A brief overview of the organisation and critical review

Operations and logistics are the bases of the supply chain management, and they are one of the primary methods in which the organisation can improve the performance of the business. A modified and better supply chain management is helpful for a company to gain a competitive advantage over other organisations. This is because an improved supply chain management and logistics operations will lead to faster production and faster delivery which will result in better customer satisfaction. This is key to the process of improvement in business and maximising the revenues of the company and to make the business grows fast (Li, 2014). The purpose of this essay is to elaborate on the key operation, logistics and supply chain management issues faced by the operations and supply chain management in Bentley which has its services in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it seeks to identify and clarify how the operation functions and supports the market that it serves by exploring the quality management and managing people in operation and supply chain of Bentley. A critical, detailed and relevant analysis of the triple bottom line also is highlighted. And some relevant recommendations, in the end, has been placed.

Bentley Motors Ltd is one of the most famous luxury car manufacturers in the United Kingdom, and the company is subsidiary to Volkswagen AG automobile company. The company’s headquarters is situated in Crewe in England and was established in the year 1919 by W.O Bentley as Bentley Motors Limited. It had become famous by winning several accolades like the 24 hours of Le Mans in the years of 1924, then 1927 to 1930 and finally on 2003. The company has become a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG since the year 1998 (Bentley Motors 2018).  

Bentley motors is a renowned name in the automotive industry because of their management of their logistics and the supply chain. The organization is able to restructure their supply chain and logistics in such a manner that the customer’s preferences and the modern trends of the market get covered. Bentley is observed to opt for the total quality management of the mentioned parts and he follow up of their customers reviews are a significant part in their process of assessment for this (Gharakhani et al. 2013). The leaders of the company, Adrian Hallmark, Darren Day and John Gregory are able to understand the fact very well that the competition in the modern world is getting so tough that the organization are facing significant amount of difficulty in surviving in the industry. Under such condition the management of the quality with a precise focus on the total quality management is much needed. Hence the organization is observed to implement two different teams in their supply chain and logistics which will support the teams of Darren Day and John Gregory in the management of the optimum design in the exterior and the interior for the manufactured vehicles (Mohammad Mosadeghrad 2014).

The organization was so focused in maintaining their quality and the follow up of the preferences of the customers that they implemented the Enterprise Resource Planning with the help of the database and the internet. This was significant for the organization as that gave the chance to the organization to make sure that he best seller vehicles get identified. With the availability of the database, the organization was able to track the specifications of the most purchased vehicles and the manufacturing section along with the logistics and the supply chain was able to acquire the knowledge of the specifications that need to be considered with utmost priority in order to hold the customers to Bentley and increase the generation of the profit for the organization. This was the main motive behind the management of the logistics and the supply chain. Bentley was one of those organizations for which the preferences of the customers was the main factor. They were able to manage their design and the logistics in such a manner that the organization be able to follow the requirements of the customers. Apart from that the application of the total quality management was significant for the organization in making sure logistics get improved in such a manner that the company became eligible to introduce effective and innovative new designs which was significant for the organization’s growth (Talib 2013).

Analysis: Quality Management

The flow of the inputs of the customers were notably helpful for the logistics and design managers but even after that the utilisation of the Decision Support Systems or DSS along with multi criteria decision models, the logistics managers of the organization were gaining tremendous help as well (Herzallah, Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez and Munoz Rosas 2014). Along with this, the application of the total quality management ensured that the company be able to reduce the cost of its products and improve the service as well. This was significant for the organization as it resulted in better market share for the organization an in non-financial context, this was a major step for the organization in the generation of the customer satisfaction. The derived customer satisfaction was instrumental in the formation of the customer loyalty for the organization and that is pretty evident with the statistics of the deliveries of the organization in the year 2016 in which the company delivered 11817 number of products compared to the 10888 of the previous year (Bentley Motors 2018). This was a gaining the much needed competitive advantage to the organization from long ago as it is observed that due to the fine management of the logistics and the supply chain along with the design departments, the organization increased its profit to 176 million Euro in the financial year 2013 compared to 100 of the previous year. 

Bentley has created the future of luxury cars, and they are serious when it comes to the quality of the cars that they provide to the market. The quality management takes two separate divisions. The first division is to ensure that the quality of the internal process of the assembly line, logistics and inventory is maintained well (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus 2014).  And the second must ensure that the companies who are supplying the peripheral parts are producing the best material and not compromising on quality.  If the quality of each of the outer parts of the car is compromised then the overall assembled product quality will be affected, and this ultimately will hamper the brand value of Bentley (Goetsch and Davis 2014).

Bentley has a dedicated team that is aimed at management of quality in the whole of the supply chain. The first process is starting with the raw materials, the company is selecting the parts with the best quality, and any defect is eliminated out by the quality control either by machines or by manual intervention.  The quality management department has to ensure that the quality of each of the parts are maintained and checked before these are finally fitted to the car (Al-Swidi and Mahmood 2013).

Quality management in Bentley is given great importance as there are separate Quality Management teams in the company and posts such as Quality Management System Assessor and similar posts that are dedicated at the quality assurance and management of the products that they produce to sell.  For instance, in the Crewe centre alone, the company has more than 3800 people working for the production unit. Therefore, the works are dedicatedly done by employees who are sufficient in number in each of the departments. The company has witnessed regular growth, and in 2013 the achieved growth was 9% when the company could successfully deliver more than 10,000 cars (Bentley Motors 2018). This has been achieved due to the proper management of the quality in the company.

