount of inventories that
were held at a time. This way the inventory that would have otherwise been held
by the company was substituted by the valuable information as relayed in the system.
Further
more, for the company to be able to create consistency in its operations, it
also teamed up with two other companies in the industry, which are the Chrysler
and the General motors company so as to be able to combine the efforts while
working on the Automotive Network Exchange. Not only was this a way of creating
collaboration in the supply chain networks, but was also enforcing
collaborative relationships in the industry where the company operated. This
was very important for the company in the sense that it enabled the company to
be able to create consistent standards of technology in regards to the process
of the supplier networks. On the other hand also the company was also able to
ensure that interaction among the suppliers and the company would remain as a
positive aspect for the company especially in regards to pressing for lower
costs in regards to the core supplies that are needed in the company’s processes.
Through the improvement of the above process in its supply chain and logistics,
the company was able to attain a sum total
of 6.9 billion profits by the end of the year 1998.This also made the company
the world leader regards to the manufacture of trucks was concerned taking over
the lead from the Chrysler us company(Coyle et al, 2008). This also
subsequently increased the profit of the company with a 3.9% return on the
total sales that the company had made by the close of the financial year 1997.The
process that were adopted by the company also made the company to acquire the
title of the most improved automaker as far as the 1997 J.D power study on
initial quality was concerned.
The
supply base of the company had also grown with the growth of the company over
the period of years. In order to improve the existing supply base of the company,
it was mandatory for the management of the company to develop long-lasting relationships
with the first tier and second tier suppliers of the company, as well as other
suppliers that came after the first and the second tier (Ford motor company, 2012).
Through this relationship and developments in the company’s supply chin strategy,
the company was able to effectively improve the production operations by implementing
the use of just in time inventory techniques, use of the total quality management
strategy and statistical process controls. The use oaf the supply chain strategies
enabled the company to become leaner, responsive and efficient in its
production process.The same processes also led to the company’s ability to
produce the major corporation wide projects in the areas of reengineering with
one of them being the ford production system. This aspired the whole production
process of the company enabling it to be able to move from the level type of
production into the pull based system that allowed the processes of the company
to be more synchronized in terms of production with a continuous flow in the processes
and stability.
The
ford production system made it possible for the company to be able ot produce a
continuous flow of materials and the products of the company as driven by a fixed
and orderly vehicle leveling schedule that allowed the company to become more
flexible so as to accommodate the lean concepts of production (Ford motor
company, 2012). This propagated the use of the inline vehicle sequencing system
that allowed and ensure that the vehicles to be assembled underwent the order
sequence process. The order to deliver strategy that the company had also
adopted also made the process of the company more effective as far as meting
the needs of the consumers was concerned with the reduction of the number of days
before an order could be processed and consequently delivered from 65 days to
15 days. The order to deliver system was implemented so as to cater for the
bottle necks that the company was exposed to interns of marketing, planning of
the materials, production of the vehicles and the processes of transportation.
In general, the system was better reengineered in order to forecast the demand
so that customers from the dealers with a reduction in the number of days
through which a vehicle would require to be assembled so as to increase the company’s
ability in manufacturing (Coyle et al, 2008). This way, the regional mixing centre
that had been established would aid in the optimization of the company’s
schedules as far as delivery of the finished vehicles was concerned.
Areas
for improvement
However,
results of the five year period have revealed that the performance of the
company is declining and the management of the organization should consider
implication of measures that will establish performance of the organization.
Some of the process deployed by the management of the organization to enhance
change in to the organization is the establishment of TQM. This is a policy
aimed at detecting and implementing usable action plan from the sets of
objectives for the company (Ford motor
company (2012)). Analysis has shown that
the management of ford automobiles has always strived to choose ideal
strategies that will enhance development and change of the organization. The
records have stated that the failure of the organization can be attributed to
the advents of operations of the organization. It has been proven that the
management of the organization has engaged in the consideration of setting up
goals and objectives but the company employs limited efforts towards the
realization of the goals and objectives. The organization has informal planning
process that occurs in all the departments and consistency has proven to a
critical problem in the development of the organization. With the development of global corporate
strategy, the aspects of consistency are extremely beneficial and the
management of the organization has not enacted measures that will ensure that
the processes in the organization are consistent and unique to the
organization.
Conclusion
In
general the processes and the activities of the company are effectively
coordinated right form the supply department in order to ensure that the
process of the company are profitable and time conscious as possible. However,
to ensure that the processes of the company are effectively integrated to
reduce the decline in the sales of the company, the managers should be focused
and geared on the strategic operations of the firm with more emphasis being
placed on the formalization of the processes.
Referenecs
Banham,
R. (2002). Ford Motor Company and the Innovations. The Ford Century: ,
200.
Ford motor company (2012):
Evolving Technology; retrieved from: http://www.ford.com/green/technology/
Coyle, J, J, Langely,
J, and Gibson,J, B,(2008),Supply chain management: A logistics perspective, New
jersey, New cengage learning.
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