Bentley which is owned by Volkswagen itself has goodwill in the market, and they have dedicated group quality management departments. Bentley understands the customers’ needs and therefore it is imperative that the company maintain a high level of the quality check along the logistics and the assembly line (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus 2014).  The dedicated team of quality managers work more to ensure that the highest quality is kept in the organisation. Mobility is also essential for retaining the customers, otherwise it would be difficult to continue with the goodwill that the company enjoys. Bentley is growing at a fast rate and is expected to do so in the future (Munizu 2013).

Bentley Car Company is one of the largest manufacturers in the world and implement a stable HR policy so that it can sustain the people and can control attrition rates among employees. The supply chain of a car company has elaborate departments in the company, and it is imperative that many people will be employed in this particular department. The work in the supply chain management is done carefully as the quality of the final products, and the goodwill of the company have been maintained (Hugos 2018). Bentley had the record of employing 4000 number of employees at the Pyms Lane headquarters of it and along with that the organization was able to win the status of the Britain’s Top Employers for the consecutive fifth time (Bentleymedia.com. 2018). The organization is observed to spread their business in a significant manner at the global stage with the participation in 58 different markets and that had been possible only for the significant strategy that the organization was able to take in managing their employees. The market share that the organization was able to achieve was because of its 203 number of retail partners. Bentley’s operation is observed to incorporate 36 apprentices, 24 graduates and 40 undergraduates for the operational sectors like aftersales service, manufacturing and the engineering processes. The recruitment was much needed for the organization in satisfying the considerable requirement that the organization was facing as it started to grow. The organization was significantly requiring the aftersales service of it to improve and along with that the engineering process of the organization was in need to be innovative so that the modern features of it get included in the vehicles of Bentley. Moreover, Bentley has established a proper hierarchy in this regard, and it is taken care of that the top management has complete control of the quality of the products and the process in which the supply chain works (Christopher 2016).

A large number of engineers and employees work in Crewe in the United Kingdom where the maximum number of Bentley assembling takes place and producing the luxury cars. The management of the people in this location is done through democratic leadership system. As this allows managers and the top brass of the company take advice and ideas from the employees before the final decisions are made (Hendriks and Karsten, 2014).

Apart from this, the organization was observed to conduct various sessions for the improvement of the performances of their employees. As it is observed that the organization operates in an industry which is significantly sensitive in the case of faulty operations and has a wide spread list of consequences for the same, the organization is observed to conduct various performance improvement trainings which had the potential to reduce the incapability of employees in handling complex task.

As mentioned earlier, Bentley is a significantly successful organization when I comes to generation of profit. In the entire history of the organization, it experienced lesser number of losses but when it faced, it faced huge losses. However the organization with the application of the total quality management is able to generate a sharp rise in the generation of the profit. As specified earlier, the organization is able to acquire a rise of 76 million Euro in the time span of just one year in the year 2013 (Bentley Motors 2018). The number of deliveries for the organization is also observed to increase as a result of the introduction of the total quality management.

The organization was able to portray themselves as one of the most environmental free organizations in the concerned industry (Elkington 2013). Being a large scale industry, the organization was in need of significant amount of electrical power. The organization was observed to be concentrated more on the generation of the electrical power through the non-conventional method so that the conventional sources are not finished (Milne and Gray 2013). The organization was observed to consider the implementation of the 20815 number of solar panels which had the potential to supply 40% of the total electricity consumed by the organization (Bentleymedia.com. 2018). Apart from that the organization had the chance to save 2150 tons of carbon dioxide emission per year with the above mentioned plan. The estimated generated energy was equivalent to the required energy of providing electricity to 1200 number of houses per year. Along with the organization’s improved eco-friendly operations got recognized when it was able to achieve the ISO 14001 environmental standards and the ISO 50001 energy management standards (Iso.org 2018). This was significant for the organization’s image as an eco-friendly company and they were also able to reduce the energy consumption of the vehicles by at least 60% from their previous records. Apart from this, the organization’s good work in the carbon, waste and water reduction was acknowledged with the award in the form of Triple Carbon Trust Standard.

The organization had great significance for the community and the employees of it as well. It was one of those organization in the UK business industry which was able to create consider amount of employment for the locals (Henriques and Richardson 2013). As the number of delivery was increasing from the organization, the requirement for the resources was subjected to a significant increment as well. Along with the organizational was significantly involved in the development of the society as it was observed to be associated with “Cheshire Community Foundation” for the local community development. In addition to this, the organization was observed to offer 150 work experience positions for the students of the local schools with the aim of local community development (Gold, Hahn and Seuring 2013).

Conclusion and recommendations

In conclusion, Bentley Motors has a well-developed logistics, inventory and supply chain system. The employees are also managed well in the supply chain department and their needs are fulfilled so that the organizational goals are fulfilled. In addition to this, the organization is able to form the required strategies for the social wellbeing of its community and the employees. The contribution of the organization towards the planet apart from the classy and quality products of it, is significant. The organization is observed to take care of the environment in the best way possible where it is making sure that the products of it does not cause significant amount of harm to the people and the environment. The manufacturing process of the products also follows the eco-friendly procedures where the consumption of the non-conventional energy sources re preferred. With the creation of the significant amount of employment, the organization is able to help the society in its development.  This had the capability to form the trust for the organization among the community.

However, the organization has several numbers of policies for improving the quality of their employees along with the health and work safety of their people. Though the organization is observed to take significant steps for the welfare of the employees, yet it was observed that the organization lacks the much-required engagement of the employees. Hence in order to solve the issue, the organization is in need to introduce employee engagement activities which will be significant for the organization to make an effective bond with the employees. Moreover, the organization need to conduct increased amount of promotional activities which will cover the loophole along with the formation of a board which will monitor the end results and the implementation of these activities.

References

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